[SOLVED] after pacman update & linux updated, kernal fails,cannot boot

rabarrett · 2016-01-26 02:09:39

On Jan 23, I ran pacman -Syu and among the files updated was the linux kernel (see full pacman log below for other files).

Immediately after, I rebooted and the kernel modules failed to load. I'm not sure what steps to take to trouble shoot an issue like this, but I have a rough idea of what info someone might need to see to help me, so it's pasted in pastebin:

systemctl fails: https://ptpb.pw/xVru

systemctl status sysctl.service: https://ptpb.pw/1DGc

journalctl -xn: https://ptpb.pw//1OTj

mkinitcpio: https://ptpb.pw//5SBo

pacmanlog: https://ptpb.pw/5YJw

dmesg: https://ptpb.pw/k6U-

I'm just running arch linux with dwm (no desktop environment).

If you can see what I need to do to get back to loading in to dwm again quickly, I'd very much appreciate the help (and you can ignore the next paragraph).

If you happen to have the time to help me learn how to help myself more, I would really appreciate that too. I've run arch linux with dwm for about 2 years now with very few problems, but a month ago I had a problem where I couldn't boot into dwm after an update and it took me a long time to fix it (it was a couple of corrupted files, including pacman database, so it took me a while to solve with much help--especially because I couldn't reach the internet without a liveboot USB). Here, just a month later, I'm in a similar position. I'd prefer in the longrun to know more about how to troubleshoot this better myself, but I find I don't know quite enough for the wikis and man pages to help me enough (I often find myself reading the same wiki or man page 3-4 times and realizing I don't know enough for the page to help me since they refer to things I don't understand). If you know a good book that explains an overview and theory, I'd really like it.

Too often I end up doing a piecemeal solution without really appreciating how the system works as a whole and I think that keeps me from reaching the next level as an arch user.

Any help much appreciated

Last edited by rabarrett (2016-01-26 03:56:46)

Scimmia · 2016-01-26 02:13:08

You're loading 4.3.3-2-ARCH, while you updated to 4.3.3-3-ARCH. Your bootloader is still finding the old kernel for one reason or another. Most commonly because /boot wasn't mounted during the upgrade.

rabarrett · 2016-01-26 02:44:12

I downgraded to it to try to solve the problem. The problem was there before that. The downgrade didn't help.

rabarrett · 2016-01-26 03:08:17

This is a photo of what I see when I boot into my system:
https://ptpb.pw/a0QS

jasonwryan · 2016-01-26 03:11:59

Did you complete the update with /boot mounted? You can do that from the live image.

rabarrett · 2016-01-26 03:15:37

I believe so.

I loaded with the arch live boot USB, mounted /dev/sda2 (my arch root dir) to /mnt and then used

 arch-chroot /mnt /bin/bash

before running

pacman -Syu

. I just did it again so I'm back to the latest version of the linux kernel now. Or is there something else you think I've done wrong, like do I need to mount the bootloader dir too?

Scimmia · 2016-01-26 03:17:01

We really need a "banging head against wall" smiley on this forum.

rabarrett · 2016-01-26 03:18:36

I just tried mounting both /dev/sda2 (root dir) to /mnt and /dev/sda1 (boot dir) to /mnt/boot and then running the update, but it says everything is up to date and "nothing to do"

rabarrett · 2016-01-26 03:31:10

Just in case that was the issue, 2 minutes ago, I downgraded to linux-4.3.3-2 again (with /dev/sda1 mounted to /mnt/boot and arch-chrooted to /mnt /bin/bash)

Then I ran the update to get linux-4.3.3-3 with that mounted also.

That does not appear to have helped. It still fails to start Load Kernel Modules and Apply Kernel Variables.

-----

I remembered something else I did close in time to the upgrade. I also had changed my fstab to get a usb thumb drive to autoload and I might have changed udev rules (not sure). After I did those things, I had rebooted to test it and it worked, so I don't think that is it, but maybe I'm wrong about one of the details.

Last edited by rabarrett (2016-01-26 03:37:15)

rabarrett · 2016-01-26 03:41:49

Ok, I tried commenting out the changed lines of my fstab. Now my system loads as it used to into dwm. So I guess one of my changes there was incorrect. I suppose I'll have to just keep manually mounting the usb drives.

I'll mark this as solved, but here was the line I had in my fstab:

UUID=<xxxx>   /media/samsung64g     vfat     user,rw     0 0

If I hadn't remembered that change, what info should have led me to discover it through troubleshooting??

Last edited by rabarrett (2016-01-26 09:12:50)

Arch Linux

#1 2016-01-26 02:09:39

[SOLVED] after pacman update & linux updated, kernal fails,cannot boot

#2 2016-01-26 02:13:08

Re: [SOLVED] after pacman update & linux updated, kernal fails,cannot boot

#3 2016-01-26 02:44:12

Re: [SOLVED] after pacman update & linux updated, kernal fails,cannot boot

#4 2016-01-26 03:08:17

Re: [SOLVED] after pacman update & linux updated, kernal fails,cannot boot

#5 2016-01-26 03:11:59

Re: [SOLVED] after pacman update & linux updated, kernal fails,cannot boot

#6 2016-01-26 03:15:37

Re: [SOLVED] after pacman update & linux updated, kernal fails,cannot boot

#7 2016-01-26 03:17:01

Re: [SOLVED] after pacman update & linux updated, kernal fails,cannot boot

#8 2016-01-26 03:18:36

Re: [SOLVED] after pacman update & linux updated, kernal fails,cannot boot

#9 2016-01-26 03:31:10

Re: [SOLVED] after pacman update & linux updated, kernal fails,cannot boot

#10 2016-01-26 03:41:49

Re: [SOLVED] after pacman update & linux updated, kernal fails,cannot boot

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