[SOLVED] Plymouth mkinitcpio hook keeps crashing on boot.

Everything2067 · 2025-09-10 14:51:10

I'm sorry for any mismatched terms.
I have set up Arch Linux on an encrypted root partition and a separate plain boot partition. I have installed plymouth and the system boots completely fine. I want plymouth to show the password prompt for decrypting the root partition. According to the wiki, I have to put the plymouth hook before encrypt. So I have edited the mkinitcpio.conf HOOKS variable as such and regenerated the initramfs. (I have pasted the entire mkinitcpio.conf file)

# vim:set ft=sh
# MODULES
# The following modules are loaded before any boot hooks are
# run.  Advanced users may wish to specify all system modules
# in this array.  For instance:
#     MODULES=(usbhid xhci_hcd)
MODULES=()

# BINARIES
# This setting includes any additional binaries a given user may
# wish into the CPIO image.  This is run last, so it may be used to
# override the actual binaries included by a given hook
# BINARIES are dependency parsed, so you may safely ignore libraries
BINARIES=()

# FILES
# This setting is similar to BINARIES above, however, files are added
# as-is and are not parsed in any way.  This is useful for config files.
FILES=()

# HOOKS
# This is the most important setting in this file.  The HOOKS control the
# modules and scripts added to the image, and what happens at boot time.
# Order is important, and it is recommended that you do not change the
# order in which HOOKS are added.  Run 'mkinitcpio -H <hook name>' for
# help on a given hook.
# 'base' is _required_ unless you know precisely what you are doing.
# 'udev' is _required_ in order to automatically load modules
# 'filesystems' is _required_ unless you specify your fs modules in MODULES
# Examples:
##   This setup specifies all modules in the MODULES setting above.
##   No RAID, lvm2, or encrypted root is needed.
#    HOOKS=(base)
#
##   This setup will autodetect all modules for your system and should
##   work as a sane default
#    HOOKS=(base udev autodetect modconf block filesystems fsck)
#
##   This setup will generate a 'full' image which supports most systems.
##   No autodetection is done.
#    HOOKS=(base udev modconf block filesystems fsck)
#
##   This setup assembles a mdadm array with an encrypted root file system.
##   Note: See 'mkinitcpio -H mdadm_udev' for more information on RAID devices.
#    HOOKS=(base udev modconf keyboard keymap consolefont block mdadm_udev encrypt filesystems fsck)
#
##   This setup loads an lvm2 volume group.
#    HOOKS=(base udev modconf block lvm2 filesystems fsck)
#
##   This will create a systemd based initramfs which loads an encrypted root filesystem.
#    HOOKS=(base systemd autodetect modconf kms keyboard sd-vconsole sd-encrypt block filesystems fsck)
#
##   NOTE: If you have /usr on a separate partition, you MUST include the
#    usr and fsck hooks.
#HOOKS=(base udev autodetect microcode modconf kms keyboard keymap consolefont block filesystems fsck)
HOOKS=(base udev autodetect microcode modconf kms keyboard keymap consolefont block plymouth encrypt filesystems fsck)

# COMPRESSION
# Use this to compress the initramfs image. By default, zstd compression
# is used for Linux ≥ 5.9 and gzip compression is used for Linux < 5.9.
# Use 'cat' to create an uncompressed image.
#COMPRESSION="zstd"
#COMPRESSION="gzip"
#COMPRESSION="bzip2"
#COMPRESSION="lzma"
#COMPRESSION="xz"
#COMPRESSION="lzop"
#COMPRESSION="lz4"

# COMPRESSION_OPTIONS
# Additional options for the compressor
#COMPRESSION_OPTIONS=()

# MODULES_DECOMPRESS
# Decompress loadable kernel modules and their firmware during initramfs
# creation. Switch (yes/no).
# Enable to allow further decreasing image size when using high compression
# (e.g. xz -9e or zstd --long --ultra -22) at the expense of increased RAM usage
# at early boot.
# Note that any compressed files will be placed in the uncompressed early CPIO
# to avoid double compression.
#MODULES_DECOMPRESS="no"

However, on boot, it instead gives me a stacktrace and the password is instead asked on the console. Rest everything continues perfectly, plymouth then starts again after all the hooks have ran and the system boots completely normally. The theme I'm using in plymouth is BGRT. Without the plymouth hook, nothing is changed except that the stacktrace goes away.

Plymouth configuration (unchanged since installation)

# Administrator customizations go in this file
#[Daemon]
#Theme=fade-in

journalctl -b output
https://0x0.st/KbaF.txt

Edit 1: I cannot locate the plymouth errors on my disk, and it scrolls out of the screen, so I cannot take a picture of it. See below edit, but I could not find the entire error. If you know where it is usually saved, please let me know.
Edit 2: Also attached a picture to show how the error looks like. https://0x0.st/Kbu3.jpg

Mod edit: Replaced oversized image with link https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Genera … s_and_code -- V1del

Last edited by Everything2067 (2025-09-11 04:23:31)

V1del · 2025-09-10 19:57:17

How up to date is your system? There appears to be a plymouth crasher with freetype2 2.14.0-1 that should be fixed by freetype2 2.14.0-2 https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/ … -/issues/4

Everything2067 · 2025-09-11 04:22:43

Yesterday it was up to date. Just today morning I got the update to freetype2 2.14.0-2, which pretty much fixes the problem. Thank you.

Arch Linux

#1 2025-09-10 14:51:10

[SOLVED] Plymouth mkinitcpio hook keeps crashing on boot.

#2 2025-09-10 19:57:17

Re: [SOLVED] Plymouth mkinitcpio hook keeps crashing on boot.

#3 2025-09-11 04:22:43

Re: [SOLVED] Plymouth mkinitcpio hook keeps crashing on boot.

Board footer