Hangs after "dependency failed for dhcpcd"

darenw · 2020-07-13 06:25:12

Things were running normally until suddenly, the cursor wouldn't move and the keyboard did nothing. Powered off, on. Bootup appeared normal, then as the kernel starts, not far into it, I get a message "dependency failed for dhcpcd" (with an interface name that I didn't write down or remember) After that, nothing further happens. The machine just sits there with about four lines of info on the monitor, until ctrl-alt-del or power cycle occurs.

If I plug in an old USB memory stick with Chakra Linux on it, the machine boots up like normal, completely to the point of running KDE and everything's fine, including networking. This is mostly reproducible, but the stick is old and not all files on it are perfect. It's no substitute for proper Arch running off the hard drive. Also, probably irrelevant, but audio doesn't work on the stick-based live Chakra.

I suspect the original cursor & keyboard stoppage was "cosmic rays", just an unfortunate freak event. But booting the kernel is reproducible. Could the kernel file (vmlinuz or similar) or a kernel module be corrupted? Is the hard drive okay? What diagnostic tests could I try?

Head_on_a_Stick · 2020-07-13 18:19:43

What does the journal say about the failed boots?

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Sy … al_to_view

darenw · 2020-07-15 15:55:35

I took the machine to a shop in a city 60 miles away, so I can't check the journal or logs or anything. I suspect hardware trouble. I'm building a house, staying in a camper, no work table, all my tools in storage 30 miles away, so working on it myself is out. Using a Jetson TX2 to get by for now, which is cool, sounds futuristic! But it's no substitute for a real desktop machine.

darenw · 2020-07-17 05:33:30

Ah, the humiliation of logging on to a Linux site using a Windows machine...

I have the Linux box back. Same problem, but new observations about the problem. Formerly, Arch would boot up on /dev/sda1, with /home on /dev/sda3. Partition sda2 is for swap. I had a new disk added. The new on is /dev/sda, not yet partitioned or used but taking up that slot, and the disk with Arch and home is sdb.

The file /etc/fstab explicitly mounts sda partitions. Before the new disk, this failed as in the OP. After the new disk, BIOS looks at all disks attached for a bootable partition. It finds sdb1 and boots it. It comes up! Kernel loads, I can log in as root. But there's no /home due to fstab determines that; there's no automatic search. (That would be silly from a sysadmin point of view.)

Okay, so I change the fstab file, all "sda" changed to "sdb". Now the boot up process hangs as described in the OP, same as when the box had one disk.

Odd, that the same partition boots fine when found by BIOS and fstab refers to the useless sda1, but hangs when using fstab with the correct sdb1 mounted.

I could be misunderstanding the details, not expert at just how bootup works these days, but this observation might be a good clue.

Next experiment: change fstab to refer to sdb3 for /home, but leave sda1 in place for /. Weird, but might work. When I partition the new drive and put stuff on it, what happens with sda1, supposing it to be just regular data?

jasonwryan · 2020-07-17 05:35:42

Read this: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pe … ng#by-uuid

darenw · 2020-07-18 02:35:42

Things work now. I'm not sure why or how. I changed my fstab to use UUID. The machine booted up with the partition for / mounted, but not swap or /home. There were messages about dependency failures. Switched the order of the lines, and put 'default' for options instead of whatever was there. Back & forth booting up on a Chakra Linux memory stick and trying the hard drive. Last time, got the same "dependency failed for dhcpcd" message, thought it was hung, but went off to do something else. After several minutes, up popped a login prompt. Logged in, I have /home in place, everything's good. Not sure about trusting this too much yet, but so far so good.

Arch Linux

#1 2020-07-13 06:25:12

Hangs after "dependency failed for dhcpcd"

#2 2020-07-13 18:19:43

Re: Hangs after "dependency failed for dhcpcd"

#3 2020-07-15 15:55:35

Re: Hangs after "dependency failed for dhcpcd"

#4 2020-07-17 05:33:30

Re: Hangs after "dependency failed for dhcpcd"

#5 2020-07-17 05:35:42

Re: Hangs after "dependency failed for dhcpcd"

#6 2020-07-18 02:35:42

Re: Hangs after "dependency failed for dhcpcd"

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