boot stuck at "starting version 218" after kernel upgrade

zenlord · 2015-01-15 13:09:59

Hi, this morning I ran a perfectly normal 'pacman -Syu', only to be greeted by the notification I cannot keep using nvidia-340xx in combination with kernel 3.18. I switched to nouveau, rebooted and performed the pacman -Syu and packer -Su. At the next reboot, rEFInd booted correctly, but after chosing Archlinux, the boot halted very early (only udev and the message that systemd is starting).

These are the steps I performed:

1. Switching from nvidia-340xx to nouveau

reboot: ok

2. pacman -Syu
3. packer -Su

reboot: halts for about 2 minutes at 'starting version 218' and then showing horizontal lines (gray on black, each about 8mm wide)

Booting into 'single user mode' once got me a bit further, but still the computer hung at 'starting hostname service'

Any help appreciated.

Vincent

/EDIT: to be complete: I also removed packages 'isl' and 'cloog' from AUR (in a 4th step), but that should not have any influence

zenlord · 2015-01-15 13:19:17

OK, adding 'debug' and 'break=y' to the kernel parameters, the boot process halts at 'fb: switching to nouveaufb from EFI VGA'.

Adding the 'nomodeset' kernel parameter actually got me to boot my computer - next goal: starting X.

Thx for any pointers!

Last edited by zenlord (2015-01-15 13:35:52)

bleach · 2015-01-15 13:41:32

the official nvidia driver can be wrong sometimes, it says mine should work with the 340. but it does not, though works well with the 304 one. as for nouveau I am not sure though in arch you do not need to blacklist nouveau if you uninstall or if you want to use two drivers you may want to blacklist. did you completely remove nvidia stuff? and change the gl stuff.

zenlord · 2015-01-15 14:10:54

Thx, but yes: I removed all the nvidia-340xx stuff, installed xf86-video-nouveau and reinstalled xorg-server and mesa. I blacklisted all nvidia-modules and entered 'nouveau' into the MODULES=""-line of the /etc/mkinitcpio.conf.

I found someone else with the same problem: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=189118

Downgrading the kernel and going back to nvidia-340xx seems like the next step...

nstgc · 2015-01-15 15:32:50

I've had this bug for several weeks now. I've been avoiding posting it to the forums since I hate making more than one help thread in a rolling 5 day period and things haven't been going smoothly with my computer in general.

Yeah, since a couple of weeks ago, which is when the last version of systemd hit the repo, about once every day or two the boot process will stop at "starting version 218". Its annoying, but I haven't had any file system corruption as a result, nor any other adverse effects beyond having to reboot and try again.

In other words, I don't think this is an issue with Linux 3.18, but rather systemd 218.

zenlord · 2015-01-15 16:56:22

Thx for confirming. Let's compare our environments:
* Apple Macbook pro 5,5 (mid 2010 iirc)
* nVidia 9400M
* dual boot with Mac OSX on an SSD with GPT
* used nvidia up until now - I had to change to nouveau to be able to install kernel 3.18.

\hbar · 2015-01-15 17:15:57

Could we go back to the "having to change to nouveau to upgrade kernel" issue? I don't see anything in the nvidia-340xx package that would indicate an incompatibility with kernel 3.18, so why did this happen?

zenlord · 2015-01-16 08:23:34

\hbar wrote:

Could we go back to the "having to change to nouveau to upgrade kernel" issue? I don't see anything in the nvidia-340xx package that would indicate an incompatibility with kernel 3.18, so why did this happen?

Hmm... I never questioned this - good point.

Anyhow, I was able to boot into graphical mode again by downgrading to kernel 3.17 and installing nvidia-340xx. These steps did not work:

* Downgrading systemd to v217-7
* Using nvidia instead of nvidia-340xx (but that's an unrelated issue: my graphics card is not supported anymore)

I think it's safe to say that there are some serious issues with the nouveau driver...

zenlord · 2015-01-16 08:33:24

\hbar wrote:

Could we go back to the "having to change to nouveau to upgrade kernel" issue? I don't see anything in the nvidia-340xx package that would indicate an incompatibility with kernel 3.18, so why did this happen?

Apparently, while performing the downgrades described above, the kernel was upgradet again to v3.18, and my nvidia driver is 340-xx. Maybe a temporary hickup with a particular build of one of the packages? It was pacman that notified me of the incompatibility - I didn't go through this voluntarily

I found a bug report for the nouveau-driver that matches my symptoms, so I added my comment: https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/42655

Last edited by zenlord (2015-01-16 08:34:51)

Arch Linux

#1 2015-01-15 13:09:59

boot stuck at "starting version 218" after kernel upgrade

#2 2015-01-15 13:19:17

Re: boot stuck at "starting version 218" after kernel upgrade

#3 2015-01-15 13:41:32

Re: boot stuck at "starting version 218" after kernel upgrade

#4 2015-01-15 14:10:54

Re: boot stuck at "starting version 218" after kernel upgrade

#5 2015-01-15 15:32:50

Re: boot stuck at "starting version 218" after kernel upgrade

#6 2015-01-15 16:56:22

Re: boot stuck at "starting version 218" after kernel upgrade

#7 2015-01-15 17:15:57

Re: boot stuck at "starting version 218" after kernel upgrade

#8 2015-01-16 08:23:34

Re: boot stuck at "starting version 218" after kernel upgrade

#9 2015-01-16 08:33:24

Re: boot stuck at "starting version 218" after kernel upgrade

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