Hello I just hosed my arch install

suityou01 · 2025-03-16 15:58:04

I was trying to free up space on /dev/volgroup0/lv_root and managed to brick my system.

When I boot I get the following error

ERROR: Root device mounted successfully, but /sbin/init does not exist.
Bailing out, you are on your own. Good luck.

sh: can't access tty: job control turned off

The last thing I was doing was deleting things from /var/pacman/cache/pkg before my world fell apart.

I have managed to create a bootable usb from the latest arch 64 bit and can even mount my encrypted volume and get access to /dev/volgroup0/lv_root and /dev/volgroup0/lv_home

How can I go about fixing this mess?

seth · 2025-03-16 19:53:36

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

You might have to re-install all packages and possibly in two passes (--dbonly to sanitize the database and then w/o that switch to fix the packages) using the --root and --cachedir options.
We shall see…

suityou01 · 2025-03-16 20:40:52

curl: (6) Could not resolve host: 0x0.st

seth · 2025-03-16 20:41:57

You'll have to establish and internet connection from the iso…

suityou01 · 2025-03-16 20:52:22

http://0x0.st/8Qwh.txt

What does this mean?

suityou01 · 2025-03-16 20:58:01

seth wrote:

sudo LC_ALL=C pacman --root /mnt -Qkk | grep -v ', 0 altered files' | grep -v backup > /tmp/howbadisit.txt
cat /tmp/howbadisit.txt | curl -F 'file=@-' 0x0.st
You might have to re-install all packages and possibly in two passes (--dbonly to sanitize the database and then w/o that switch to fix the packages) using the --root and --cachedir options.
We shall see…

As it's newbie corner could you give more information?

seth · 2025-03-17 07:12:19

http://0x0.st/8Qwh.txt is a bunch of youtube links?
Likely means you posted the wrong link…

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Pacman … an_upgrade
--dbonly is required to fix broken mtrees, before we start any of that we need to check the status quo.
Post the proper link

suityou01 · 2025-03-17 08:16:42

I posted the output I got from running the commands you gave me. If the output is garbage, maybe something to do with the input?

As I have no clue what these commands are doing, or what "good" output would look like as you won't elaborate I can only post the output and rely on you to interpret it and advise me what to do next.

seth · 2025-03-17 08:20:36

Chances are you misread the url, the command most certainly does not generate a list of youtube videos.
Good luck with the rest of your life.

suityou01 · 2025-03-17 08:44:55

Anyone not living in their mum's basement want to chime in?

Whoracle · 2025-03-17 09:32:37

Not unless you provide information as suggested and tone down the entitlement.

suityou01 · 2025-03-17 09:44:12

I have followed the instructions to the letter. I have pasted the output exactly as it appears on screen. I have treble checked everything. I have come back here asking for help.

As a Newbie and this being Newbie corner does this not indicate some level of entitlement to help? This is the whole point of the forum, is it not? Or do you deign whom to help and whom to not help? Is this not entitlement also?

Whoracle · 2025-03-17 10:09:23

suityou01 wrote:

I have followed the instructions to the letter. I have pasted the output exactly as it appears on screen. I have treble checked everything. I have come back here asking for help.

Seth gave you a total of 5 commands and one redirect, in 2 batches. The result you posted was a list of YouTube videos.

The first command is pacman, which does not and will never output a list of YouTube videos.
The second and third commands filter the word "backup" and the words "0 altered files" from the result of the first command. The final result gets written to a file.
The fourth command prints the contents of the previously generated file.
The fifth command uploads that file to 0x0.st and gives you a link.

At which point does a list of YouTube videos happen? Adamantly refusing to debug even those commands helps exactly no one. And without further information we simply can't help you.
Run the first batch and then the cat /tmp/howbadisit.txt by itself. If there are no YT links in there, you pasted the wrong link. Or 0x0.st is buggy and gives you random content from other users. Either way we don't know, we're not at your computer.

suityou01 wrote:

As a Newbie and this being Newbie corner does this not indicate some level of entitlement to help

You have somehow installed Arch by yourself previously. That indicates you are at least passingly familiar with standard CLI tools like grep and cat. You might be an Arch newbie (or not, IDK you), but you managed to install arch at least. So use the brain you have and at least try to understand what the commands seth gave you do, and see where it went wrong.

suityou01 wrote:

Or do you deign whom to help and whom to not help?

I 100% deign whom I help and whom not, since this is my spare time. And going "I just copied the correct thing, not my fault it's incorrect" and then insulting the people trying to help you when they get fed up is entitlement.

suityou01 · 2025-03-17 10:14:26

I don't see 5 commands, only 2. Maybe this is the problem? What am I missing?

Whoracle · 2025-03-17 10:19:20

the "|" character, which "pipes" the output of one command to another. Seths first line is a chain of 3 commands - pacman into grep into another grep, and then the output into a file. The second line is two commands: cat into curl.

Run seths first line and the first command of their second line (cat /tmp/howbadisit.txt), and see if the output is a list of YT videos. If not, run seths second line and post the NEW link that will spit out. Check beforehand if the content behind that link is the same as the output of cat /tmp/howbadisit.txt.

If it isn't, then 0x0.st is buggy, which is highly unlikely, since it gets used by a LOT of people all the time.

Last edited by Whoracle (2025-03-17 10:21:32)

suityou01 · 2025-03-17 11:11:14

Thanks for getting back to me. I agree, I am missing the correct terminology. There are indeed 5 commands, split across 2 lines. Each line is to be executed in order and the output pasted here.

To this end, this is what I have done. I agree you are not at my machine and cannot decipher what kind of stupid I have.

The fact that I have a brain is not lost on me, and I indeed did set up arch (quite some time ago) and only recently got myself into this mess by manually deleting things from the pacman cache. This appears to be a dumb thing to do, so while I may have some sort of functioning brain I am also quite capable of doing dumb stuff. Caveat emptor.

The first line was executed and 3 commands created a file in /tmp/howbadisit.txt

The first line of this file reads

filesystem: 124 total files, 4 altered files

There are 11 lines in the file

The penultimate line reads

systemd: 1568 total files, 1 altered file

This is most probably why I end up in initramfs with an error I suspect (from my reading at least)

Can we assert that the first line has been executed successfully, the output is correct and zoom in on the second line?

suityou01 · 2025-03-17 11:16:11

Aha 0x0 is a file sharing service. I had no idea.

Also the url is case sensitive it seems

https://0x0.st/8QwH.txt

Whoracle · 2025-03-17 11:40:01

OK, this looks more correct. That output tells us that 11 packages have altered files, as compared to their "supposed" state after installation.

Comparing to my (currently running) system, there's only three differences:
I only have 1 altered file for the package "filesystem", and I don't have the packages swtpm and intel-ucode installed.

Since you don't have any warnings in the output, I'd say the packages look roughly correct. Might be wrong though.

So, let's see what else can be wrong. Please post the configuration of the boot entry you're trying to boot. Where that config resides depends on your bootloader. Also, post the output of lsblk, blkid, pvs, vgs and lvs. You can post the outputs to 0x0.st by appending

 | curl -F 'file=@-' 0x0.st

to each call and post the links. You can just do that from the iso, with the exception of the bootloader config, obviously. That one is somewhere under /mnt/boot after you mount your boot partition/EFI.

Here's the full batch of commands:

lsblk > /tmp/partioning.txt
blkid >> /tmp/partioning.txt
pvs >> /tmp/partioning.txt
vgs >> /tmp/partioning.txt
lvs >> /tmp/partioning.txt
cat /tmp/partitioning.txt | curl -F 'file=@-' 0x0.st

That will give you one link with all the outputs (and maybe the odd wonky linebreak, but we can deal).

And for the bootloader: replace /path/to/boot/config with the correct config, look at the file beforehand to see if there's anything sensitive in there (shouldn't be, but who knows).

cat /path/to/boot/config | curl -F 'file=@-' 0x0.st

suityou01 · 2025-03-17 12:40:14

Thanks for these detailed instructions. I have tackled the partitioning.txt piece first

http://0x0.st/8Q6x.txt

Last edited by suityou01 (2025-03-17 12:42:04)

suityou01 · 2025-03-17 12:44:52

I don't know where my boot configuration is. Where do I look?

Whoracle · 2025-03-17 12:59:12

That depends on the bootloader you installed. Usually somewhere in your /boot or EFI partition. For systemd-boot (which I use) it's in /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf.

If you're using grub, it could be in /mnt/boot/grub/grub.cfg:

cat /mnt/boot/grub/grub.cfg | grep -v "^$" | grep -v "^#" | curl -F 'file=@-' 0x0.st

The above will print the contents of the file and remove commented and empty lines before uploading.

Also, I forgot earlier:

cat /mnt/etc/fstab  # check if there's any passwords in there before uploading!
cat /mnt/etc/fstab | curl -F 'file=@-' 0x0.st

From the iso, after mounting your cryptroot under /mnt

Edit: added sanity check to code block. TAKE NOTE

Last edited by Whoracle (2025-03-17 13:12:41)

seth · 2025-03-17 13:26:36

├─volgroup0-lv_root 254:1    0  98.4G  0 lvm   /mnt

stat /mnt/sbin /mnt/sbin/init  | curl -F 'file=@-' 0x0.st

I was trying to free up space on /dev/volgroup0/lv_root and managed to brick my system.

How exactly? Just deleting packages/files or did you also alter the partition table?

You're supposed to know what your bootloader is and how it's configured, but here's an oversight: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Arch_b … oot_loader

Since a completely broken root partition configuration would rather not result in a successful mount, I wonder whether you're still in the initramfs.
Post a photo of the error you face, eg. to imgur.com
Ideally remove "quiet" from the kernel parameters.

suityou01 · 2025-03-17 13:30:14

Fstab (redacted)

http://0x0.st/8QIB.txt

seth · 2025-03-17 13:34:07

fstb looks fine, let's see whether that's actually your boot partition… (output of #22 still required)

ls -R /mnt/boot | curl -F 'file=@-' 0x0.st
mount /dev/nvme0n1p2 /mnt/boot
ls -R /mnt/boot | curl -F 'file=@-' 0x0.st

suityou01 · 2025-03-17 13:35:45

http://0x0.st/8QIu.txt grub.cfg

Last edited by suityou01 (2025-03-17 13:36:07)

Arch Linux

#1 2025-03-16 15:58:04

Hello I just hosed my arch install

#2 2025-03-16 19:53:36

Re: Hello I just hosed my arch install

#3 2025-03-16 20:40:52

Re: Hello I just hosed my arch install

#4 2025-03-16 20:41:57

Re: Hello I just hosed my arch install

#5 2025-03-16 20:52:22

Re: Hello I just hosed my arch install

#6 2025-03-16 20:58:01

Re: Hello I just hosed my arch install

#7 2025-03-17 07:12:19

Re: Hello I just hosed my arch install

#8 2025-03-17 08:16:42

Re: Hello I just hosed my arch install

#9 2025-03-17 08:20:36

Re: Hello I just hosed my arch install

#10 2025-03-17 08:44:55

Re: Hello I just hosed my arch install

#11 2025-03-17 09:32:37

Re: Hello I just hosed my arch install

#12 2025-03-17 09:44:12

Re: Hello I just hosed my arch install

#13 2025-03-17 10:09:23

Re: Hello I just hosed my arch install

#14 2025-03-17 10:14:26

Re: Hello I just hosed my arch install

#15 2025-03-17 10:19:20

Re: Hello I just hosed my arch install

#16 2025-03-17 11:11:14

Re: Hello I just hosed my arch install

#17 2025-03-17 11:16:11

Re: Hello I just hosed my arch install

#18 2025-03-17 11:40:01

Re: Hello I just hosed my arch install

#19 2025-03-17 12:40:14

Re: Hello I just hosed my arch install

#20 2025-03-17 12:44:52

Re: Hello I just hosed my arch install

#21 2025-03-17 12:59:12

Re: Hello I just hosed my arch install

#22 2025-03-17 13:26:36

Re: Hello I just hosed my arch install

#23 2025-03-17 13:30:14

Re: Hello I just hosed my arch install

#24 2025-03-17 13:34:07

Re: Hello I just hosed my arch install

#25 2025-03-17 13:35:45

Re: Hello I just hosed my arch install

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