Arch Linux

JacobR04

Member

Registered: 2025-10-25

Posts: 2

[SOLVED] Issues trying to resolve kernel panic using timeshift

After entering hibernation while doing a system update (specifically when the Linux kernel was updating), my system is now having a kernel panic each boot.

The best action I could think of taking, was restoring the most recent timeshift backup. After looking online, it seemed like i needed to do this while not chrooted, so from the live environment itself.

However i could not install timeshift since the partition size is not big enough (1.2GB by default it seems like). So i wanted to add a third partition, but however i did it (from the live usb itself, from another device, using fdisk, using parted), it always corrupted the live usb.

So my question here is how i could manage to simply run the timeshift --restore command to restore the backup.

Here is the panic report if anyone is brave enough to go the other route of trying to fix it without using timeshift.

Last edited by JacobR04 (2025-10-27 19:41:39)

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 20,615

Re: [SOLVED] Issues trying to resolve kernel panic using timeshift

Are you determined to do it this way?   

You might consider booting from the install media, setting up a chroot and entering it, then fix the system.  It probably just needs a pacman -Syu or a reinstall of the kernel.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Chroot

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JacobR04

Member

Registered: 2025-10-25

Posts: 2

Re: [SOLVED] Issues trying to resolve kernel panic using timeshift

I did try running pacman -Syu, reinstalling the kernel and regenerating the initramfs, but to no avail.

However i did eventually find a way to get timeshift on the live usb. I did this by creating and building a custom arch iso file using the archiso package. By adding the timeshift package to the list in packages.x86_64, after building and flashing, the live usb came with this additional package.

Also please remember to clear out your swap partition, if you have one. I did not remember this and my filesystem got partially corrupted. Luckily for me, fsck could fix this for me. 

Looking back this definitely is not the best way to fix a kernel panic, but at least I got to learn about creating custom arch iso files.

zpg443

Member

Registered: 2016-12-03

Posts: 315

Re: [SOLVED] Issues trying to resolve kernel panic using timeshift

I had to stop using Timeshift because restoring a system via chroot no longer works reliably.

From what I have read, restoration failures commonly involve mounting errors, broken bootloader reinstalls, and mismatches in kernel and initramfs after system restores.  I am evaluating Borg as a replacement.
It's a shame. Timeshift was so easy to work with...until it wasn't.