[Solved] Newly updated kernel not loading modules

kabads · 2015-08-18 07:09:48

Did a pacman -Syu yesterday and rebooted and some partitions (/boot/uefi) isn't loading. As a result, I'm getting thrown in to a safe-mode shell. What do I need to do to try and fix this? I have a rescue disk (well a normal cd-rom that installs arch), which I could chroot from. I've never really had a problem with the kernel before now (apart from installing nvidia drivers everytime it upgrades).

Last edited by kabads (2015-08-20 10:38:33)

jasonwryan · 2015-08-18 07:10:52

Chroot in and make sure /boot is mounted before reinstalling the kernel and rebuilding your intird...

Moving to NC.

kabads · 2015-08-18 08:12:08

OK, so after chrooting in the /boot directory is there with:

$ ls -al
efi
initramfs-linux-fallback.img
initramfs-linux-lts-fallback.img
initramfs-linux-lts.img
initramfs-linux.img
vmlinuz-linux
vmlinuz-linux-lts

I've reinstalled the kernel with

pacman -S linux

and recreated the initramfs with

mkinitcpio -p linux

but /boot is still failing to load with kernel modules not loading.

Any ideas?

Last edited by kabads (2015-08-18 08:12:33)

jasonwryan · 2015-08-18 08:15:26

What is the output of `uname -a` and `pacman -Q linux`?

kabads · 2015-08-18 08:20:58

From the arch-chroot environment:

$ uname -a
Linux archiso 4.0.7-2-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Tue Jun 39...
$ pacman -Q linux
linux 4.1.5-1

kabads · 2015-08-18 08:23:53

From the rescue shell:

$ uname -a 
Linux 4.1.4-1-ARCH #1 SMP Preempt...
$ pacman -Q linux
linux 4.1.5-1

kabads · 2015-08-18 15:13:32

OK - having dug around at https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Sy … leshooting it seems that nvidia is not loading when the kernel boots. Is there a way of preventing the kernel from trying to load nvidia so that I can get to a normal shell? I have been using nvidia-beta from aur, but may try the regular one from the package respository.

Scimmia · 2015-08-18 15:16:48

That is not your problem. Your bootloader is loading an old kernel. Fix it.

kabads · 2015-08-18 17:58:05

@Scimmia - thanks - it looks like my system may have switched from gummiboot to systemd-boot without my noticing. I'm not sure how to change the bootloader to the new kernel - I've looked at: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Systemd-boot and have tried

$ mount /dev/sdb1 /boot/efi
$ bootctl --path /boot/efi update

but got,

File system "/boot/efi" is not a FAT EFI System Partition (ESP) file system.

This machine still boots in to Windows, so UEFI doesn't seem to have a problem.

The filesystem can be seen here:
http://imgur.com/v4miig3

Scimmia · 2015-08-18 21:15:23

Why are you mounting the ESP to /boot/efi? The kernel gets installed to /boot, so /boot/efi probably still has your old kernel.

graysky · 2015-08-18 21:18:24

Scimmia wrote:

Why are you mounting the ESP to /boot/efi? The kernel gets installed to /boot, so /boot/efi probably still has your old kernel.

+1. In other words, /boot/efi should not contain kernel images, just what the boot loader puts there. You do not even need your system to be aware of it in your /etc/fstab. It only needs to be mounted once when writing the boot loader stuff.

Scimmia · 2015-08-18 21:20:07

graysky wrote:

Scimmia wrote:
Why are you mounting the ESP to /boot/efi? The kernel gets installed to /boot, so /boot/efi probably still has your old kernel.
+1. In other words, /boot/efi should not contain kernel images, just what the boot loader puts there. You do not even need your system to be aware of it in your /etc/fstab. It only needs to be mounted once when writing the boot loader stuff.

Gummiboot/systmed-boot won't access kernels outside the ESP. Nothing should ever be mounted to /boot/efi.

kabads · 2015-08-19 08:50:26

Thanks again - I'm not sure what I should be doing in this situation. Does the EFI partition ever get mounted in any form? How does systemd-boot know where it is? And where is systemd-boot configured so that I can point it to the newer kernel?

Head_on_a_Stick · 2015-08-19 11:24:41

systemd-boot is identical to gummiboot (except for improved integration with `bootctl`).

What is the output of:

# bootctl
systemctl --failed
lsblk

Last edited by Head_on_a_Stick (2015-08-19 11:27:30)

kabads · 2015-08-19 12:21:47

$ bootctl
File system"/boot" is not a FAT EFI System Partition (ESP) file system.
$ systemctl --failed
UNIT                            LOAD                                       ACTIVE SUB              DESCRIPTION
<E2><97><8F>       boot-efi.mount                                 loaded                      failed  failed /boot/efi
<E2><97><8F>       mnt-windows.mnt                            loaded                      failed  failed  /mnt/windows
<E2><97><8F>       system-modules-load.service           loaded                      failed  failed  Load Kernel Modules

LOAD = Reflects whether the unit definition was properly loaded.
ACTIVE = The high-level unit activation state, i.e. generalization of SUB.
SUB = The low-level unit activation state, values depend on unit type. 
3 loaded units listed. Pass --all to see loaded but inactive units, too.
To show all installed unit files use 'systemctl list-unit-files'

$ lsblk
NAME    MAJ:MIN    RM     SIZE     RO    TYPE    MOUNTPOINT
sda        8:0              0        931.5G  0       disk
| - sda1  8:1              0         455.8G  0      part
| - sda2  8:2              0        2G         0      part        [SWAP]
| - sda3  8:3             0         20G       0       part
` - sda4 8:4               0        453.8G   0     part        / 
sdb     8:16            0         453.8G   0     disk
| - sdb1 8:17          0         100M      0      part 
| - sb2   8:18          0         900M      0     part
| - sb3   8:19          0        128M       0     part 
` - sdb4  8:20         0        118.1G     0     part
sr0        11:0         1         646M       0     rom

Head_on_a_Stick · 2015-08-19 12:29:06

What is in your fstab?

What is the output of:

systemctl status boot-efi.mount mnt-windows.mnt system-modules-load.service
# parted -l

kabads · 2015-08-19 12:47:30

Apologies for the screenshots - I've taken screenshots as there is too much to manually type over.

$ cat /etc/fstab
http://imgur.com/z018GDx
$ systemctl status boot-efi.mount mnt-windows.mnt system-modules-load.service
http://imgur.com/A94Yy8r
$ parted -l
http://imgur.com/4gBvXAs

Scimmia · 2015-08-19 12:57:36

So your ESP is being mounted to /boot/efi in fstab. Why did you do it that way?

kabads · 2015-08-19 13:19:16

This must have been done when I installed Arch Linux. I didn't want a separate /boot partition. Other than that, it wasn't a conscious decision. What steps should I take to rectify?

Head_on_a_Stick · 2015-08-19 15:15:21

kabads wrote:

What steps should I take to rectify?

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/EF … unt_Points

What I don't understand is how you are booting up -- you don't seem to be using systemd-boot/gummiboot and those bootmanagers will not work unless the kernel image & initrd are on the ESP (ie, if /boot is mounted there, rather than /boot/efi)

Scimmia · 2015-08-19 19:29:37

kabads wrote:

I didn't want a separate /boot partition.

This is where you went wrong. You have to have an ESP already, simply make that your /boot partition and everything becomes simple.

jasonwryan · 2015-08-19 20:45:31

kabads wrote:

This must have been done when I installed Arch Linux... Other than that, it wasn't a conscious decision.

How did you install Arch Manjaro/Evolution/Whatever?

kabads · 2015-08-19 20:56:15

@jasonwryan - I installed it using the beginners guide on the wiki. I'm not sure of the exact steps right now, but it was slightly confusing for me as this was the first time I installed linux on a UEFI machine.

Thanks @Scimmia and @Head_on_a_Stick - copying over the files to efi (whilst /dev/sda4 was mounted to / and /dev/sdb1 was mounted to /boot/efi) fixed this. However, I'm afraid this will happen again with the next kernel update - I don't mind doing this again, but I would rather get the system more mainstream. Is it possible to directly mount /boot to /dev/sdb1 - if I do, will I need to do anything else (i.e. fix /etc/fstab) for this to work automatically?

Head_on_a_Stick · 2015-08-19 21:08:24

kabads wrote:

fix /etc/fstab

^ This.

kabads · 2015-08-19 21:17:11

Thanks again - just to be sure, will it be as easy as pointing fstab to /dev/sdb1 as the boot partition?

Arch Linux

#1 2015-08-18 07:09:48

[Solved] Newly updated kernel not loading modules

#2 2015-08-18 07:10:52

Re: [Solved] Newly updated kernel not loading modules

#3 2015-08-18 08:12:08

Re: [Solved] Newly updated kernel not loading modules

#4 2015-08-18 08:15:26

Re: [Solved] Newly updated kernel not loading modules

#5 2015-08-18 08:20:58

Re: [Solved] Newly updated kernel not loading modules

#6 2015-08-18 08:23:53

Re: [Solved] Newly updated kernel not loading modules

#7 2015-08-18 15:13:32

Re: [Solved] Newly updated kernel not loading modules

#8 2015-08-18 15:16:48

Re: [Solved] Newly updated kernel not loading modules

#9 2015-08-18 17:58:05

Re: [Solved] Newly updated kernel not loading modules

#10 2015-08-18 21:15:23

Re: [Solved] Newly updated kernel not loading modules

#11 2015-08-18 21:18:24

Re: [Solved] Newly updated kernel not loading modules

#12 2015-08-18 21:20:07

Re: [Solved] Newly updated kernel not loading modules

#13 2015-08-19 08:50:26

Re: [Solved] Newly updated kernel not loading modules

#14 2015-08-19 11:24:41

Re: [Solved] Newly updated kernel not loading modules

#15 2015-08-19 12:21:47

Re: [Solved] Newly updated kernel not loading modules

#16 2015-08-19 12:29:06

Re: [Solved] Newly updated kernel not loading modules

#17 2015-08-19 12:47:30

Re: [Solved] Newly updated kernel not loading modules

#18 2015-08-19 12:57:36

Re: [Solved] Newly updated kernel not loading modules

#19 2015-08-19 13:19:16

Re: [Solved] Newly updated kernel not loading modules

#20 2015-08-19 15:15:21

Re: [Solved] Newly updated kernel not loading modules

#21 2015-08-19 19:29:37

Re: [Solved] Newly updated kernel not loading modules

#22 2015-08-19 20:45:31

Re: [Solved] Newly updated kernel not loading modules

#23 2015-08-19 20:56:15

Re: [Solved] Newly updated kernel not loading modules

#24 2015-08-19 21:08:24

Re: [Solved] Newly updated kernel not loading modules

#25 2015-08-19 21:17:11

Re: [Solved] Newly updated kernel not loading modules

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