Arch Linux

schnafte

Member

Registered: 2020-01-24

Posts: 10

[arch-install] Boot error after system update

Hi all,

I'm not sure if the topic belongs here or in another sub forum.  The problem is the following:

I updated/upgraded my system with

pacman -Syu

via

 yay

last Friday and after a reboot, it got stuck while booting via systemd-boot. I use a Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 2a with AMD Ryzen and installed Arch Linux via archinstall script with enabled disk encryption. There weren't any problems until the last update. Interestingly, my colleague, who has the same notebook, got the same error about a few days earlier. When he got it, I could still upgrade to the latest state at this moment and then on last Friday I faced the same issue. Here, you can see the output while booting:

:: running early hook [udev]
Starting systemd-udevd version 253.2-1-arch
:: running hook [udev]
:: Triggering uevents..
:: running hook [keymap]
:: Loading keymap...done
:: running hook [encrypt]
Waiting 10 seconds for device /dev/disk/by-partuuid/xxx-xxx ...
Waiting 10 seconds for device /deu/mapper/luksdev ...
ERROR: device "dev/mapper/luksdev' not found. Skipping fsck.
:: mounting "/dev/mapper/luksdev' on real root
[21.8130461] /dev/mapper/luksdev: Can't open blockdev
mount: 	/new_root: special device /dev/mapper/ luksdev does not exist.
		dmesg (1) may have more information after failed mount system call.
You are now being dropped into an emergency shell.
sh: can't access tty; job control turned off
[rootfs ]#

The problem was also described here: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=272054

Also, I had this problem before, around end of 2022 on another notebook (T480s with Intel CPU), so it is not hardware dependent. I did not modify the boot process itself. However, I see that the error occurs, when the boot images are going to be updated.

My work around so far was:
- boot from live USB stick
- run (exact commands may vary, but you'll get the point):

loadkeys [keyboard layout]
cryptsetup open /dev/nvme0n1p2 luksdev
mount /dev/mapper/luksdev /mnt
mount /dev/nvme0n1p1 /mnt/boot
arch-chroot /mnt

- install also the LTS kernel and update both kernels with

mkinitcpio -p linux[-lts]

Interestingly, today, when I updated the system again, the same error appeared. I was running the "linux" kernel at that time. Then, I switched in the boot menu to the lts kernel and I can still boot without the error. So, I guess it has something to do while updating some of the files.

I am pretty sure it has nothing with the actual disk or some corrupt IDs or that there is something missing, because when I use the live system, everything is working just fine.

Please let me know if you need more information.

Thanks for your help!

ogghi

Member

Registered: 2013-09-05

Posts: 17

Re: [arch-install] Boot error after system update

Hi there,

thanks for pointing out the solution here, I was shocked this morning when powering on my laptop

Will keep an eye on this, subscribing the topic as well!

Best regards
David

schnafte

Member

Registered: 2020-01-24

Posts: 10

Re: [arch-install] Boot error after system update

Hi,

thanks for your feedback! I had the same error again yesterday. This time, none of the two kernels was booting, so I did the same procedure with mounting and arch-chrooting, but I only ran the mkinitcpio command for one for the kernels (no re-installation of the kernels as I did it before). This kernel was then immediately booting again and then I could run the mkinitcpio command for the other non-working kernel from the actual installation. Also, this was then booting again. So, I told also my colleague to run this command again when he notices that there is an update which modifies the boot files, while still being logged into the session, and this helped! There was no issue after reboot.
Would be interesting to know if this a Arch Linux specific problem or not.

ogghi

Member

Registered: 2013-09-05

Posts: 17

Re: [arch-install] Boot error after system update

Thanks, I'll keep the stick with Arch on it in my back pack then

snazza

Member

Registered: 2011-01-24

Posts: 11

Re: [arch-install] Boot error after system update

Same problem here since weeks! I keep my usb boot key always at hand. A bit frustrating, tough...