can't boot after update

phunni · 2012-05-19 10:05:15

apologies for any typos, I'm having to post this from my phone

This morning I ran a pacman update on the machine that serves as my router. When I rebooted, it got past the grub menu and then after loading the kernel image I get a blank screen with a cursor and nothing else. I never get beyond this. I tried using a rescue disk to Chroot in and reinstall the kernel, and, while that process went smoothly, I now get the blank screen before I even get to grub.

What else can I try? While this machine is down we have no internet and I really don't want to have to rebuild it!

Gcool · 2012-05-19 16:15:51

Which packages got upgraded prior to the boot failure (/var/log/pacman.log will tell you)? Also, if you're not even getting to your bootloader atm, consider chrooting in and reinstalling grub (I'll take it the disk that's hosting grub and your os is still detected ok).

MadTux · 2012-05-19 16:37:13

Could it be a KMS problem? What is the graphics card? Did you try to add nomodeset to the kernel boot parameters?

phunni · 2012-05-19 16:41:46

Thank you so much for the reply!

I tried reinstalling grub and it didn't help. The number of packages is too large to list since I can't copy and paste, but highlights include Linux & lvm2. The latter being upgraded after the former. Am going to try and reinstall them both with lvm2 first

phunni · 2012-05-19 16:44:02

Tried it, same result...

phunni · 2012-05-19 17:07:35

Graphics card is onboard, but I'm not sure which it is since I only boot to cli on this machine. If that was the problem, wouldn't I also have an issue booting from the rescue USB?

phunni · 2012-05-21 07:48:57

Tried reinstalling grub again - this time using grub setup. Still nothing. Unless anyone has any inspiration I shall have to rebuild it. Really want to avoid that...

Shark · 2012-05-21 09:23:06

If i understand (conclude) correctly your kernel image is loaded and then your X session is started with blank screen but only with cursor, right? If that is right than you should try to downgrade xorg updates to isolate the issue.

Last edited by Shark (2012-05-21 09:23:52)

phunni · 2012-05-21 12:06:45

Thanks for your reply - I really appreciate it!

It would appear that I haven't been clear. This box acts as a server/router and is completely headless. Xorg is not installed and does not run. The initial problem was a blank screen after the kernel loaded - so very early in the boot process. I tried to reinstall the kernel & grub having used a rescue USB and Chroot. After this, the blank screen was all I got - not even a grub menu.

I can boot from a rescue USB & mount the drives which suggests to me (perhaps incorrectly) that this isn't a hardware issue.

Shark · 2012-05-21 12:13:57

Aha. What about Madtux suggestion?

phunni · 2012-05-21 15:26:06

OK - I'm slightly baffled by this. I've managed to get it booting again. I figured I might as well play around with the bios settings and, in desperation, decided to switch which hard drive the system saw as the first and second. This fixed the problem. My confusion stems from not understanding how this could have happened in the first place - can anyone shed any light?

Arch Linux

#1 2012-05-19 10:05:15

can't boot after update

#2 2012-05-19 16:15:51

Re: can't boot after update

#3 2012-05-19 16:37:13

Re: can't boot after update

#4 2012-05-19 16:41:46

Re: can't boot after update

#5 2012-05-19 16:44:02

Re: can't boot after update

#6 2012-05-19 17:07:35

Re: can't boot after update

#7 2012-05-21 07:48:57

Re: can't boot after update

#8 2012-05-21 09:23:06

Re: can't boot after update

#9 2012-05-21 12:06:45

Re: can't boot after update

#10 2012-05-21 12:13:57

Re: can't boot after update

#11 2012-05-21 15:26:06

Re: can't boot after update

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