You are not logged in.

#1 2013-02-07 22:27:06

bjcubsfan
Member
From: Oklahoma City, OK, USA
Registered: 2012-05-04
Posts: 32
Website

Can only boot using fallback after updating

Hi all,

I cannot boot my system normally (by choosing the "Arch Linux" grub option) after updating recently. It appears that systemd starts to work.  I get the "Welcome to Arch Linux!" message and several things marked "[  OK  ]" fly by too quickly to see.  After that, the monitor goes blank and tells me that it's going into power saving mode.  I cannot get a TTY terminal (i.e. ctl-alt-F2 does nothing).  I cannot ping the machine on the network. 

I can however boot all the way to graphical when I choose the "Arch Fallback" option in grub (has nomodeset on the kernel line and points to the fallback initramfs). The video is low resolution and only one monitor, but my nvidia card using nouveau drivers appears to be in use (lsmod).

I guess this means there is a problem with my video somewhere, but how can I isolate what the problem is? The journalctl log does not show information from the times that I boot using the normal method.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

B. J. Potter

Last edited by bjcubsfan (2013-02-08 15:53:38)

Offline

#2 2013-02-07 23:07:17

jasonwryan
Anarchist
From: .nz
Registered: 2009-05-09
Posts: 30,424
Website

Re: Can only boot using fallback after updating

bjcubsfan wrote:

The journalctl log does not show information from the times that I boot using the normal method.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Sy … ing_output


Arch + dwm   •   Mercurial repos  •   Surfraw

Registered Linux User #482438

Offline

#3 2013-02-08 14:42:03

bjcubsfan
Member
From: Oklahoma City, OK, USA
Registered: 2012-05-04
Posts: 32
Website

Re: Can only boot using fallback after updating

So specifically, this morning, I rebooted to normal mode at 8:20 and let it fail as described. I then waited 9 minutes to make the timestamps obvious and allow perhaps journal/logs to write (even though the system appears to be dead by any view). I then slowly restarted the system via alt-prtscn-R. E. I. S. U. B.  This time I booted into fallback mode to check the logs. There are no entries in journalctl from the boot that failed. See the relevant part of my log at the link below.

https://gist.github.com/bjcubsfan/4739391

Here's some more information. I have changed the target to multi-user (same as the old 3). The boot fails even with this in normal mode. In fallback mode I get the console login as expected. So maybe the problem is not with video? I am still just completely unsure how to track down the exact problem.

Last edited by bjcubsfan (2013-02-08 14:49:08)

Offline

#4 2013-02-08 19:04:25

jasonwryan
Anarchist
From: .nz
Registered: 2009-05-09
Posts: 30,424
Website

Re: Can only boot using fallback after updating

Does booting to the standard kernel with nomodeset in the line work? Without logs it is going to be difficult to nail down the failure point.


Arch + dwm   •   Mercurial repos  •   Surfraw

Registered Linux User #482438

Offline

#5 2013-02-08 21:44:49

bjcubsfan
Member
From: Oklahoma City, OK, USA
Registered: 2012-05-04
Posts: 32
Website

Re: Can only boot using fallback after updating

I will try that again on Monday, but I think I tried it before and it does NOT work. Is the lack of logs just something I have to live with because of systemd? Should I try running syslog in conjunction (like https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Sy … th_syslog)? Is there another way to turn on more logging output?

Offline

#6 2013-02-08 22:26:21

jasonwryan
Anarchist
From: .nz
Registered: 2009-05-09
Posts: 30,424
Website

Re: Can only boot using fallback after updating

You could enable syslog. You could also chroot in after a failed start and look through the other logs, like Xorg etc.


Arch + dwm   •   Mercurial repos  •   Surfraw

Registered Linux User #482438

Offline

#7 2013-02-08 22:29:12

bjcubsfan
Member
From: Oklahoma City, OK, USA
Registered: 2012-05-04
Posts: 32
Website

Re: Can only boot using fallback after updating

I will try enabling syslog. I breezed through the Xorg logs, but I don't think I'm getting that far in the boot process. Also, it's hard to correlate times to see if it was from the current or previous boot since the xorg logs just have numbers like [366.3253].

Offline

#8 2013-02-08 22:30:31

jasonwryan
Anarchist
From: .nz
Registered: 2009-05-09
Posts: 30,424
Website

Re: Can only boot using fallback after updating

Do you not have standard logs in /var/log?


Arch + dwm   •   Mercurial repos  •   Surfraw

Registered Linux User #482438

Offline

#9 2013-02-08 22:32:44

bjcubsfan
Member
From: Oklahoma City, OK, USA
Registered: 2012-05-04
Posts: 32
Website

Re: Can only boot using fallback after updating

The logs that were updated today were several binary logs, like 'lastlog'. The only one I got anything useful out of was Xorg. Perhaps I missed enabling some logs several months ago when switching to systemd?

Offline

#10 2013-02-08 22:47:21

jasonwryan
Anarchist
From: .nz
Registered: 2009-05-09
Posts: 30,424
Website

Re: Can only boot using fallback after updating

No, it was the Xorg log that I was hoping would provide some clues.

Maybe post some info about your hardware and setup, it may provide something else to go on.


Arch + dwm   •   Mercurial repos  •   Surfraw

Registered Linux User #482438

Offline

#11 2013-02-08 23:29:42

cfr
Member
From: Cymru
Registered: 2011-11-27
Posts: 7,131

Re: Can only boot using fallback after updating

What exactly got updated?


CLI Paste | How To Ask Questions

Arch Linux | x86_64 | GPT | EFI boot | refind | stub loader | systemd | LVM2 on LUKS
Lenovo x270 | Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-7200U CPU @ 2.50GHz | Intel Wireless 8265/8275 | US keyboard w/ Euro | 512G NVMe INTEL SSDPEKKF512G7L

Offline

#12 2013-02-08 23:40:44

WorMzy
Forum Moderator
From: Scotland
Registered: 2010-06-16
Posts: 11,787
Website

Re: Can only boot using fallback after updating

Sounds like this reoccurring bug with nouveau to me.

https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=52244

Try downgrading your kernel. Or switch to the propriety nvidia module.


Sakura:-
Mobo: MSI MAG X570S TORPEDO MAX // Processor: AMD Ryzen 9 5950X @4.9GHz // GFX: AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT // RAM: 32GB (4x 8GB) Corsair DDR4 (@ 3000MHz) // Storage: 1x 3TB HDD, 6x 1TB SSD, 2x 120GB SSD, 1x 275GB M2 SSD

Making lemonade from lemons since 2015.

Offline

#13 2013-02-09 00:03:17

bjcubsfan
Member
From: Oklahoma City, OK, USA
Registered: 2012-05-04
Posts: 32
Website

Re: Can only boot using fallback after updating

This link below shows what was upgraded:

https://gist.github.com/bjcubsfan/47430 … ckages-txt

I will try downgrading the kernel or switching to nvidia on Monday.

Offline

#14 2013-02-11 18:42:50

bjcubsfan
Member
From: Oklahoma City, OK, USA
Registered: 2012-05-04
Posts: 32
Website

Re: Can only boot using fallback after updating

I tried several things today. Booting the normal kernal with 'nomodeset' does complete booting. This leads me to believe it's something to do with my video system (NVIDIA Corporation G98 [Quadro NVS 295] (rev a1) using the nouveau drivers). I tried enabling syslog to get more information out of the logs, but just as with 'journalctl' nothing is in the logs from the failed boots.

I decided to try downgrading the kernel next, and that worked. I went to the version of the kernel that was used when I last had my system working, and I booted normally.  I think I'll not upgrade for a while and hope this bug is fixed somehow in the meantime.

Offline

Board footer

Powered by FluxBB