Arch Linux

K1bas4r0

Member

Registered: 2023-08-31

Posts: 7

Error: you need to load the kernel first (Secureboot is disable)

I have a laptop with dual boot, w11 and arch, about two weeks ago I got the error:

Error: you need to load the kernel first

The regular solutions only point to disable the secureboot in UEFI, I already did it and the error remains the same.

It usually happens to me when w11 with an update damages the dual boot, so I used a live usb with arch to reinstall grub
"grub install..." "grub-mkconfig..." but it didn't work, I reinstalled the "linux linux-firmware base" packages with arch-root and in another attempt with pacstrap.
Nothing worked this time.

I heard of a w11 update that also severely damaged the dual boot but I don't think that's it since it happened in August and at that time I wasn't affected.

I have w11 and arch on the same disk:
nvme0n1p1/p3 respectively, I know that a disk for each OS is recommended but I only have a laptop with a single disk.

Is there any way to fix this?

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 20,230

Re: Error: you need to load the kernel first (Secureboot is disable)

Does it boot the the GRUB menu prior to generating the error you reported?

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K1bas4r0

Member

Registered: 2023-08-31

Posts: 7

Re: Error: you need to load the kernel first (Secureboot is disable)

yes, first start grub normally

When starting arch from advanced options with fallbacks, I get the following kernel panic:

0.864244] sd 0:0:0:0 [sda] 4096-byte physical blocks
0.864244] sd 0:0:0:0 [sda] Write Protect is off
0.864244] sd 0:0:0:0 [sda] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
0.864244] sd 0:0:0:0 [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn’t support DPO or FUA
0.916833] usb 1-1: New USB device found, idVendor=05e3, idProduct=0610, bcdDevice=6.55
0.916833] usb 1-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
0.916833] usb 1-1: Product: USB2.0 Hub
0.916833] usb 1-1: Manufacturer: GenesysLogic
0.917283] hub 1-1:1.0: 4 ports detected
0.953999] sda: sda1 sda2 sda3 sda4 sda5
0.953999] sd 0:0:0:0 [sda] Attached SCSI disk
0.959998] VFS: Cannot open root device “UUID=84fffc5b-45bf-40ac-a92b-256551267d4c” or unknown-block(0,0): error -6
0.959998] Please append a correct “root=” boot option; here are the available partitions:
0.959998] 0100 4096 ram0 
0.959998] 0801 16387 sda1 b7b7a03b-315f-4e5b-bd9d-047d88a83
0.959998] 0802 5174616 sda2 55cf0c17-49b7-411d-85b6-1bf8232b
0.959998] 0803 524288 sda3 5e2c93a1-423c-469e-85cd-3a53a53c
0.959998] 0805 45730048 sda5 35cf0c0a-41cb-a48b-4d7c-a6f5d3bc7a

0.959998] List of all devices:
0.959998] fuseblk
0.959998] Kernel panic — not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0)
CPU: 6 PID: 1 Comm: swapper/0 Not tainted 6.1.41.1 #1
Hardware name: LENOVO B10E/LNVNB161216, BIOS ENCN54WW 04/20/2022
Call Trace:
<tasks>
dump_stack+0x6f/0x8d
panic+0x11a/0x2d8
mount_root_generic+0x1ec/0x2ac
prepare_namespace+0x19e/0x1f0
kernel_init_freeable+0x76/0x2a0
<task>

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 12,107

Re: Error: you need to load the kernel first (Secureboot is disable)

That likely means you didn't load the initramfs. Is it missing/damaged/not included in grub, etc?

K1bas4r0

Member

Registered: 2023-08-31

Posts: 7

Re: Error: you need to load the kernel first (Secureboot is disable)

the initramfs option does not appear in grub. Does this mean that I have installed something wrong or incomplete?

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 12,107

Re: Error: you need to load the kernel first (Secureboot is disable)

Are they even being generated? IE, are the files there at /boot?

K1bas4r0

Member

Registered: 2023-08-31

Posts: 7

Re: Error: you need to load the kernel first (Secureboot is disable)

I just installed Linux Zen and Linux LTS because I read that the error might not occur in LTS.

This is what grub looks like now:

Arch Linux, with Linux linux-zen
 Arch Linux, with Linux linux-zen (fallback initramfs)
 Arch Linux, with Linux linux-lts
 Arch Linux, with Linux linux-lts (fallback initramfs)
 Arch Linux, with Linux linux
 Arch Linux, with Linux linux (fallback initramfs)

When running the Linux and Linux Zen options, the same kernel panic occurs,
but when using linux lts it shows the following.

[    0.320775] Initramfs unpacking failed: invalid magic at start of compressed archive

K1bas4r0

Member

Registered: 2023-08-31

Posts: 7

Re: Error: you need to load the kernel first (Secureboot is disable)

Are they even being generated? IE, are the files there at /boot?

yes, this is all there is in my /boot

EFI
grub 
initramfs-linux-fallback.img 
initramfs-linux.img 
initramfs-linux-lts.img 
initramfs-linux-zen-fallback.img 
initramfs-linux-zen.img intel-ucode.img 
'System Volume Information' 
vmlinuz-linux 
vmlinuz-linux-lts 
vmlinuz-linux-zen

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 12,107

Re: Error: you need to load the kernel first (Secureboot is disable)

the fallback for -lts is missing. Did you run out of space?