Arch Linux

samdavid6

Member

Registered: 2008-09-18

Posts: 48

[SOLVED-ish] Zen kernel update cannot mount /boot due vfat

So I use the linux-zen kernel, and did an update a couple of weeks ago before I went on vacation.

When I got back and started the computer, I got a "Failed to mount /boot" error. 

systemctl stated that it was caused by an unknown filesystem "vfat".

Chrooted into the system and did an update, and still had the same problem.

Solved it by chrooting into the system, installing the regular linux kernel and removing the zen kernel.

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,423

Re: [SOLVED-ish] Zen kernel update cannot mount /boot due vfat

This usually happens due to a disjoint between installed and booted kernel, which usually happens when you don't have your /boot partition mounted correctly in the running system, so if this setup is currently incorrectly setup you might run into this again when updating the regular kernel as well.

What BOOT_IMAGE is shown in

cat /proc/cmdline

? if it starts with /boot then you don't have a dedicated /boot partition (and should unmount it if you have something on /boot), if not then you have a dedicated /boot partition that needs to be mounted

samdavid6

Member

Registered: 2008-09-18

Posts: 48

Re: [SOLVED-ish] Zen kernel update cannot mount /boot due vfat

This is what I get from

cat /proc/cmdline

cryptdevice=PARTUUID=c9171b1b-acbb-4e98-b4e5-ddd46a0abd52:root root=/dev/mapper/root zswap.enabled=0 rw rootfstype=ext4 usbcore.autosuspend=-1

My root partition and /boot are usually mounted through fstab, so I can't imagine a scenario where a kernel update did not get properly installed.  I do find that there are other people using the zen kernel that have had the same problem, although many instances seem to be from years ago, so I am not sure if this is a random occurrence or if this is something new in the kernel.