[SOLVED] Can't upgrade linux kernel

boa · 2019-11-17 09:27:57

So I have a dual-boot installation of Arch Linux and Windows 10 and my problem is that whenever I upgrade my kernel to the latest I can no longer boot and get put into emergency mode and manually downgrade my kernel to the version uname -a says.
It's probably that my boot partition is mounted on the wrong place, I'm just too afraid to move/delete stuff, because I don't want to break my system.

I have many partitions:
sdb[1;5]: Windows
sdb8: Arch linux
sdb10: broken manjaro installation I no longer use
sdb11: grub (?)

> lsblk
NAME    MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda       8:0    0 931.5G  0 disk
└─sda1    8:1    0 931.5G  0 part
sdb       8:16   0 238.5G  0 disk
├─sdb1    8:17   0   480K  0 part
├─sdb2    8:18   0   499M  0 part
├─sdb3    8:19   0   100M  0 part
├─sdb4    8:20   0    16M  0 part
├─sdb5    8:21   0    72G  0 part
├─sdb6    8:22   0   816M  0 part
├─sdb7    8:23   0     3M  0 part
├─sdb8    8:24   0   143G  0 part /
├─sdb9    8:25   0   480K  0 part
├─sdb10   8:26   0    20G  0 part
└─sdb11   8:27   0   128M  0 part /boot/efi

> ls -l /boot/
total 51800
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root    16384 Jan  1  1970 efi
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root     4096 Oct 10 08:19 grub
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 31117363 Nov 17 09:39 initramfs-linux-fallback.img
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  9319628 Nov 17 09:39 initramfs-linux.img
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  6289792 Nov 17 09:39 vmlinuz-linux
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  6285696 Nov 17 09:38 vmlinuz-linux.old

> ls -l /boot/efi/
total 45648
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root     2048 Oct 10 08:17 efi
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root     2048 Oct 10 08:25 grub
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 31114840 Oct 19 15:21 initramfs-linux-fallback.img
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  9331931 Oct 19 15:20 initramfs-linux.img
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  6289792 Oct 18 02:15 vmlinuz-linux

> ls -l /boot/efi/efi/
total 2
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 2048 Oct 10 08:17 GRUB

After kernel upgrade:

[root@boa-laptop boa]# uname -a
Linux boa-laptop 5.3.7-arch1-1-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Fri Oct 18 00:17:03 UTC 2019 x86_64 GNU/Linux

[root@boa-laptop boa]# pacman -Qi linux
Name            : linux
Version         : 5.3.11.1-1
Description     : The Linux kernel and modules
Architecture    : x86_64
URL             : https://git.archlinux.org/linux.git/log/?h=v5.3.11-arch1
Licenses        : GPL2
Groups          : None
Provides        : None
Depends On      : coreutils  kmod  initramfs
Optional Deps   : crda: to set the correct wireless channels of your country
                  linux-firmware: firmware images needed for some devices [installed]
Required By     : nvidia  virtualbox-host-modules-arch
Optional For    : None
Conflicts With  : None
Replaces        : None
Installed Size  : 72.48 MiB
Packager        : Jan Alexander Steffens (heftig) <jan.steffens@gmail.com>
Build Date      : Tue 12 Nov 2019 11:19:48 PM CET
Install Date    : Sun 17 Nov 2019 10:07:37 AM CET
Install Reason  : Explicitly installed
Install Script  : No
Validated By    : None

Then in emergency mode I have to downgrade the kernel to be able to boot again:

# pacman -U /var/cache/pacman/pkg/linux-5.3.7.arch1-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz

I know ~50% of what I have listed is probably junk, I just don't know which is and which isn't needed.

I forgot which grub install I use and I don't know how to check, but if somebody could tell me/direct me to the information I need I'd appreciate that. Also I have had a look at the wiki page of grub and the installation tutorial but couldn't find the info I need.

Last edited by boa (2019-11-17 13:24:52)

g2g591 · 2019-11-17 11:57:03

are you actually using grub to boot? remove the old kernel from /boot/efi/ so grub stops getting confused and try regenerating it's configuration.

grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

boa · 2019-11-17 12:33:52

I ran:

sudo rm -rf /boot/efi/*

to remove old kernel

then the command you wrote and now grub goes to bios, so I can no longer boot directly to my os

Did I forget to do something?

I will boot up a live installer and chroot into my os, though I'm not too sure how to proceed from there.

boa · 2019-11-17 12:34:35

And yes I was using grub to boot

boa · 2019-11-17 13:24:01

I reinstalled grub to sdb11 and now everything just magically works, I don't know how or why, but I'm happy about it!

WorMzy · 2019-11-17 13:51:50

boa wrote:

I ran:
sudo rm -rf /boot/efi/*
to remove old kernel
then the command you wrote and now grub goes to bios, so I can no longer boot directly to my os
Did I forget to do something?
I will boot up a live installer and chroot into my os, though I'm not too sure how to proceed from there.

Rather than forgetting to do something, you just used a sledgehammer (rm -rf /boot/efi/*) to crack a nut (rm /boot/efi/vmlinuz-linux). By doing so, you needed to reinstall your boot manager to your EFI system partition (ESP).

Arch Linux

#1 2019-11-17 09:27:57

[SOLVED] Can't upgrade linux kernel

#2 2019-11-17 11:57:03

Re: [SOLVED] Can't upgrade linux kernel

#3 2019-11-17 12:33:52

Re: [SOLVED] Can't upgrade linux kernel

#4 2019-11-17 12:34:35

Re: [SOLVED] Can't upgrade linux kernel

#5 2019-11-17 13:24:01

Re: [SOLVED] Can't upgrade linux kernel

#6 2019-11-17 13:51:50

Re: [SOLVED] Can't upgrade linux kernel

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