Arch Linux

liquid_tensor

Member

Registered: 2025-02-11

Posts: 5

systemd fails to start wireless service installation medium

I tried booting into a USB installation medium to fix a broken system but there are many unusual problems. I am using the most recent image and have tried two different USB drives with the same issue. I am on a dual boot with windows and I tried reinstalling windows. I have made sure that fast startup and secure boot are turned off.

audit and systemd messages output every few seconds making it difficult to type commands or read output of my commands.

iwctl stalls at "Waiting for IWD to start..." After many attempts I was able to get the [iwd]# prompt but then the command "device list" shows no devices.

There are many error messages appearing when I first enter the installation medium. I don't know which are actually relevant to the problem so here is description of the output. If someone can explain to me how to share the full output or which information would be relevant I can do that. I understand the rules around sharing full output but in this case I don't know how to get the output from the installation medium onto my windows system.

probe with driver ahci failed with error -12

first line

i801_smbus 0000:00:1f.4: SMBus is busy, can't use it!

six times in a row after "Starting Record System Boot/Shutdown in UTMP..."

Bluetooth: hci0: Failed to read codec capabilities (-95)

twice after "[ OK ] Virtual Console Setup."

usci_acpi USBC000:00: unknown error 0
usci_acpi USBC000:00: UCSI_GET_PDOS failed (-5)

after "[ OK ] Started Thunderbolt system service."

It then displays

(1 of 4) A start job is running for Wait for Network to be Configured (12)

and runs through several of these and then gives a long list of messages. It continues stalling with similar "A start job is running for..." messages for over a minute. It finally outputs

[FAILED] Failed to start Wireless service.

Then it logs into root. Next there is a string of audit messages before it gives the welcome message "To install Arch Linux follow the installation guide:...." I can now enter commands but audit and systemd messages are output every few seconds.

Last edited by liquid_tensor (2025-05-08 15:51:28)

Lone_Wolf

Administrator

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 14,971

Re: systemd fails to start wireless service installation medium

> probe with driver abci failed with error -12
first line

linux doesn't have an abci driver, but there is an ahci driver .

that driver is for sata drives and a bad sign if it has issues.

usci_acpi has to do with usb-c ports , try using another physical port, usb 2 preferred.

to silence the audit messages manually add audit=0 as boot parameter.

---

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

clean chroot building not flexible enough ?
Try clean chroot manager by graysky

liquid_tensor

Member

Registered: 2025-02-11

Posts: 5

Re: systemd fails to start wireless service installation medium

You are right. It should be ahci. I think since I am using an nvme drive that is unlikely to be an issue.

I have 3 usb-c ports and I am using usb-a adapter. I tried multiple times with different USB drives, different ports and different adapters. I had never had an issue with it before and I was able to install archlinux without issue.

The first thing preventing me from making progress is iwctl stalling. The one time it worked no devices were listed.

It might useful to give the output after "A start job is running for..." messages. I see

kernel BUG at lib/string_helpers.c:1040!
Oops: invalid opcode: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP NOPTI

Then it gives some debug information.

I silenced the audit message. I still see systemd messages every few seconds. They are

systemd[1]: reflector.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 11.
systemd[1]: Starting Refresh Pacman mirrorlist with Reflector,...
systemd[1]: reflector.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
systemd[1]: reflector.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
systemd[1]: Failed to start Refresh Pacman mirrorlist with Reflector,,

repeating every 11 seconds.

I also saw only once

systemd[1]: ModemManager.service: State 'stop-sigterm' timed out. Killing.

followed by several messages indicating it was killing the ModemManager process. Also,

systemd[1]: iwd.service: start operation timed out. Terminating.
systemd[1]: iwd.service: Failed with result 'timeout'.
systemd[1]: Failed to start Wireless service.
systemd[1]: ModemManager.service: Main process exited, code=killed, status=9/KILL
systemd[1]: ModemManager.service: Failed with result 'timeout'.
systemd[1]: Failed to start Modem Manager.

Last edited by liquid_tensor (2025-05-08 15:50:48)

Lone_Wolf

Administrator

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 14,971

Re: systemd fails to start wireless service installation medium

Reflector requires network access, try running systemctl stop reflector.service .

This smells like kernel issues or changes in the installation iso, try with older isos.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Arch_L … chive#/iso has info where to get them .

---

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

clean chroot building not flexible enough ?
Try clean chroot manager by graysky

liquid_tensor

Member

Registered: 2025-02-11

Posts: 5

Re: systemd fails to start wireless service installation medium

I tried with last month’s iso and it worked like normal.