Arch Linux

Bluemi

Member

Registered: 2023-10-05

Posts: 2

PC doesn't boot: can't log to /dev/tty5; can't run /etc/init.d/rcS

When I restarted my arch-linux laptop today, it did not start as expected, but only showed the following text in white letters on black screen:

: can't log to /dev/tty5
starting pid 111, tty '': '/etc/init.d/rcS'
: can't log to /dev/tty5
can't run '/etc/init.d/rcS': No such file or directory

Please press enter to activate this console. : can't log to /dev/tty5
can't open /dev/tty2: No such file or directory
: can't log to /dev/tty5
can't open /dev/tty3: No such file or directory
: can't log to /dev/tty5
can't open /dev/tty4: No such file or directory
: can't log to /dev/tty5
process '-/bin/sh' (pid 113) exited. Scheduling for restart.
: can't log to /dev/tty5
process '-/bin/sh' (pid 114) exited. Scheduling for restart.
: can't log to /dev/tty5
process '-/bin/sh' (pid 115) exited. Scheduling for restart.
: can't log to /dev/tty5
...

When I start the system by booting via USB-Stick (as described here), I can see that there is no file `/etc/init.d/rcS` (not even the directory `/etc/init.d`).
I found another thread that seems to have the same issue, but it doesn't seem to be the same problem, as I don't think I have a space problem.

df -h

shows:

Filesystem       Size    Used    Avail   Use%  Mounted on
/dev/nvme0n1p2   234G    163G    59G     74%    /
/dev/nvme0n1p1   256M    142M    115M    56%    /boot
...

I already tried to to run

# pacman -S linux
# pacman -Syu

when booted via USB-Stick, but the problem still persists, when booting without USB-Stick.

I also tried rebuilding my grub-config:

grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

of course, this also had no positive impact.

Also can't find anything suspicious in /var/log/pacman.log.

Any ideas or help would be much appreciated.

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,236

Re: PC doesn't boot: can't log to /dev/tty5; can't run /etc/init.d/rcS

This very much reads like the same issue in the linked thread. /tmp is in memory by default and might've caused an issue during generation. Where exactly are you running those pacman commands and did you properly mount all the partitions assuming you're trying that from a chroot? FWIW you could also be running into a variation of https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=289336 but that would get fixed granted you'd install the linux package again properly.

Last edited by V1del (2023-10-05 19:31:34)

Bluemi

Member

Registered: 2023-10-05

Posts: 2

Re: PC doesn't boot: can't log to /dev/tty5; can't run /etc/init.d/rcS

This very much reads like the same issue in the linked thread.

Oh ok. Will have a look again on it.

Where exactly are you running those pacman commands and did you properly mount all the partitions assuming you're trying that from a chroot?

To run pacman I do the following:

# mount /dev/nvme0n1p2 /mnt
# mount /dev/nvme0n1p1 /mnt/boot
# arch-chroot /mnt

Now I did

# pacman -Syu
# pacman -S linux

Thanks for your help, will have a look at the linked threads.