Several Kernel Modules appear to not load after system update [SOLVED]

jrubz · 2025-07-20 18:12:14

I upgraded my motherboard about a week ago, and realized I needed to reinstall GRUB to make it boot with the new one. I did so with a live USB following the steps in the Arch Install wiki, and also saw I needed to pacstrap in the linux and linux-firmware packages for it to work.

I update with sudo pacman -Syu a week later, reboot, and now it seems like several kernel modules are not loading when I run lspci -k.

Journalctl doesn't seem to give me clear indication of what's failing.

If I run systemctl --failed
both efi.mount and firewalld.service load, but fail on ACTIVE and SUB.

I've tried to look at similar posts, but I keep hitting a wall on where to start since the errors I'm seeing are in several places. I'm essentially with a system that can boot and run, but wifi, sound, and a bunch of other services seemed to just kick the bucket.

During the motherboard upgrade as I mentioned earlier, I did run into an odd issue where I had to pacstrap in the linux and linux-firmware packages again. The GRUB config setup did not see Linux until I did that in the live ISO environment. I am also noticing my system is still running Linux Kernel 6.15.6-arch1-1 which seems to be out of date when compared to the latest package search. Might my system be still trying to run the old kernel? Am I possibly just needing to run GRUB install on my host system again? Or is the problem deeper?

I wanted to post my pacman log, but it's a bit tricky getting it over here since my system won't seem to mount USB storage devices either. It's also seeming difficult to even get a network connection, because even checking for iwd.service to start it with systemctl appears to report the service doesn't even exist.

Major edit update: I checked uname -a and pacman -Q linux and indeed, my Linux kernel versions are not matching. I'm new to a problem like this and I'll keep looking through things, but if someone has a particular spot on the wiki or more info on what I might have forgotten to do, it would be much appreciated.

Last edited by jrubz (2025-07-20 22:46:00)

Scimmia · 2025-07-20 18:41:56

jrubz wrote:

I am also noticing my system is still running Linux Kernel 6.15.6-arch1-1 which seems to be out of date when compared to the latest package search. Might my system be still trying to run the old kernel? Am I possibly just needing to run GRUB install on my host system again? Or is the problem deeper?.

This isn't uncommon, it happens when there's a disconnect between how your system is configured to mount /boot and what the bootloader is expected. Do you have a partition that's meant to be mounted at /boot? Is it in fstab? Was it mounted when you installed GRUB?

jrubz · 2025-07-20 18:58:04

Scimmia wrote:

jrubz wrote:
I am also noticing my system is still running Linux Kernel 6.15.6-arch1-1 which seems to be out of date when compared to the latest package search. Might my system be still trying to run the old kernel? Am I possibly just needing to run GRUB install on my host system again? Or is the problem deeper?.
This isn't uncommon, it happens when there's a disconnect between how your system is configured to mount /boot and what the bootloader is expected. Do you have a partition that's meant to be mounted at /boot? Is it in fstab? Was it mounted when you installed GRUB?

iirc during the GRUB reinstall with the ISO, I did have all three of my partitions mounted. Though, I am noticing that what is meant to be my boot partition is now suddenly just a generic FAT32 partition and isn't listed as boot when I run lsblk -f. The partition does exist. I have it as sdb1. I have a sdb2 as swap. And sdb3 is my main system.

I am noticing that boot when I check my file system is reportedly on sdb3 under a /boot folder. Might I have just put boot in the wrong place when I was configuring?

Scimmia · 2025-07-20 19:02:27

Most likely, yes, either it wasn't mounted when you installed GRUB, or it was mounted but isn't configured to be mounted in fstab. I'd bet you find a kernel image on the /boot partition as well as one in the /boot directory on the root partition. You can check them with 'file' to get the versions, that will tell you which one is actually getting loaded.

jrubz · 2025-07-20 20:28:13

Scimmia wrote:

Most likely, yes, either it wasn't mounted when you installed GRUB, or it was mounted but isn't configured to be mounted in fstab. I'd bet you find a kernel image on the /boot partition as well as one in the /boot directory on the root partition. You can check them with 'file' to get the versions, that will tell you which one is actually getting loaded.

In both the main system and in a Live ISO, somehow the lsblk -f entry has sdb1 as the FAT 32 entry and it isn't seen as a EFI partition anymore. I was just going to reinstall GRUB like normal following the arch install in a live ISO, but it seems like my core problem is that somehow my sdb1 partition got edited during my system upgrade. My confusion then is how to revert it to an EFI partition without a reformat.

I did notice when I was reinstalling grub last week, the Live ISO did not let me edit the fstab. I'm wondering if that's where this went wrong, as if I need to change users to the root already on that drive to be able to edit it.

I'm more or less stumped if I should be solving this while on the main system or in a chroot on a live ISO first.

jrubz · 2025-07-20 21:29:28

Checked a bit more, and yes, it seems this is centering on fstab. I check my fstab file: sdb3 and sdb2 are present in the file with a UUID. sdb1 which is meant to be the boot partition is missing. I'm confused how with this, it's successfully booting anyways, but a completely incorrect kernel is loading.

That makes me wonder, if the UUID of the boot partition is missing, would I need to create my own? Or am I essentially re-building my fstab entries?

seth · 2025-07-20 21:46:58

lsblk -f
cat /etc/fstab

jrubz · 2025-07-20 22:44:43

I prettymuch did answer my own question. My entire problem was indeed entirely skipping fstab during the GRUB reinstall thinking that all the entries would be good. I made a backup incase, but just went through regenerating the stab entries automatically. I did have to do this in a Live ISO because genfstab was missing on my half-working system.

re-went through the arch install and GRUB setup with /boot now properly pointing correctly after fixing the fstab file and doublechecking it. And now all is well and the kernel uname -a and pacman -Q linux checks match.

Summary: Don't skip parts of the Arch Install when you get an error with the assumption something is already done. Doublecheck if it actually exists.

Last edited by jrubz (2025-07-20 22:52:46)

Arch Linux

#1 2025-07-20 18:12:14

Several Kernel Modules appear to not load after system update [SOLVED]

#2 2025-07-20 18:41:56

Re: Several Kernel Modules appear to not load after system update [SOLVED]

#3 2025-07-20 18:58:04

Re: Several Kernel Modules appear to not load after system update [SOLVED]

#4 2025-07-20 19:02:27

Re: Several Kernel Modules appear to not load after system update [SOLVED]

#5 2025-07-20 20:28:13

Re: Several Kernel Modules appear to not load after system update [SOLVED]

#6 2025-07-20 21:29:28

Re: Several Kernel Modules appear to not load after system update [SOLVED]

#7 2025-07-20 21:46:58

Re: Several Kernel Modules appear to not load after system update [SOLVED]

#8 2025-07-20 22:44:43

Re: Several Kernel Modules appear to not load after system update [SOLVED]

Board footer