Arch Linux

Alberto-Trujillo

Member

From: Poole, Dorset, UK

Registered: 2017-02-21

Posts: 62

[SOLVED] Image generation FAILED

Hi, I wonder if you can help me find a solution.
I have arch installed on a 2015 MacBook Pro along with the apple macOS system. Both systems share the original 200MG Mac EFI partition.
When I update the system in arch, it gives me the following error...

==> Creating zstd-compressed initcpio image: '/boot/initramfs-linux-fallback.img'
zstd: error 70 : Write error : cannot write block : No space left on device 
bsdtar: Write error
bsdtar: Write error
==> ERROR: Initcpio image generation FAILED: 'bsdtar (step 1)' reported an error
error: command failed to execute correctly
(13/19) Reloading system bus configuration...
(14/19) Warn about old perl modules
(15/19) Compiling GSettings XML schema files...
(16/19) Updating icon theme caches...
(17/19) Updating systemd-boot
Failed to copy data from "/usr/lib/systemd/boot/efi/systemd-bootx64.efi" to "/boot/EFI/systemd/.#systemd-bootx64.efiae357641de01d0de": No space left on device
Failed to copy data from "/usr/lib/systemd/boot/efi/systemd-bootx64.efi" to "/boot/EFI/BOOT/.#BOOTX64.EFI0578ca75af6e0a42": No space left on device
error: command failed to execute correctly
(18/19) Updating the info directory file...
(19/19) Updating the desktop file MIME type cache...

This is the version of my Arch,

[at@arch ~]$ uname -r
6.8.8-arch1-1

And this is my /boot directory,

[en@arch ~]$ ls -l /boot
total 171919
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 126242 October 22, 2023 BOOTLOG
drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 512 Dec 9 11:53 EFI
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 74031104 Apr 30 15:19 initramfs-linux-fallback.img
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 15815298 Apr 30 15:19 initramfs-linux.img
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 42728283 October 22, 2023 initramfs-linux-lts-fallback.img
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 11487513 October 22, 2023 initramfs-linux-lts.img
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 7360512 August 8, 2023 intel-ucode.img
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 512 May 2 10:11 loader
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 13017600 Apr 30 14:31 vmlinuz-linux
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 11475552 October 22, 2023 vmlinuz-linux-lts

Thank you very much for your help.
Alberto

Last edited by Alberto-Trujillo (2024-05-02 16:09:12)

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"I believe I never knew what the word 'round' meant until I saw the Earth from space."
(Aleksei Leonov)

Lone_Wolf

Forum Moderator

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 12,015

Re: [SOLVED] Image generation FAILED

Recently the initramfs images have grown larger then before, especially the fallback images suffer from this.

You can try to re-configure systemd-boot to keep the kernel + initramfs out of the Efi System Partition and instead use a separate /boot partition.
see https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/System … g_XBOOTLDR

Doing this on an existing install can be tricky, ensure your backups are uptodate.

A simpler alternative is to disable the creation of the fallback images.

look at /etc/mkinitcpio.d/ , it should have a preset file for every kernel you use.

look for a line like

PRESETS=('default' 'fallback')

in the .preset files and remove fallback from them.

manually delete /boot/initramfs-linux-fallback.img and /boot/initramfs-linux-lts-fallback.img , then run mkinicpio -P your_kernel to create updated images.

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Disliking systemd intensely, but not satisfied with alternatives so focusing on taming systemd.

(A works at time B)  && (time C > time B ) ≠  (A works at time C)

Alberto-Trujillo

Member

From: Poole, Dorset, UK

Registered: 2017-02-21

Posts: 62

Re: [SOLVED] Image generation FAILED

Hello Lone_Wolf, I really appreciate you giving me two solutions.

I have opted for the easiest one, editing the .preset file and deleting the -fallback.img files.
I don't know if this measure will keep /boot within its limits, or if it will overflow again over time.
In any case I can always try the other option that you suggest; although I'm a little afraid to get into that one.

Thank you very much again, and I will mark my query as SOLVED.

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"I believe I never knew what the word 'round' meant until I saw the Earth from space."
(Aleksei Leonov)

Lone_Wolf

Forum Moderator

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 12,015

Re: [SOLVED] Image generation FAILED

One thing I forgot to mention :
Without the fallback images you have one less option to boot if a system has problems.

Ensure you keep a bootable device with a recent archlinux installation iso nearby.

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Disliking systemd intensely, but not satisfied with alternatives so focusing on taming systemd.

(A works at time B)  && (time C > time B ) ≠  (A works at time C)

Alberto-Trujillo

Member

From: Poole, Dorset, UK

Registered: 2017-02-21

Posts: 62

Re: [SOLVED] Image generation FAILED

Thank you :-D

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"I believe I never knew what the word 'round' meant until I saw the Earth from space."
(Aleksei Leonov)