[solved] Failed to mount /boot

brokenPC · 2023-07-13 00:02:39

[FAILED] Failed to mount /boot.
[DEPEND] Dependency failed for Local File Systems.
You are in emergency mode. After logging in, type "journalctl -xb" to view system logs, "systemctl reboot" to reboot, "systemctl default" or "exit" to boot into default mode.

Cannot open access to console, the root account is locked.
See sulogin(8) man page for more details.

Press Enter to continue.

Reloading system manager configuration.
Starting default.target

Then every time I press enter, it repeats this.

I had an Arch installation working great for awhile. Then, today I was using Firefox, which was lagging terribly (usually restarting Firefox or the computer fixes that). Ignoring this (figuring to reboot the whole computer after an update), I ran `yay -Syu`. KDE Plasma crashed, somehow restarted without ever going to SDDM, and then I was back, with all my applications closed. I reopened the terminal and reran the command. I rebooted and got the "could not mount vmlinuz, load kernel" error. I tried to use BTRFS snapshots with Timeshift, but such things did not help because it was a kernel issue. After some failed attempts and running some commands I found in the Arch wiki and on this forum, I got chrooted into the install and got pacman working again and installed `linux` and `mkinitiso` (I think the second one is right). Commands such as `sudo` and `yay` are not installed when I'm chrooted, leading me to wonder if I somehow uninstalled everything. Regardless, I cannot fix this error no matter what I try. I am a beginner and the answers I found were confusing. Also running `head -n1 /var/log/pacman.log` while chrooted indicated that pacman was installed today, not whenever it was I installed Arch.

Last edited by brokenPC (2023-07-13 20:55:35)

feinedsquirrel · 2023-07-13 01:15:59

I'm going to assume you are on UEFI.
What method did you use during installation for your /boot directory? Did you mount your EFI system partition (ESP) to /boot, or perhaps /boot/EFI?

brokenPC wrote:

I got chrooted into the install and got pacman working again and installed `linux` and `mkinitiso`

There is no "mkinitiso" package in the main repos. Do you mean "mkinitcpio-archiso"? If so, you probably don't need that.

Before typing the command "chroot ..." mount your ESP to the location you chose during installation, relative to your mounted file system of your installed system, same as the installation guide lays out. (Your /etc/fstab should have the location if you don't remember).

Once your installed system and ESP are mounted, "chroot </system/mount/point>" and then run "mkinitcpio -P".

I would guess your system crashed halfway through the upgrade process, after deleting the kernel loader and kernel, but before generatin/installing the new ones. This process will re-install them. You may need to "pacman -Syu" prior to running "mkinitcpio -P".

You also may need to use "arch-chroot" instead of "chroot". I've not yet figured out the difference.

Edit:
Actually, have you checked that your fstab entry points to the correct partition/file system?

Last edited by feinedsquirrel (2023-07-13 02:16:07)

brokenPC · 2023-07-13 13:37:17

I am on UEFI. I used the archinstall script so I have no idea what method it used during installation. `cat /etc/fstab` when chrooted (because `ls` was blank for some reason) shows the following:

# Static information about the filesystems.
# See fstab(5) for details.

# <file system> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>

Just in case I did something wrong above, I booted a Linux Mint USB (because GUI) and confirmed that fstab is just those four lines.

I am using arch-chroot because chroot throws an error about some file not existing. "mkinitcpio -P" has errors because the kernel images at "/boot/vmliniz-linux" do not exist. Thus, it fails. "pacman -Syu" has nothing to do because the system is up to date.

seth · 2023-07-13 15:01:03

I used the archinstall script so I have no idea what method it used during installation.

You may want to reflect on the deeper meaning of that line for a moment.

Systemd can guess partitions by their label, no fstab required.
(Whether that's a good and robust approach is a different matter), WITHOUT! chrooting, run and post the output of

lsblk -f

I am using arch-chroot because chroot throws an error about some file not existing.

Please don't paraphrase, https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=57855
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Chroot#Using_chroot - but using arch-chroot is fine.

"pacman -Syu" has nothing to do because the system is up to date.

Is that so?

Make sure to mount the boot partition (you'll see it in the lsblk output) and then run

sudo LC_ALL=C pacman -Qkk | grep -v ', 0 altered files'

You can upload files and command outputs from the console following the tip in the 1st link below.

Trilby · 2023-07-13 17:37:57

I'm pretty sure most of the reported diagnostics are faulty. By far the most parsimonious explanation for things like sudo and yay not being installed along with the date of the pacman.log is that the chroot attempt failed and all diagnostics / attempts-to-fix were done within the live iso system. So upgrading the kernel and mkinitcpio was irrelevant - because it didn't really happen on the actual system. There's a fair chance that these steps *would* fix the problem, but they need to be done correctly in the chrooted system (with all filesystems properly mounted ... which requires that the user actually know what the filesystems are).

I'd say every archer should know how to chroot as they've done it at least once when they installed their system - but that's just not the case if they use the "easy installer". Someone remind me, whatever happened to that assurance and big warning labels on the installer that it was only to be used by experienced archers? I once argued that clueless new users would ignore that warning and use it anyways - but now even the warning is gone. Arch linux is the new Ubuntu and our forums are following suit.

Last edited by Trilby (2023-07-13 17:42:29)

brokenPC · 2023-07-13 17:50:05

Thanks for the tip on uploading output to the web!

Please don't paraphrase

Sorry, I didn't remember to record it and didn't know how to copy output except manually. The error is this: "chroot: failed to run command /usr/bin/zsh: No such file or directory" I tried to upload that output and it did not work. Surrounding the filepath are little square characters of some kind.

https://0x0.st/HjQr.txt is the output of lsblk -f (also listed below)

NAME        FSTYPE   FSVER            LABEL       UUID                                 FSAVAIL FSUSE% MOUNTPOINTS
loop0       squashfs 4.0                                                                     0   100% /run/archiso/airootfs
sda         iso9660  Joliet Extension ARCH_202303 2023-03-01-12-52-20-00                              
├─sda1      iso9660  Joliet Extension ARCH_202303 2023-03-01-12-52-20-00                              
└─sda2      vfat     FAT16            ARCHISO_EFI AE4D-BCEE                                           
nvme0n1                                                                                               
├─nvme0n1p1 vfat     FAT32                        BE4A-541A                                           
└─nvme0n1p2 btrfs                                 b03620e4-d030-4c9a-a46b-f7271f00afe3

The output of your command is this:

amd-ucode: 7 total files, 1 altered file
backup file: filesystem: /etc/group (Modification time mismatch)
backup file: filesystem: /etc/group (Size mismatch)
backup file: filesystem: /etc/group (MD5 checksum mismatch)
backup file: filesystem: /etc/group (SHA256 checksum mismatch)
backup file: filesystem: /etc/gshadow (Modification time mismatch)
backup file: filesystem: /etc/gshadow (Size mismatch)
backup file: filesystem: /etc/gshadow (MD5 checksum mismatch)
backup file: filesystem: /etc/gshadow (SHA256 checksum mismatch)
backup file: filesystem: /etc/passwd (Modification time mismatch)
backup file: filesystem: /etc/passwd (Size mismatch)
backup file: filesystem: /etc/passwd (MD5 checksum mismatch)
backup file: filesystem: /etc/passwd (SHA256 checksum mismatch)
backup file: filesystem: /etc/shadow (Modification time mismatch)
backup file: filesystem: /etc/shadow (Size mismatch)
backup file: filesystem: /etc/shadow (MD5 checksum mismatch)
backup file: filesystem: /etc/shadow (SHA256 checksum mismatch)
backup file: filesystem: /etc/shells (Modification time mismatch)
backup file: filesystem: /etc/shells (Size mismatch)
backup file: filesystem: /etc/shells (MD5 checksum mismatch)
backup file: filesystem: /etc/shells (SHA256 checksum mismatch)
filesystem: 120 total files, 3 altered files
intel-ucode: 7 total files, 1 altered file
libutempter: 20 total files, 1 altered file
memtest86+: 6 total files, 2 altered files
memtest86+-efi: 6 total files, 2 altered files
backup file: mkinitcpio: /etc/mkinitcpio.conf (Modification time mismatch)
backup file: mkinitcpio: /etc/mkinitcpio.conf (Size mismatch)
backup file: mkinitcpio: /etc/mkinitcpio.conf (MD5 checksum mismatch)
backup file: mkinitcpio: /etc/mkinitcpio.conf (SHA256 checksum mismatch)
backup file: open-iscsi: /etc/iscsi/initiatorname.iscsi (Modification time mismatch)
backup file: open-iscsi: /etc/iscsi/initiatorname.iscsi (Size mismatch)
backup file: open-iscsi: /etc/iscsi/initiatorname.iscsi (MD5 checksum mismatch)
backup file: open-iscsi: /etc/iscsi/initiatorname.iscsi (SHA256 checksum mismatch)
open-iscsi: 119 total files, 2 altered files
backup file: openssh: /etc/ssh/sshd_config (Modification time mismatch)
backup file: openssh: /etc/ssh/sshd_config (Size mismatch)
backup file: openssh: /etc/ssh/sshd_config (MD5 checksum mismatch)
backup file: openssh: /etc/ssh/sshd_config (SHA256 checksum mismatch)
backup file: pacman-mirrorlist: /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist (Modification time mismatch)
backup file: pacman-mirrorlist: /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist (Size mismatch)
backup file: pacman-mirrorlist: /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist (MD5 checksum mismatch)
backup file: pacman-mirrorlist: /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist (SHA256 checksum mismatch)
backup file: reflector: /etc/xdg/reflector/reflector.conf (Modification time mismatch)
backup file: reflector: /etc/xdg/reflector/reflector.conf (Size mismatch)
backup file: reflector: /etc/xdg/reflector/reflector.conf (MD5 checksum mismatch)
backup file: reflector: /etc/xdg/reflector/reflector.conf (SHA256 checksum mismatch)
syslinux: 238 total files, 2 altered files
systemd: 2109 total files, 1 altered file

It appears that the ix.io favicon is Rick Astley...

V1del · 2023-07-13 17:54:53

You are in the wrong context, as suspected by trilby. You need to mount your things properly and chroot properly into the actual disk rather than run these commands from the live system as is: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Chroot

Note that in particularly btrfs with subvolumes needs to be mounted correctly with the subvol=@ parameter otherwise you are never operating on the actual system https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Btrfs# … subvolumes -- so

mount /dev/nvme0n1p2 /mnt subvol=@
mount /dev/nvme0n1p1 /mnt/boot

and then chroot.

Last edited by V1del (2023-07-13 18:02:49)

brokenPC · 2023-07-13 18:29:35

WHEN CHROOTED:
http://0x0.st/HjQT.txt is the output of LC_ALL=C pacman -Qkk | grep -v ', 0 altered files'
https://0x0.st/HjQc.txt is the output of lsblk -f
Running "reboot" results in "Running in chroot, ignoring request." so I know I'm chrooted.
I ran "mkinitcpio -P" and it was 100% successful with no errors, yet did nothing to fix my problem.

Upon seeing the updated post by V1del, the BTRFS partition is probably not being properly mounted. However, running "mount /dev/nvme0n1p2 /mnt subvol=@" results in

mount: bad usage
Try 'mount --help' for more information

I can confirm that nvme0n1p2 is the partition my OS is on and nvme0n1p1 is the boot partition.

brokenPC · 2023-07-13 18:33:58

Here are the contents of nvme0n1p2:

bin
boot
dev
etc
home
lib
lib64
mnt
opt
proc
root
run
sbin
srv
sys
timeshift-btrfs
tmp
usr
var
@
@.snapshots
@home
@log
@pkg

I ran the following to get that output:

mount /dev/nvme0n1p2 /mnt
cd /mnt
ls

Last edited by brokenPC (2023-07-13 18:34:58)

Trilby · 2023-07-13 18:36:54

brokenPC wrote:

WHEN CHROOTED:
http://0x0.st/HjQT.txt is the output of LC_ALL=C pacman -Qkk | grep -v ', 0 altered files'...

Nope. You're still clearly not (properly) chrooted.

brokenPC · 2023-07-13 18:40:01

I think it's because I did not get the BTRFS mounted properly. How can I do that? Running the provided command resulted in error.

seth · 2023-07-13 18:41:00

Please post a system journal for a previous boot, https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/System … al_to_view

brokenPC · 2023-07-13 19:06:43

I tried that and have no idea what I'm doing anymore. I don't know if it saved the information or if so where. I have tried with the command line to no avail, so I booted a Linux mint USB and chrooted into Arch that way (because Linux mint mounted it properly even though I didn't). The chrooted Arch had no internet, despite Linux mint having internet. I believe it is time to wipe my OS and start over. I just need to back up the files first. Would using RSYNC backups instead of BTRFS snapshots prevent issues when restoring to a backup with a different kernel?

I switched to Arch because I liked the newer software, the BTRFS snapshots, and the idea of not having to update to the latest OS all the time like Debian distros and Fedora do.

brokenPC · 2023-07-13 19:13:12

At least I fixed the vmlinuz error and fixed the pacman error. This topic helped with the latter.

seth · 2023-07-13 19:16:41

The chrooted Arch had no internet, despite Linux mint having internet

You most likely had "internet" but no /etc/resolv.conf - it's one of the things arch-chroot does for you.

the vmlinuz error and fixed the pacman error

I don't see the latter one mentioned anywhere here and and the former is likely just a direct consequence of not having been able to re/install a kernel.

I believe it is time to wipe my OS and start over.

If your approach towards handlign problems is "just re-install I don't wanna use my brain to learn something" you're way better off w/ ubuntu.

brokenPC · 2023-07-13 19:29:10

The problem was as V1del said and it was not properly mounted. Running "mount -o subvol=@ /dev/nvme0n1p2 /mnt" mounted it correctly. I was able to get a proper chroot and run the commands originally suggested by feignedsquirrel. Now my computer works again and I have learned a lot. Thanks for all the help everyone!

On a side note, I have now had Ubuntu, Linux Mint, and Arch Linux crash while performing system updates, thus breaking the system. I have never had Windows crash during an update. Is that something I am doing wrong on Linux or just a fluke or what?

Last edited by brokenPC (2023-07-13 19:32:28)

feinedsquirrel · 2023-07-13 20:23:08

Glad you got it sorted. I had also suspected you weren't chrooted properly, hence my listing of "chroot </system/mount/point>" after mounting your boot and root partitions. Clearly I need to improve on expressing my thought process. Thanks to Seth, V1del, and Trilby for knowing what to request to finalize it.
Thanks, Seth, for the link to the chroot wiki page. I've only experimented with assumptions built off the few steps in the installation guide, and have always (eventually) been able to solve my issues, hence never needed to search for chroot-ing issues. That chroot wiki page fills in some holes.

brokenPC wrote:

I used the archinstall script so I have no idea what method it used during installation.

brokenPC wrote:

I have never had Windows crash during an update. Is that something I am doing wrong on Linux or just a fluke or what?

Any tool will break if you don't understand (a) how it works, and (b) its role in helping you accomplish your task. If you want to understand (Arch) Linux, start by using the installation guide as opposed to a guided installer. That will force you to read a large portion of the wiki as sub-components. When you understand how it works, you will be better equipped on how to fix it when it breaks, and you'll understand what component is likely broken from the symptoms your are seeing. We all still need guidance from time to time, but those conversations will mean much more when you understand the vocabulary and the roles of each sub-component.

Remember to edit your first post, mark the topic [Solved] in the subject line.

Trilby · 2023-07-13 20:25:57

In over 12 years of running arch, updating at least once a week (and for most of the dozen years running it on multiple machines) I don't recall every having a crash during an update. I screwed up once pretty well by neglecting to read the news before an update, but even that didn't take much to fix (just a chroot and fix the problem) (though that was back in the day when "manual intervention required" really meant it was absolutely required!).

Although every time I have tried to use windows, it also wouldn't *crash* during an update, but I'd crash it ... when I gave up after 4-5 hours of watching it cycle through "updating please wait" style screens during which I could do nothing with the system and rebooting itself only to pick up with another "updating please wait" screen.

Last edited by Trilby (2023-07-13 20:26:46)

seth · 2023-07-13 20:38:18

when I gave up after 4-5 hours of watching it cycle through "updating please wait"

I've a wallpaper punning on that

The OP wrote:

I was using Firefox, which was lagging terribly (usually restarting Firefox or the computer fixes that). Ignoring this (figuring to reboot the whole computer after an update), I ran `yay -Syu`. KDE Plasma crashed, somehow restarted without ever going to SDDM, and then I was back, with all my applications closed

You probably went OOM or so? Get more RAM or don't run fat software
You can prevent this kind of stuff by not running pacman udpates (or any longterm job, really) in a VTE but in a tmux session.
This way you'd have seen your browser and GUI session wet themselves, restart, re-attached to the tmux session and see your update still in progress.

brokenPC · 2023-07-13 20:55:16

start by using the installation guide as opposed to a guided installer. That will force you to read a large portion of the wiki as sub-components

It seems that would be the wisest course of action. I don't really fear the command line but this saved time.

when I gave up after 4-5 hours of watching it cycle through "updating please wait" style screens during which I could do nothing with the system and rebooting itself only to pick up with another "updating please wait" screen.

Yes I have had to wait long periods of time watching Windows 10 painfully update on older hardware.

You probably went OOM or so? Get more RAM or don't run fat software

I was using 8GB RAM, 16GB swap. I may have run out of RAM though. My laptop supports up to 16GB so I guess I'll have to upgrade. That won't fix Firefox (as I've had it crash running on 32GB RAM with at least 6GB to spare), but should stop the OS from crashing.

You can prevent this kind of stuff by not running pacman udpates (or any longterm job, really) in a VTE but in a tmux session.

A friend whom I first consulted on the issue (knowledgeable with Linux and the command line, specializes in Alpine, not Arch) suggested the same. I'll look into getting that installed.

Thanks again for the help everyone!

Trilby · 2023-07-13 21:41:36

brokenPC wrote:

... but this saved time

Enough to go get a cup of coffee?

Arch Linux

#1 2023-07-13 00:02:39

[solved] Failed to mount /boot

#2 2023-07-13 01:15:59

Re: [solved] Failed to mount /boot

#3 2023-07-13 13:37:17

Re: [solved] Failed to mount /boot

#4 2023-07-13 15:01:03

Re: [solved] Failed to mount /boot

#5 2023-07-13 17:37:57

Re: [solved] Failed to mount /boot

#6 2023-07-13 17:50:05

Re: [solved] Failed to mount /boot

#7 2023-07-13 17:54:53

Re: [solved] Failed to mount /boot

#8 2023-07-13 18:29:35

Re: [solved] Failed to mount /boot

#9 2023-07-13 18:33:58

Re: [solved] Failed to mount /boot

#10 2023-07-13 18:36:54

Re: [solved] Failed to mount /boot

#11 2023-07-13 18:40:01

Re: [solved] Failed to mount /boot

#12 2023-07-13 18:41:00

Re: [solved] Failed to mount /boot

#13 2023-07-13 19:06:43

Re: [solved] Failed to mount /boot

#14 2023-07-13 19:13:12

Re: [solved] Failed to mount /boot

#15 2023-07-13 19:16:41

Re: [solved] Failed to mount /boot

#16 2023-07-13 19:29:10

Re: [solved] Failed to mount /boot

#17 2023-07-13 20:23:08

Re: [solved] Failed to mount /boot

#18 2023-07-13 20:25:57

Re: [solved] Failed to mount /boot

#19 2023-07-13 20:38:18

Re: [solved] Failed to mount /boot

#20 2023-07-13 20:55:16

Re: [solved] Failed to mount /boot

#21 2023-07-13 21:41:36

Re: [solved] Failed to mount /boot

Board footer