Arch Linux

jlindgren

Member

Registered: 2011-02-27

Posts: 260

System unbootable after /usr move (cannot mount root filesystem)

To avoid any heckling, let me first say that I *am* subscribed to arch-dev-public, was aware of the /usr move, and followed the upgrade instructions given here: https://mailman.archlinux.org/pipermail … 25026.html

After running "pacman -Syu --ignore filesystem" and then "pacman -S filesystem", I rebooted and was dumped to a rescue shell in the initramfs.  The root filesystem could not be mounted because there was no /dev/sda.  I'm currently running from a live CD and see that my initramfs contains modules for 3.9.3-1-ARCH while the installed kernel version is 3.9.4-1-ARCH.

I know that "pacman -Syu --ignore filesystem" updated both bash and linux, among others.  I think updating bash must have temporarily left me without any /bin/bash, and hence the mkinitcpio script could not be run (it calls for /bin/bash explicitly).  I'm going to try to recover the system by reinstalling linux from a chroot, but it seems that the problem could have been avoided by updating bash separately, right before filesystem.  I humbly submit that the upgrade instructions should be modified accordingly.

Last edited by jlindgren (2013-05-31 22:52:14)

karol

Archivist

Registered: 2009-05-06

Posts: 25,440

Re: System unbootable after /usr move (cannot mount root filesystem)

Update instructions have been updated :-) https://mailman.archlinux.org/pipermail … 25042.html
Thanks you.

s3kt0r

Member

Registered: 2009-01-20

Posts: 208

Re: System unbootable after /usr move (cannot mount root filesystem)

what's done is done, but you should be able to recover from it by using a live cd/usb flash drive and chroot into your install, fix whatever needs to be fixed, and rebooting.

Last edited by s3kt0r (2013-06-03 19:22:40)

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box1: Arch (linux-3.17-rc5)
box2: Gentoo (linux-3.17-rc5)
wm: subtle