Can’t get past “loading initial ramdisk” but blurry text is showing…

sebnanchaster · 2024-06-05 19:12:44

Hi! I know there have been many similar posts in the past, but mine is slightly different. I was working on my MacBook Air (2017) which runs Arch with Hyprland on a plane, and accidentally hit the power button instead of backspace due to turbulence. I’ve done this before (I’ve been running Arch for ~5 months and must have accidentally hit the power key ~25 times without any problem, it just shows @@@@@@@@@@, shuts off, and restarts), but when I tried to restart this time I got stuck at “loading initial ramdisk”. No partial upgrade that I know of, no messing with partitions, just doesn’t boot now. I tried removing the “quiet” option from Grub, nothing shows up. However after a while, I get some blurry text in the background near the bottom (regardless of the quiet option): See Here. If I try to boot with the "Arch Linux, with Linux linux (fallback initramfs)" option, I get something like this: See Here.

I have extracted all of my important files safely using a live boot USB, and now I am wondering if it is possible to fix my install without clean installing arch. Does anyone know what might have happened? Sorry, I'm still kind of an Arch noob so I would appreciate a detailed explanation with steps. It is *possible* that I was in the middle of an upgrade when my computer shut down, but I don't recall it.

Thank you everyone!

seth · 2024-06-05 21:13:19

From the install iso, mount the system partition into /mnt and run

LC_ALL=C pacman --root /mnt -Qkk | grep -v ', 0 altered files'

You can also redirect the output into a file and upload it

LC_ALL=C pacman --root /mnt -Qkk | grep -v ', 0 altered files' > /tmp/howbadisit.txt
cat /tmp/howbadisit.txt | curl -F 'file=@-' 0x0.st

If too many packages are broken you might want to re-install all packages but you'll have to re-install the kernel for pretty much sure - nb. that you'll have to re-install ever package that might show up w/ a broken entry with "--dbonly" first before actuall re-installing it.
If you cannot arch-chroot into the system you'll have to use "--root /mnt --cachedir /mnt/var/cache/pacman/pkg" with pacman.
If you have a boot partition, don't forget to mount it into /mnt/boot

Does anyone know what might have happened?

File system corruption due to data not being synced to disc…

running Arch for ~5 months … must have accidentally hit the power key ~25 times

… though an accidental (short) push should™ have caused a proper shutdown?

sebnanchaster · 2024-06-06 00:09:52

Hi! Thanks so much. I mounted /dev/sda3 into /mnt/filesystem and did as you asked. Here's the output of the file:

backup file: filesystem: /mnt/filesystem/etc/fstab (Modification time mismatch)
backup file: filesystem: /mnt/filesystem/etc/fstab (Size mismatch)
backup file: filesystem: /mnt/filesystem/etc/fstab (SHA256 checksum mismatch)
backup file: filesystem: /mnt/filesystem/etc/group (Modification time mismatch)
backup file: filesystem: /mnt/filesystem/etc/group (Size mismatch)
backup file: filesystem: /mnt/filesystem/etc/group (SHA256 checksum mismatch)
backup file: filesystem: /mnt/filesystem/etc/gshadow (Modification time mismatch)
backup file: filesystem: /mnt/filesystem/etc/gshadow (Size mismatch)
backup file: filesystem: /mnt/filesystem/etc/gshadow (SHA256 checksum mismatch)
backup file: filesystem: /mnt/filesystem/etc/passwd (Modification time mismatch)
backup file: filesystem: /mnt/filesystem/etc/passwd (Size mismatch)
backup file: filesystem: /mnt/filesystem/etc/passwd (SHA256 checksum mismatch)
backup file: filesystem: /mnt/filesystem/etc/resolv.conf (Modification time mismatch)
backup file: filesystem: /mnt/filesystem/etc/resolv.conf (Size mismatch)
backup file: filesystem: /mnt/filesystem/etc/resolv.conf (SHA256 checksum mismatch)
backup file: filesystem: /mnt/filesystem/etc/shadow (Modification time mismatch)
backup file: filesystem: /mnt/filesystem/etc/shadow (Size mismatch)
backup file: filesystem: /mnt/filesystem/etc/shadow (SHA256 checksum mismatch)
backup file: filesystem: /mnt/filesystem/etc/shells (Modification time mismatch)
backup file: filesystem: /mnt/filesystem/etc/shells (Size mismatch)
backup file: filesystem: /mnt/filesystem/etc/shells (SHA256 checksum mismatch)
backup file: filesystem: /mnt/filesystem/etc/subgid (Modification time mismatch)
backup file: filesystem: /mnt/filesystem/etc/subgid (Size mismatch)
backup file: filesystem: /mnt/filesystem/etc/subgid (SHA256 checksum mismatch)
backup file: filesystem: /mnt/filesystem/etc/subuid (Modification time mismatch)
backup file: filesystem: /mnt/filesystem/etc/subuid (Size mismatch)
backup file: filesystem: /mnt/filesystem/etc/subuid (SHA256 checksum mismatch)
backup file: glibc: /mnt/filesystem/etc/locale.gen (Modification time mismatch)
backup file: glibc: /mnt/filesystem/etc/locale.gen (Size mismatch)
backup file: glibc: /mnt/filesystem/etc/locale.gen (SHA256 checksum mismatch)
backup file: libpulse: /mnt/filesystem/etc/pulse/client.conf (Modification time mismatch)
backup file: libpulse: /mnt/filesystem/etc/pulse/client.conf (Size mismatch)
backup file: libpulse: /mnt/filesystem/etc/pulse/client.conf (SHA256 checksum mismatch)
libutempter: 20 total files, 1 altered file
backup file: pacman-mirrorlist: /mnt/filesystem/etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist (Modification time mismatch)
backup file: pacman-mirrorlist: /mnt/filesystem/etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist (Size mismatch)
backup file: pacman-mirrorlist: /mnt/filesystem/etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist (SHA256 checksum mismatch)
backup file: sddm-sugar-candy-git: /mnt/filesystem/usr/share/sddm/themes/sugar-candy/theme.conf (Modification time mismatch)
backup file: sddm-sugar-candy-git: /mnt/filesystem/usr/share/sddm/themes/sugar-candy/theme.conf (Size mismatch)
backup file: sddm-sugar-candy-git: /mnt/filesystem/usr/share/sddm/themes/sugar-candy/theme.conf (SHA256 checksum mismatch)
shadow: 588 total files, 1 altered file
backup file: sudo: /mnt/filesystem/etc/sudoers (Modification time mismatch)
backup file: sudo: /mnt/filesystem/etc/sudoers (Size mismatch)
backup file: sudo: /mnt/filesystem/etc/sudoers (SHA256 checksum mismatch)
systemd: 1451 total files, 1 altered file
vlc: 1085 total files, 1 altered file
backup file: xf86-input-mtrack-git: /mnt/filesystem/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-mtrack.conf (Modification time mismatch)
backup file: xf86-input-mtrack-git: /mnt/filesystem/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-mtrack.conf (Size mismatch)
backup file: xf86-input-mtrack-git: /mnt/filesystem/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-mtrack.conf (SHA256 checksum mismatch)

How would you recommend I proceed from here? Some of this doesn't seem too problematic to me, but honestly I'm not sure. I would prefer if I didn't have to nuke my install, but it shouldn't be too bad to reinstall Arch if I have to.

seth · 2024-06-06 06:54:37

That's rather unsuspicious - try to just re-install the kernel (which implicitly regenerates the initramfs)

sebnanchaster · 2024-06-06 07:56:02

Should I mount my boot partition to /mnt/boot or /mnt/boot/efi? I found conflicting information online. And then do you recommend:

pacman -Syy
pacman -S linux

As well, should I just do this or do I need to follow this article to reinstall GRUB, etc.

Last edited by sebnanchaster (2024-06-06 08:13:17)

seth · 2024-06-06 15:26:52

If grub was broken you'd not get to "loading initial ramdisk"
You can mount the ESP wherever you want and it's not relevant when installing the kernel, but the boot partition (if you have one!) goes into /boot
Don't run "-Syy" and don't run "-Sy" without a "-u"
Just "pacman -S linux" from the chroot should™ do fine.

Arch Linux

#1 2024-06-05 19:12:44

Can’t get past “loading initial ramdisk” but blurry text is showing…

#2 2024-06-05 21:13:19

Re: Can’t get past “loading initial ramdisk” but blurry text is showing…

#3 2024-06-06 00:09:52

Re: Can’t get past “loading initial ramdisk” but blurry text is showing…

#4 2024-06-06 06:54:37

Re: Can’t get past “loading initial ramdisk” but blurry text is showing…

#5 2024-06-06 07:56:02

Re: Can’t get past “loading initial ramdisk” but blurry text is showing…

#6 2024-06-06 15:26:52

Re: Can’t get past “loading initial ramdisk” but blurry text is showing…

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