Arch Linux

noahsark1126

Member

Registered: 2008-08-28

Posts: 119

[SOLVED] System hangs on boot, reinstalling Arch doesn't help

After a recent upgrade (including the kernel), my system hangs on boot.  I have an Asus K40IN laptop, about 2 years old.  I've been running Arch for the life of the computer and never had any (serious) problems.

I booted into a live Arch environment, tried rebuilding the mkinitcpio image, didn't work.  Tried downgrading the kernel, didn't work.

I then assumed it was just some software issue that I couldn't figure out, so I reinstalled Arch.  No change.

Here's what my screen looks like when it hangs:

Any ideas would be very much appreciated.  I'm completely stumped here.

Last edited by noahsark1126 (2011-06-15 23:32:34)

jnguyen

Member

Registered: 2011-02-17

Posts: 139

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Re: [SOLVED] System hangs on boot, reinstalling Arch doesn't help

Tried downgrading the kernel, didn't work.

Try downgrading all of the packages that were installed during that particular update. If downgrading the kernel didn't work, then it's probably another package (e.g. udev).

edit: just realised that you re-installed. Do you happen to remember which packages were upgraded?

Try installing using a suitably old installation CD (e.g. archboot 2011-02). If your system still doesn't boot, it may well be a hardware issue.

Last edited by jnguyen (2011-06-15 08:06:53)

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Leonid.I

Member

From: Aethyr

Registered: 2009-03-22

Posts: 999

Re: [SOLVED] System hangs on boot, reinstalling Arch doesn't help

It looks like a problem with your CPU driver... what is the kernel in you liveCD? When it boots is there anything in the logs, which points to a problem with CPU (also, how many cores do you see in a live env)?

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noahsark1126

Member

Registered: 2008-08-28

Posts: 119

Re: [SOLVED] System hangs on boot, reinstalling Arch doesn't help

jnguyen: 
I have another arch system, a desktop, that I tend to keep pretty much in sync with my laptop.  So I can look in the logs on that system to see what was upgraded.  The other notable packages in that upgrade were probably udev, initscripts, and mkinitcpio.  I will try downgrading those.

Leonid.I:
I'm using the 2010.05 arch release, which has kernel 2.6.33.  I see two cores in the live env, as I should, and there's nothing to suggest any problems in the logs.

I'm actually now getting a completely different hang screen:

Of course I don't know what this one means either...

noahsark1126

Member

Registered: 2008-08-28

Posts: 119

Re: [SOLVED] System hangs on boot, reinstalling Arch doesn't help

Indeed, downgrading these packages to the previous versions fixed the problem:

coreutils
initscripts
kernel26
kernel26-headers
mkinitcpio
udev

Any idea which one was the problem, and how to resolve this?

lilsirecho

Veteran

Registered: 2003-10-24

Posts: 5,000

Re: [SOLVED] System hangs on boot, reinstalling Arch doesn't help

Perhaps re-install the version from the upgrade one package at a time until you get the failure.

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noahsark1126

Member

Registered: 2008-08-28

Posts: 119

Re: [SOLVED] System hangs on boot, reinstalling Arch doesn't help

Reinstalled all packages to newest versions one at a time, rebooting between each upgrade.  Then rebuilt the mkinitcpio image one more time.

Everything is now fine -- system boots with no problem.  I'm so confused.

noahsark1126

Member

Registered: 2008-08-28

Posts: 119

Re: [SOLVED] System hangs on boot, reinstalling Arch doesn't help

Still seems like everything's working.  Guess I'll mark as solved...