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stabwound

Member

Registered: 2015-07-24

Posts: 48

[SOLVED] Updated kernel without boot partition mounted

Because of my own error, my boot partition doesn't automatically mount after my system boots up.

I accidentally updated the kernel, which installed it to a non-existent /boot that resides on my main partition. From past experience, this is bad news if I try to reboot.

Unfortunately now it won't let me mount the boot partition - it says "mount: unknown filesystem type 'vfat'" - if I try to load the vfat module it won't work - just says it doesn't exist.

How can I rescue this mistake without rebooting to a live usb and chrooting? Is it possible?

Last edited by stabwound (2016-10-28 19:36:00)

graysky

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From: :wq

Registered: 2008-12-01

Posts: 10,597

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Re: [SOLVED] Updated kernel without boot partition mounted

You can move the mistake /boot on the root partition to /boot-old and then create an empty /boot on which to mount your actual boot partition once you figure out why you're getting the error you posted.  Once mounted I believe you can simply reinstall the kernel and should be good to go at that point... you might be able to just manually copy over /boot-old/vmlinuz-linux to /boot once mounted and then just regen the images with `mkinitcpio -p linux` (or manually copy them over too).

...why is your boot partition FAT32?  I believe the $esp should be and kernel images shouldn't go to $esp is my understanding.

Last edited by graysky (2016-10-28 19:11:04)

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loqs

Member

Registered: 2014-03-06

Posts: 17,362

Re: [SOLVED] Updated kernel without boot partition mounted

Would recommend you downgrade the kernel package so it matches the running kernel.
Then mount /boot then upgrade the kernel package so it places the kernel and initrd in the correct location
Then you can unmount /boot and remove the kernel and initrd that have been left behind.
Edit:
Old kernel package should still be in package cache
Edit2:
Then investigate why /boot was not mounted

Last edited by loqs (2016-10-28 19:17:33)

stabwound

Member

Registered: 2015-07-24

Posts: 48

Re: [SOLVED] Updated kernel without boot partition mounted

Would recommend you downgrade the kernel package so it matches the running kernel.
Then mount /boot then upgrade the kernel package so it places the kernel and initrd in the correct location
Then you can unmount /boot and remove the kernel and initrd that have been left behind.
Edit:
Old kernel package should still be in package cache
Edit2:
Then investigate why /boot was not mounted

Thank you, that's exactly what I was looking for. Problem solved.