Arch Linux

fistrosan

Member

Registered: 2020-04-01

Posts: 172

[SOLVED] mkinitcpio fails to create initramfs

Well I think the title is self-explanatory.

mkinitcpio -p linux

does nothing in my system (no output, no errors) and initramfs does not appear in /boot

I have the latest kernel 5.7.10.arch1-1

Now, if I install linux-lts and then run mkinitcpio -p linux-lts ... that works fine.

Any ideas what could I be possibly doing wrong ?

[SOLVED]

Reason for problem: zero size (as in empty) /etc/mkinitcpio.d/linux.preset file -> I think this happened because, while installing arch, I forgot to add "base" to the pacstrap command and had to redoit later on (possibly after installing the kernel).

Solution: create a new linux.preset with the contents adapted from linux-lts.preset

Last edited by fistrosan (2020-07-29 06:24:28)

frostschutz

Member

Registered: 2013-11-15

Posts: 1,652

Re: [SOLVED] mkinitcpio fails to create initramfs

It could be a problem with your preset files in /etc/mkinitcpio.d/

for example an empty preset file would cause mkinitcpio to run with no output, no errors

fistrosan

Member

Registered: 2020-04-01

Posts: 172

Re: [SOLVED] mkinitcpio fails to create initramfs

Nice catch ! Thanks ! Indeed the linux.present file has a zero size, whereas linux-lts.presets does not ... do you know how and why does this happen ? Based on linux-lts.preset I created a linux.present and now everything works just fine .... thanks again !

It could be a problem with your preset files in /etc/mkinitcpio.d/

for example an empty preset file would cause mkinitcpio to run with no output, no errors

frostschutz

Member

Registered: 2013-11-15

Posts: 1,652

Re: [SOLVED] mkinitcpio fails to create initramfs

no idea how this happened but you could check your shell history ... ;-)