Arch Linux

tomas_vtipil

Member

Registered: 2023-04-04

Posts: 1

kernel panic on boot after freeze during upgrade

after

 sudo pacman -Syu 

my machine (amd64, arch with linux-rt-lts kernel) hung during the update process, forcing me to use hw reset switch.

since then, at every boot:

/dev/sda1: clean, 267521/2949120 files, 8083408/11796486 blocks
switch root: failed to execute /sbin/init: Exec format error
[ 3.095550] Kernel panic — not syncing:
[ 3.095552] Attempted to kill init! exitcode=0x00007e90
[ 3.099554] CPU: 1 PID: 1 Comm: switch_root Not tainted 5.15.96.61.realtime1-1-rt-lts

then, after some more lines consisting mostly of hex values, the system freezes.
(sorry for not posting the complete output, haven't found a way to transport the screen to other computer - the photo ->ocr method produces rather dadaistic results)

some forum posts i found recommend trying the fallback option in grub to access the system, but in my case it doesn't work, the result is exactly the same.

using the arch installer usb drive, i can live-boot and access my disks, so at least i haven't lost any important data. but, please, is there a less painful solution than a complete reinstall? after some time spent on the issue i suspect chroot to do the trick, but i've never done this and probably would need some help - it's my production machine so i'd rather not go the blind trial'n'error way .
can someone point me the right direction?
thanks!

chuckd333

Member

Registered: 2023-03-09

Posts: 28

Re: kernel panic on boot after freeze during upgrade

I'm going through this at the moment.

You need to boot into an Archiso live environment.

Then mount root fs and boot partition to /mnt and /mnt/boot, then follow https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Pacman … an_upgrade