Arch Linux

esuhl

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2009-09-16

Posts: 140

[SOLVED] Can't boot after pacman update - new kernel issue?

I just updated my system without errors: cat /var/log/pacman.log | tail -164 (pastebin)

I then rebooted, but the boot process failed, leaving me in the emergency/recovery shell.  The on-screen boot messages suggested that many of my partitions failed to mount after the update: journalctl -xb -3 (pastebin)

This line seems to be where the issues start to occur in that pastebin:

Dec 31 18:33:55 i7pc mount[432]: mount: /mnt/BACKUP_B: unknown filesystem type 'ntfs'.

Could there be a problem with my /etc/fstab (pastebin)?

---

I have linux-lts as an alternative boot option in GRUB.  So I rebooted using that and the PC booted successfully.

I then downgraded the linux kernel (from 5.10.3.arch1-1 to 5.9.14.arch1-1), but mkinitcpio had problems rebuilding the boot image due to missing nvidia modules:

$ sudo pacman -U /var/cache/pacman/pkg/linux-5.9.14.arch1-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst (pastebin)

I rebooted using linux anyway, which booted into a bash shell successfully (as normal).  But when I typed "startx", X failed to start:

(EE)
Fatal server error:
(EE) no screens found(EE)

journalctl -xb -1 (pastebin)

Again, rebooting into linux-lts works fine.

====================================

I don't think these points are relevant, but...

I found this forum thread about boot problems with linux 5.10.1, but it relates to a blank screen with AMD drivers, rather than the mounting problems with nVidia drivers that I have.

And an announcement on the Arch homepage a while ago said that nvidia 455.28 is incompatible with linux >=5.9.  But I don't use the fancy (CUDA, OpenCL, etc.) features, and I didn't experience any (apparent) issues with that nvidia version when I previously installed it.

I (normally) boot into a bash shell and use "startx" to use XFCE.  I like it that way.

====================================

I'm not sure what to do next to identify the cause of the issue.  Can anyone point me in the right direction? :-)

Last edited by esuhl (2021-01-01 20:20:48)

loqs

Member

Registered: 2014-03-06

Posts: 18,180

Re: [SOLVED] Can't boot after pacman update - new kernel issue?

You only downloaded the kernel without the matching headers so:

[2020-12-31T19:55:49+0000] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Unable to install module nvidia/455.45.01 for kernel 5.9.14-arch1-1: Missing kernel headers.

Then X fails on the downgraded kernel.

The fstab contains lots of mounts specifying type ntfs not ntfs-3g.
https://github.com/archlinux/svntogit-p … 5516073c12

Last edited by loqs (2021-01-01 00:52:45)

esuhl

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2009-09-16

Posts: 140

Re: [SOLVED] Can't boot after pacman update - new kernel issue?

Thank you SO MUCH!!!  Problem solved! :-D

I downgraded linux-headers accordingly, and was able to boot with the corresponding linux kernel.

I switched to ntfs-3g in /etc/fstab, checked the mount options, updated to the latest kernel (and headers!)... and booted successfully!

Thanks again :-)