Absolutely bizarre problem - accidental downgrade to a useless kernel?

Luke Lockhart · 2013-05-14 08:56:12

So, I'll admit to having made the silly mistake of running a recursive uninstall script using yaourt-gui... I have no idea how it could do THIS, but... Anyway, the situation is as follows; I was trying to tweak the X Windows sound server because it wasn't working, and figured I should uninstall as much of X as possible and then reinstall. I know my way around the command line, so that's no issue. I did so, reinstalled some stuff, but sound still wasn't working, so I rebooted. When I did so, I was unable to do my usual strategy for connecting to wifi, which is "Iwconfig wlo1 essid bla". Ok, I think, so it uninstalled my wireless. I type ifconfig, and there's nothing except lo... I tried plugging in ethernet, but no luck.

I Google around a bit and found that my ethernet driver is weird for somefolks, but tthat doesn't explain it and wireless failing at the same time. I tried modprobing the wireless and ethernet nodules by hand, but they weren't starting, so I decided on a whim to check the directory that they're stored in. I noticed that I only have one kernel directory, /usr/lib/modules/3.9.2-1-ARCH.I typed uname - r and to my bemusement found I'm running 3.8.11-1-ARCH. So, that's bizarre, but I figured I'd just reinstall the kernel.

I typed pacman -S linux, and it reinstalled. But now I had to modify the bootloader, which is sticky because I had been having unrelated trouble with that. I tried to mount my boot partition, which is EFI, and that's where things get nasty.

The kernel I'm running doesn't support fat32.which the boot partition is.

So, I have no other computer to make a live USB from, just a couple of android devices. Is there anything I can do to fix this without getting Internet on that computer? I don't have a CD drive either.

jasonwryan · 2013-05-14 08:59:10

Not an Installation issue; moving to Kernel & Hardware...

How can the kernel not support Fat32?

Scimmia · 2013-05-14 09:04:35

I'll bet the problem isn't that the kernel doesn't support it, it's that it doesn't have it's modules.

Do you have a friend that can make a boot drive for you?

Last edited by Scimmia (2013-05-14 09:05:02)

Luke Lockhart · 2013-05-14 09:21:52

Not geographically, no. I've got plenty of friends who could, but they're scattered across the country.

I have an office computer, but I have no idea if it would be possible to make a bootable USB with the permissions that I have on it.

Awebb · 2013-05-14 09:34:47

I've done this once. Search for the next train station, kiosk or book shop. Find a magazine with a Linux live CD, doesn't matter which one, all you need is a shell to download and dd to Arch iso to the USB dongle.

WARNING: Anecdote! This is, by the way, how I turned into a full-time Linux user. Broken Windows, could not access the network, could not rescue my data. Had no Windows CD in the hotel. It was half past three in the morning and I had a presentation six hours later. My initial plan was to buy a USB frame the first thing in the morning, dismantle the laptop and use another one in the office. Since I could not sleep anyway, I went for a walk, came along the train station, saw a 24/7 store, bought that magazine with a SUSE live disk, ran back to the hotel, rescued my data and installed Linux from the CD. Lucky me, the presentation was a series of pictures, as I did not have my Office license installed that day. Since that day, I always carry with me at least a CD and a USB dongle with a Linux boot image.

tomk · 2013-05-14 11:47:48

Hmm.., I'm stuck on "the X Windows sound server", what the hell is that?

falconindy · 2013-05-14 12:55:12

Doesn't sound bizzare at all. You never copied the new kernel to the EFI boot partition. You're booting off the old kernel which no longer has modules present.

mich41 · 2013-05-14 15:44:44

Dunno what bootloaders people use with EFI, but if it's some form of grub, it should be possible to edit boot entries from the bootloader itself. Highlight the entry you want to boot, press e, change kernel image filename and press b to boot.

You can even make it boot kernel image from different partition than usual.

Last edited by mich41 (2013-05-14 15:45:23)

Luke Lockhart · 2013-05-15 02:39:17

Thanks for all the feedback, folks. This is like the converse of First World Problems, but: I found an extra laptop in my apartment that I had forgotten about. Still having trouble with EFI related stuff, but this should prevent me from any disaster level problems in the future. I'm just going to declare my current install FUBAR and start over.

ANOKNUSA · 2013-05-15 15:07:11

Luke Lockhart wrote:

I'm just going to declare my current install FUBAR and start over.

Sure, or you could follow falconindy's suggested solution first and take the fifteen seconds to try copying over the kernel images to the EFI partition. If that is indeed the solution to your problem then you'd best learn it now, as you'll need to do it with every kernel upgrade or you'll just break your system again.

hydrosIII · 2013-05-16 07:21:27

Another creative solution to the problem is booting linux from your android devices, (http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2013/03/ho … oid-phone/) and then repair Arch linux

teateawhy · 2013-05-16 11:58:32

I recommend you to read this section from the archwiki:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/UE … TUB_Kernel
Otherwise the same thing will most likely happen again.

Arch Linux

#1 2013-05-14 08:56:12

Absolutely bizarre problem - accidental downgrade to a useless kernel?

#2 2013-05-14 08:59:10

Re: Absolutely bizarre problem - accidental downgrade to a useless kernel?

#3 2013-05-14 09:04:35

Re: Absolutely bizarre problem - accidental downgrade to a useless kernel?

#4 2013-05-14 09:21:52

Re: Absolutely bizarre problem - accidental downgrade to a useless kernel?

#5 2013-05-14 09:34:47

Re: Absolutely bizarre problem - accidental downgrade to a useless kernel?

#6 2013-05-14 11:47:48

Re: Absolutely bizarre problem - accidental downgrade to a useless kernel?

#7 2013-05-14 12:55:12

Re: Absolutely bizarre problem - accidental downgrade to a useless kernel?

#8 2013-05-14 15:44:44

Re: Absolutely bizarre problem - accidental downgrade to a useless kernel?

#9 2013-05-15 02:39:17

Re: Absolutely bizarre problem - accidental downgrade to a useless kernel?

#10 2013-05-15 15:07:11

Re: Absolutely bizarre problem - accidental downgrade to a useless kernel?

#11 2013-05-16 07:21:27

Re: Absolutely bizarre problem - accidental downgrade to a useless kernel?

#12 2013-05-16 11:58:32

Re: Absolutely bizarre problem - accidental downgrade to a useless kernel?

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