Unable to boot after kernel upgrade 3.11.6-1 -> 4.11.3-1

crankshaft · 2017-06-06 02:24:47

OK, I have attempted this probably a dozen times with no success.

I have also read threads on this forum reporting similar errors, but with no conclusive fixes.

The (VMWARE Virtual i686) machine was last updated mid 2016 and runs kernel 3.11.6-1 just fine, it was updated before then and ran fine and there are absolutely no issues or problems with the installation.

And fortunately I have a .ovf file that I can use to repeatedly reload the VM as many times as I like and start agai, hence the dozen tries.

When I do a full system update pacman -Syu there are 166 file updates, no major warnings or alerts that I can see during the install process, other than the various alerts that files were saved as *.pacnew which is to be expected since many conf files are modified and the update completes successfully, also updating linux, linux-api-headers, linux-firmware.

But I notice than mkinitcpio is NOT executed at the end of the upgrade despite the kernel being updated, and even manually running this still results in an un-bootable system that hangs at the early stage.

I accepted the default replacement options:
:: Replace dirmngr with core/gnupg? [Y/n]
:: Replace dnsutils with extra/bind-tools? [Y/n]
:: Replace libltdl with core/libtool? [Y/n]
:: Replace libusbx with core/libusb? [Y/n]
:: Replace sysvinit-tools with core/procps-ng? [Y/n]

The update includes the following:
linux-4.11.3-1
linux-api-headers-4.10.1-1
linux-firmware-20170422.ade8332-1

After the update and reboot, the system hangs at:

Warning: /lib/modules/4.11.3-1-ARCH/modules.devname not found - ignoring
ERROR: device '/dev/sda1' not found. Skipping fsck.
ERROR: Unable to find root device '/dev/sda1'.
You are being dropped to a recovery shell
    Type 'exit' to try and continue booting
sh: can't access tty; job control turned off

As suggested in other posts with a similar problem, I have tried to login using recovery disk and chroot in and run mkinitcpio but this makes it even worse, the only think outputted to the console is an underscore and it just freezes !

Last edited by crankshaft (2017-06-06 02:39:58)

Ropid · 2017-06-06 09:42:26

There's an "Arch Linux Archive" server that you can use to update to how Arch was like at different points in time. You could try to use that to do the update in several steps, going forward a few months at a time until you end up at today's date.

Here's the ArchWiki article about that archive server:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arch_Linux_Archive

Scroll down to the end of the page for instructions on how to make pacman use it with repos for certain dates (I'd use the mirrorlist method).

Before you decide on what date to try first, you should check when you really last updated that machine by looking at the end of "/var/log/pacman.log". You say you did it in June/July 2016, but that can't be right if 3.11 is the kernel used by the machine? It should be a version around 4.5 or so for 2016. That 3.11 version was released in 2013.

A completely different thing you could do is, collect your scripts and config files and whatnot that you have on that machine, then set up a new one and work on getting your stuff up and running on there. Make the new machine 64-bit as 32-bit Arch will be discontinued by the end of the year.

Last edited by Ropid (2017-06-06 09:44:09)

Trilby · 2017-06-06 11:41:51

crankshaft wrote:

The (VMWARE Virtual i686) machine was last updated mid 2016 and runs kernel 3.11.6-1 just fine

Er, what? That doesn't add up. 3.12 was in the repos in November of 2013. So have you been doing partial upgrades, or have you actually not upated since 2013? See the news items, there have been *many* necessary manual interventions since 2013.

HappyClown · 2017-06-07 01:52:32

Heheh.

R00KIE · 2017-06-07 09:09:08

@HappyClown
Don't power post: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Co … mpty_posts

Arch Linux

#1 2017-06-06 02:24:47

Unable to boot after kernel upgrade 3.11.6-1 -> 4.11.3-1

#2 2017-06-06 09:42:26

Re: Unable to boot after kernel upgrade 3.11.6-1 -> 4.11.3-1

#3 2017-06-06 11:41:51

Re: Unable to boot after kernel upgrade 3.11.6-1 -> 4.11.3-1

#4 2017-06-07 01:52:32

Re: Unable to boot after kernel upgrade 3.11.6-1 -> 4.11.3-1

#5 2017-06-07 09:09:08

Re: Unable to boot after kernel upgrade 3.11.6-1 -> 4.11.3-1

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