Arch Linux

alexandergar0

Member

Registered: 2025-12-11

Posts: 3

[SOLVED] No initramfs files in /boot

Hello! I just installed Arch for the first time. I used Kubuntu for a while.
I'm having a problem with Wayland and my nvidia GPU. My KDE session often freezes for half a second. It's very annoying.
Previously, in Kubuntu, I found that setting NVreg_EnableGpuFirmware=0 was the solution to eliminate freezes and lags. I followed some instructions and put this in /etc/modprobe.d/nvidia.conf, then ran:

sudo mkinitcpio -P
==> Building image from preset: /etc/mkinitcpio.d/linux-lts.preset: 'default'
==> Using default configuration file: '/etc/mkinitcpio.conf'
  -> -k /boot/vmlinuz-linux-lts -g /boot/initramfs-linux-lts.img
==> ERROR: Invalid option -k -- '/boot/vmlinuz-linux-lts' must be readable
==> Building image from preset: /etc/mkinitcpio.d/linux.preset: 'default'
==> Using default configuration file: '/etc/mkinitcpio.conf'
  -> -k /boot/vmlinuz-linux -g /boot/initramfs-linux.img
==> ERROR: Invalid option -k -- '/boot/vmlinuz-linux' must be readable

It failed BUT.. I look in my /boot and found this:

/boot
└── EFI
    └── GRUB
        └── grubx64.efi

There are no initramfs files, kernel images, or grub configuration files, only the efi file. However, my system boots normally.
I am 100% sure that these files were here before. I signed them earlier using the sbctl utility to make SecureBoot work.
So now I can't edit the grub configuration and initramfs. On the other hand:

cat /proc/cmdline
BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-linux ..

So do vmlinuz-linux and other files exist in /boot ? Or not? How can this be understood, and what is the solution to this situation?

Last edited by alexandergar0 (2025-12-14 10:09:28)

skunktrader

Member

From: Brisbane, Australia

Registered: 2010-02-14

Posts: 1,674

Re: [SOLVED] No initramfs files in /boot

Make sure your boot partition is actually mounted, then run mkinitcpio again

seth

Member

From: Won't reply 2 private help req

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 75,082

Re: [SOLVED] No initramfs files in /boot

I suspect the OP has the ESP mounted into /boot but is actually booting from the root partition.

@alexandergar0

cat /proc/cmdline
lsblk -f

---

How to upload text · How to boot w/o GUI · Disable Windows Fast-Start! · Fix your xinitrc

Virus1x

Banned

Registered: 2025-12-03

Posts: 12

Re: [SOLVED] No initramfs files in /boot

It seems like sbctl might have messed up your /boot. Check if your kernel is in the ESP. If it's not, remount /boot the right way before running mkinitcpio.

alexandergar0

Member

Registered: 2025-12-11

Posts: 3

Re: [SOLVED] No initramfs files in /boot

It seems that I had two EFI partitions on my disk - one created earlier by Windows, and the other created by me using fdisk (I did this so as not to accidentally damage my Windows installation). When I booted into Windows, all the files were moved to the partition created by Windows. Deleting unnecessary partition and copying the files to a single EFI partition solved this problem.