Arch Linux

alexander0803

Member

Registered: 2020-06-07

Posts: 37

[SOLVED] Cannot boot: unknown filesystem type vfat

I've broken my system recently. I am total newbie, so I am asking for a detailed answer. (Sorry for English also)

Using pacman I updated some important packages like libffi and x11 trying to install tkinter lib for creating python gui (I don't know why I updated them, just read it somewhere).
When my screen went to login screen after a few minutes, it broke. Mouse and keyboard stopped responding and I saw a message related to org.kde.plasma.core and that libffi.so.6 was not found.

Following advice from the Internet I made liveUSB, mounted my partition and accessed my data with chroot. From there I issued 'pacman -Syu' and it upgraded my system. However it only helped half. My login screen was okay but my mouse and keyboard were still not responding.

I repeated my actions and no result. Then something got even worse. I was unable to boot my system anymore because of "unknown filesystem type vfat".
I mounted to my root partition and went to /etc/fstab

This is result of issuing lsblk.
nvme0n1p2 is obviously where my data is and nvme0n1p1 is my boot partition I guess.
I don't actually understand how it works but it seems not right that /etc/fstab contains sda what means it tries to boot from my usb drive.

These are all my observations so far. I don't actually know how to solve this problem and I better wait for some professional recommendations.
Thank you!

-------------------------------------------------------

UPDATE

I think I should give more information.
I get these error on system loading. It seems to be the first error. Then I get a bunch of these.

ovs-vswitchd.service status:
modprobe: FATAL: Module openswitch not found in directory /lib/modules/5.5.6-arch1-1

boot.mount status:
mount: /boot: unknown filesystem type 'vfat'

systemd-modules-load.service:
Failed to look up module alias 'crypto_user': Function not implemented
Failed to look up module alias 'sg': Function not implemented
Failed to look up module alias 'vboxdrv': Function not implemented
Failed to look up module alias 'vboxnetadp': Function not implemented
Failed to look up module alias 'vboxnetflt': Function not implemented
Failed to look up module alias 'vboxdrv': Function not implemented

sddm.service status:
sddm.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 5
Stopped Simple Desktop Display Manager
sddm.service: Start request repeated too quickly.
sddm.service: Failed with result 'core-dump'
Failed to start Simple Desktop Display Manager

Last edited by alexander0803 (2020-06-08 13:27:28)

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 13,729

Re: [SOLVED] Cannot boot: unknown filesystem type vfat

When, exactly, do you get that error? What else does it say?

loqs

Member

Registered: 2014-03-06

Posts: 19,062

Re: [SOLVED] Cannot boot: unknown filesystem type vfat

What is the output of the following

uname -a
pacman -Q linux

The fstab is on the root filesystem so it is not read until the system is booting,  the root filesystem is usually specified by options passed to the kernel from the boot loader.

alexander0803

Member

Registered: 2020-06-07

Posts: 37

Re: [SOLVED] Cannot boot: unknown filesystem type vfat

What is the output of the following

uname -a
pacman -Q linux

The fstab is on the root filesystem so it is not read until the system is booting,  the root filesystem is usually specified by options passed to the kernel from the boot loader.

uname -a gives:
Linux archlinux 5.5.6-arch1-1 #1 SMP PREEMPT Mon 24 Feb 2020 12:20:16 +0000 x86_64 GNU/Linux

pacman -Q linux gives:
linux 5.6.15.arch1-1

Last edited by alexander0803 (2020-06-07 15:56:59)

loqs

Member

Registered: 2014-03-06

Posts: 19,062

Re: [SOLVED] Cannot boot: unknown filesystem type vfat

Either boot from live media,  chroot in ensuring /boot is mounted,  reinstall the linux package or
downgrade the linux package assuming 5.5.6-arch1-1 is in /var/cache/pacman/pkg/ , then mount /boot upgrade the linux package.

Then reboot and check the booted kernel matches linux package version.
After that you can fix fstab.

Last edited by loqs (2020-06-07 16:02:54)

alexander0803

Member

Registered: 2020-06-07

Posts: 37

Re: [SOLVED] Cannot boot: unknown filesystem type vfat

Either boot from live media,  chroot in ensuring /boot is mounted,  reinstall the linux package or
downgrade the linux package assuming 5.5.6-arch1-1 is in /var/cache/pacman/pkg/ , then mount /boot upgrade the linux package.

Then reboot and check the booted kernel matches linux package version.
After that you can fix fstab.

I've tried to downgrade to 5.5.6-arch1-1 and got some errors:
ERROR: module not found: 'nvidia'
ERROR: module not found: 'nvidia-modeset'
ERROR: module not found: 'nvidia-uvm'
ERROR: module not found: 'nvidia-drm'

What should I do to get these modules?

Last edited by alexander0803 (2020-06-07 16:23:31)

loqs

Member

Registered: 2014-03-06

Posts: 19,062

Re: [SOLVED] Cannot boot: unknown filesystem type vfat

Ignore those errors for now,  they may be resolved after the kernel has been upgraded again.

alexander0803

Member

Registered: 2020-06-07

Posts: 37

Re: [SOLVED] Cannot boot: unknown filesystem type vfat

Ignore those errors for now,  they may be resolved after the kernel has been upgraded again.

The matter is it doesn't want to downgrade. It prints these four errors and a couple of warning about possibly missing firmware for modules aic94xx and wd719x.
The result is the image may not be complete because errors were encountered during the build.

loqs

Member

Registered: 2014-03-06

Posts: 19,062

Re: [SOLVED] Cannot boot: unknown filesystem type vfat

downgrade the linux package assuming 5.5.6-arch1-1 is in /var/cache/pacman/pkg/ , then mount /boot upgrade the linux package.

You have downgrade to 5.5.6-arch1-1.
Next you mount /boot.
Then you upgrade the kernel back to 5.6.15.arch1-1.
Only then do you reboot.  The initrd generated for 5.5.6-arch1-1 being broken does not matter as you will not boot using that kernel.

alexander0803

Member

Registered: 2020-06-07

Posts: 37

Re: [SOLVED] Cannot boot: unknown filesystem type vfat

downgrade the linux package assuming 5.5.6-arch1-1 is in /var/cache/pacman/pkg/ , then mount /boot upgrade the linux package.

You have downgrade to 5.5.6-arch1-1.
Next you mount /boot.
Then you upgrade the kernel back to 5.6.15.arch1-1.
Only then do you reboot.  The initrd generated for 5.5.6-arch1-1 being broken does not matter as you will not boot using that kernel.

Almost made it I think.
Just to ensure, I downgrade while inside tty2 on loading (not in chroot) and then mount /boot.
mount /boot says that I already in /boot: nvme0n1p1, so what I have to do is just upgrade the kernel using 'pacman -S linux' and then reboot, right?
I am really afraid of breaking something again

Last edited by alexander0803 (2020-06-07 17:26:32)

loqs

Member

Registered: 2014-03-06

Posts: 19,062

Re: [SOLVED] Cannot boot: unknown filesystem type vfat

What is the output of the following

findmnt /boot
file /boot/vmlinuz-linux

alexander0803

Member

Registered: 2020-06-07

Posts: 37

Re: [SOLVED] Cannot boot: unknown filesystem type vfat

What is the output of the following

findmnt /boot
file /boot/vmlinuz-linux

findmnt /boot:
/boot /dev/nvme0n1p1 vfat and options...

file /boot/vmlinuz-linux
Linux kernel x86 boot executable bzImage, version 5.5.6-arch1-1 (linux@archlinux) .....

loqs

Member

Registered: 2014-03-06

Posts: 19,062

Re: [SOLVED] Cannot boot: unknown filesystem type vfat

That looks fine.  So follow the plan from post #10.

alexander0803

Member

Registered: 2020-06-07

Posts: 37

Re: [SOLVED] Cannot boot: unknown filesystem type vfat

That looks fine.  So follow the plan from post #10.

All of the errors are gone except one.

Failed to start Simple Desktop Display Manager.

sddm.service status:
sddm.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 5
Stopped Simple Desktop Display Manager
sddm.service: Start request repeated too quickly.
sddm.service: Failed with result 'core-dump'
Failed to start Simple Desktop Display Manager

It stopped and started five times

I think it is connected with Xorg that was updated by me before

Last edited by alexander0803 (2020-06-07 17:58:24)

loqs

Member

Registered: 2014-03-06

Posts: 19,062

Re: [SOLVED] Cannot boot: unknown filesystem type vfat

Please start a new thread for the sddm issue.  Include in the new issue the contents of Xorg.log and details of the systems GPU(s).