Arch Linux

azohc

Member

Registered: 2018-10-25

Posts: 7

[SOLVED] Disabled all systemctl services, having problems booting.

(no wonder )

Hello everyone!

I am running a dual boot with Windows, and after f*cking up a while back I am trying to regain access to my Arch partition. The following screenshot shows where the boot process gets stuck.

https://i.imgur.com/KQww8fO.jpg

It hangs on the "Started Update man-db cache line". I was trying to fix a problem similar/identical to this one, and I disabled/deleted all of them in hopes of fixing the 90s timeout every time I booted .

I am currently wondering if it is possible to fix this somehow, as I have a pendrive with the Arch installation image file on it.

If it wasn't possible, how could I retrieve the documents and config files from the hard drive?

Any feedback is appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Mod Edit - Replaced oversized image with link.
CoC - Pasting pictures and code

Last edited by azohc (2019-02-03 19:06:28)

Slithery

Administrator

From: Norfolk, UK

Registered: 2013-12-01

Posts: 5,776

Re: [SOLVED] Disabled all systemctl services, having problems booting.

Boot from your USB drive then mount your partitions and chroot in. Then just enable the services that you just disabled - your bash history will help if you don't remember what you did.

---

No, it didn't "fix" anything. It just shifted the brokeness one space to the right. - jasonwryan
Closing -- for deletion; Banning -- for muppetry. - jasonwryan

aur - dotfiles

WorMzy

Administrator

From: Scotland

Registered: 2010-06-16

Posts: 13,699

Website

Re: [SOLVED] Disabled all systemctl services, having problems booting.

Or just boot into rescue.target, you can re-enable services from there.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Sy … _boot_into

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Mobo: MSI MAG X570S TORPEDO MAX // Processor: AMD Ryzen 9 5950X @4.9GHz // GFX: AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT // RAM: 32GB (4x 8GB) Corsair DDR4 (@ 3000MHz) // Storage: 1x 3TB HDD, 6x 1TB SSD, 2x 120GB SSD, 1x 275GB M2 SSD

Making lemonade from lemons since 2015.

azohc

Member

Registered: 2018-10-25

Posts: 7

Re: [SOLVED] Disabled all systemctl services, having problems booting.

Boot from your USB drive then mount your partitions and chroot in. Then just enable the services that you just disabled - your bash history will help if you don't remember what you did.

I managed to use arch-chroot to access the root, however the bash history is not giving me any clues as to what I disabled.
Any attempts to list units fails, reporting

"Running in chroot, ignoring request: X"

So yeah, at this point I can try to save whatever files by mounting another USB drive and copying stuff over, but I'd much rather do it without the installation media's means.

Or just boot into rescue.target, you can re-enable services from there.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Sy … _boot_into

This worked, I could even jump into i3 with startx. Still, I'm faced with the problem of not knowing what services to enable.

Is there any way to re-enable all 'default' services from chroot/rescue.target?

I can provide the output of any command, maybe you could recognize a few that are disabled that shouldn't be?

Last edited by azohc (2019-02-03 10:37:31)

ondoho

Member

Registered: 2013-04-30

Posts: 692

Website

Re: [SOLVED] Disabled all systemctl services, having problems booting.

This worked, I could even jump into i3 with startx. Still, I'm faced with the problem of not knowing what services to enable.

how did you disable them?
assuming through entering commands in your terminal, they should still be in

history

azohc

Member

Registered: 2018-10-25

Posts: 7

Re: [SOLVED] Disabled all systemctl services, having problems booting.

This worked, I could even jump into i3 with startx. Still, I'm faced with the problem of not knowing what services to enable.

how did you disable them?
assuming through entering commands in your terminal, they should still be in

history

The history is scarce to say the least. Plus, there are only around 125 lines of history, which is strange, so I assume that its the history associated to root, not to the user I disabled the services on.

ondoho

Member

Registered: 2013-04-30

Posts: 692

Website

Re: [SOLVED] Disabled all systemctl services, having problems booting.

then just look at the user's history.
it's a file in their home.

azohc

Member

Registered: 2018-10-25

Posts: 7

Re: [SOLVED] Disabled all systemctl services, having problems booting.

then just look at the user's history.
it's a file in their home.

Great! Found everything I disabled. Thanks for the help

2ManyDogs

Forum Fellow

Registered: 2012-01-15

Posts: 4,648

Re: [SOLVED] Disabled all systemctl services, having problems booting.

Please remember to mark your thread [SOLVED] (edit the title of your first post).