Arch Linux

rome6315

Member

Registered: 2023-03-16

Posts: 5

Dependencies Failed and Locked Root Account

Hello to all. I booted into Arch this morning to find that well, I couldn't boot into Arch. I was getting an error stating that dependencies had failed, and that I would be thrown into emergency mode. However, the root account was locked, so  i was not able to get into a console at all. The dependencies that had failed were as follows: Initrd Root Device, /sysroot, Initrd Root File System, Mountpoints Configured in the Real Root, and a File System Check on /dev/disk/by-uuid/. As i mentioned, the root account is also locked. I'm not sure if the two problems are related or not.

Anyways, I chroot-ed into my system to view the journalctl logs as the error message said to do. I also looked at pacman logs, because the last thing I did was update my system before these errors occurred. The journalctl logs had an error message about needing to run fsck potentially because a disk didn't unmount properly, but it seems that command has been run since then and succeeded. Other than that, there were errors pertaining sddm and other things that I'm not sure if they were important or not. I will attach a link to the jorunalctl file here: https://pastebin.com/LiherTTw . The pacman log can be found here: https://pastebin.com/7aS9jX6F .

As far as the locked root account goes, I found similar issues that were resolved by setting a root password if you didn't already have one. However, this did not seem to work for me. Any help would be amazing. Thanks and if I need to provide more details, please let me know!

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 13,727

Re: Dependencies Failed and Locked Root Account

So there was an error when generating the initramfs. Boot the fallback.

rome6315

Member

Registered: 2023-03-16

Posts: 5

Re: Dependencies Failed and Locked Root Account

I did as you said and it worked! Thank you! I'm unfamiliar with initramfs, let alone the fallback. I'm guessing the entire point of the fallback is to be able to boot back in and troubleshoot?

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 13,727

Re: Dependencies Failed and Locked Root Account

The problem was with the autodetect hook, which makes a list of modules that are actually being used on your system and only adds those to the initrafms. The fallback doesn't use this, and just adds all filesystem and storage modules. It's mostly for when you change hardware, but also for times something goes wrong and the correct modules aren't there. Now you need to figure out why it failed.

rome6315

Member

Registered: 2023-03-16

Posts: 5

Re: Dependencies Failed and Locked Root Account

Okay this makes sense. Any advice on where to start or how to identify missing modules?

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 13,727

Re: Dependencies Failed and Locked Root Account

See that error in the autodetect hook in your pacman log? That's the issue. Does it still happen if you rebuild the initramfs again?

rome6315

Member

Registered: 2023-03-16

Posts: 5

Re: Dependencies Failed and Locked Root Account

Yes, I do see that. mkinitcpio -P right?

rome6315

Member

Registered: 2023-03-16

Posts: 5

Re: Dependencies Failed and Locked Root Account

I ended up running mkinitcpio -p linux and everything seems to be working fine now. You sir are a genius. I have gained brain cells here today. One thing I still am a bit confused about is the whole locked root account. Is that normal behavior when the initramfs is messed up?

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 13,727

Re: Dependencies Failed and Locked Root Account

It's a security thing, the account inside the initramfs is locked by default. Also see https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/70408