Arch Linux

fommil

Member

Registered: 2016-07-16

Posts: 39

boot menu

Hi all,

I've been using ArchLinux for a few years and I had my first experience today of accidentally nuking a system file. The recovery option was to download an iso from another machine, and then use it to mount my / and change the file I wasted. (pro tip: unlimited is not a valid entry in /etc/security/ulimit.conf!)

This got me thinking that I would feel more comfortable with a Debian-style "rescue" boot menu entry for these sorts of situations. Ideally with a password lock on it. But finding information on this is pretty difficult, does anybody have a link to the relevant docs?

In addition, it would be pretty useful to keep the "last working kernel" lying around as a boot option... just incase. Is that something that can be set up? Again, this is the Debian way and I used it once every few years.

Best regards,
Sam

circleface

Member

Registered: 2012-05-26

Posts: 639

Re: boot menu

You can always install more than one kernel.  I would suggest keeping the latest kernel, plus the -lts kernel as a backup.  That way, if the new kernel breaks something, you can boot into the other one and fix it.  However, in your case this time, having multiple kernels really won't help since you deleted a file.  But just in general, I always recommend two kernels installed in case something does break.

jasonwryan

Anarchist

From: .nz

Registered: 2009-05-09

Posts: 30,426

Website

Re: boot menu

Not an Installation issue, moving to NC...

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Arch + dwm   •   Mercurial repos  •   Surfraw

Registered Linux User #482438

snakeroot

Member

Registered: 2012-10-06

Posts: 177

Re: boot menu

You may wish to create a separate entry in your boot menu with "systemd.unit=rescue.target" appended to the kernel command line. You may also find this article of interest to you:

https://freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/s … Debugging/

Regards,

fommil

Member

Registered: 2016-07-16

Posts: 39

Re: boot menu

thanks... I expected that I'd need another entry but the problem I have is that I don't know *where* the boot menu lives. I used to use LILO and GRUB and I don't even know the name of the bootloader that ArchLinux is using, or where to look to find out.

2ManyDogs

Forum Fellow

Registered: 2012-01-15

Posts: 4,648

Re: boot menu

thanks... I expected that I'd need another entry but the problem I have is that I don't know *where* the boot menu lives. I used to use LILO and GRUB and I don't even know the name of the bootloader that ArchLinux is using, or where to look to find out.

What bootloader did you install when you installed Arch?

fommil

Member

Registered: 2016-07-16

Posts: 39

Re: boot menu

thanks... I expected that I'd need another entry but the problem I have is that I don't know *where* the boot menu lives. I used to use LILO and GRUB and I don't even know the name of the bootloader that ArchLinux is using, or where to look to find out.

What bootloader did you install when you installed Arch?

If I knew that I'd be able to google it :-D

I'm using UEFI and adding files into /boot/loader/entries doesn't do anything, and there is no prompt on startup... not even to select the LTS linux.

2ManyDogs

Forum Fellow

Registered: 2012-01-15

Posts: 4,648

Re: boot menu

How did you install Arch?

fommil

Member

Registered: 2016-07-16

Posts: 39

Re: boot menu

How did you install Arch?

I followed the standard installation document. But it was several years ago so I cannot remember any of the detailed choices.

snakeroot

Member

Registered: 2012-10-06

Posts: 177

Re: boot menu

I suspect you are using systemd-boot and that your /boot/loader/loader.conf has a timeout set to zero.

Additional information is available here:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Systemd-boot

Regards,

Blasphemist

Member

From: Colorado

Registered: 2013-01-17

Posts: 160

Re: boot menu

Please post the output of these two commands to show your boot config. It sounds likely you are using either the direct boot by UEFI of the kernel or systemd's bootctl. These commands will show the UEFI boot configuration and if bootctl is used the specifics of the boot options will show.

# efibootmgr -v
# bootctl status

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