SOLUTION BELOW
I have never been in a more confusing situation regarding Linux.
I have a Dell XPS 15 9560, which had a dual boot Windows 10 / EndeavourOS setup. It was running fine for months. 10 days ago I updated Linux and after restart it couldn’t boot anymore. It got stuck at “A start job is running for /dev/disk/by-uuid/…” (which is the root partition).
First, with the help of a friend of mine who is quite knowledgeable about Linux (he runs vanilla Arch, etc), we spent 5 hours trying to fix it but had no luck.
Then I decided to back up everything and do a fresh install. Aaaand the same error happened again on the first boot. Then I though “ok, probably some problem with Arch, lets try Fedora”. Nope. Some similar error about not finding the root partition. (Here I must say that the kernel which was shipped with the ISO was working fine, but after updating to the latest one, it failed.) Here I thought “ok, then it might be a problem with the latest kernel, let’s install EndeavourOS with the LTS kernel.” Nope, LTS kernel also didn’t boot. Then I tried Ubuntu and it worked, but that’s not solving the problem. Then I decided to put another nvme drive in the laptop and try there. The same error again.
Now the greatest part: If I put the nvme drive into an external usb case, EndeavourOS installs, updates, boots without any problem, no sign of the error.
So now I don’t know how to proceed… Maybe there is something wrong with the pcie port in my laptop, but except for the booting problem, windows is working, I can also mount and access every partition in the ssd through a live usb. So no other signs of problem with the port whatsoever.
I would be grateful for any advice as I’ve lost several days trying to solve this and I am out of ideas…
Solution: The last working kernels are from 11. August 2023 (both linux and linux-lts) linux-6.4.10.arch1-1 and linux-lts-6.1.45-1. You can download them from here: linux / linux-lts and install them with
sudo pacman -U the_path_to_the_package
Thank you all for the help!
So this occurs after an update. Is it not possible to boot into the prior kernel?
If possible to boot into the prior kernel, can you inspect logs or the journal to see where your error is cropping up?
This issue sounds like a regression of sorts with a driver, but log/debug would help confirm. This would be one worth reporting to upstream if you can rescue some logs (I gather you can if you can boot the disk from another enclosure).
I have already wiped everything, so no logs… The only way to have it booting is to install EndeavourOS using the offline installer, which is using kernel 6.4.8. There is an option to install the LTS kernel alongside. So the system is booting with 6.4.8, but after updating, neither the new 6.4.12, or the LTS, which is 6.2, doesn’t boot. I haven’t try booting with the LTS kernel before updating, to see if the same kernel is working before and after or not. I will try to reinstall it using the offline installer and then try to gather some logs after updating.
If you do go this route - try to update the kernel only, not the rest of the system. Yes, it’s bad under normal circumstances, but I think we’re way past those.
sudo pacman -Syy linuxThis would rule out some other part of system getting in the way - like systemd.
I updated only the kernel and I got the following:
:: kernel-install installing kernel 6.4.12-arch1-1 dracut: Executing: /usr/bin/dracut --no-hostonly --force /efi/69f1b920c192454c97831ba6e72bf777/6.4.12-arch1-1/initrd-fallback 6.4.12-arch1-1 dracut: dracut module 'dash' will not be installed, because command 'dash' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'mksh' will not be installed, because command 'mksh' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'busybox' will not be installed, because command 'busybox' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'dbus-broker' will not be installed, because command 'dbus-broker' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'rngd' will not be installed, because command 'rngd' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'connman' will not be installed, because command 'connmand' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'connman' will not be installed, because command 'connmanctl' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'connman' will not be installed, because command 'connmand-wait-online' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'network-wicked' will not be installed, because command 'wicked' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'dmraid' will not be installed, because command 'kpartx' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'multipath' will not be installed, because command 'multipath' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'tpm2-tss' will not be installed, because command 'tpm2' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'fcoe' will not be installed, because command 'dcbtool' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'fcoe' will not be installed, because command 'fipvlan' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'fcoe' will not be installed, because command 'lldpad' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'fcoe' will not be installed, because command 'fcoemon' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'fcoe' will not be installed, because command 'fcoeadm' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'fcoe-uefi' will not be installed, because command 'dcbtool' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'fcoe-uefi' will not be installed, because command 'fipvlan' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'fcoe-uefi' will not be installed, because command 'lldpad' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'iscsi' will not be installed, because command 'iscsi-iname' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'iscsi' will not be installed, because command 'iscsiadm' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'iscsi' will not be installed, because command 'iscsid' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'nbd' depends on 'network', which can't be installed dracut: dracut module 'nvmf' will not be installed, because command 'nvme' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'biosdevname' will not be installed, because command 'biosdevname' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'memstrack' will not be installed, because command 'memstrack' could not be found! dracut: memstrack is not available dracut: If you need to use rd.memdebug>=4, please install memstrack and procps-ng dracut: dracut module 'squash' will not be installed, because command 'mksquashfs' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'squash' will not be installed, because command 'unsquashfs' could not be found! dracut: *** Including module: systemd *** dracut: *** Including module: systemd-initrd *** dracut: *** Including module: modsign *** dracut: *** Including module: i18n *** dracut: *** Including module: btrfs *** dracut: *** Including module: crypt *** dracut: *** Including module: dm *** dracut: Skipping udev rule: 64-device-mapper.rules dracut: Skipping udev rule: 60-persistent-storage-dm.rules dracut: Skipping udev rule: 55-dm.rules dracut: *** Including module: kernel-modules *** dracut: *** Including module: kernel-modules-extra *** dracut: *** Including module: lvm *** dracut: Skipping udev rule: 64-device-mapper.rules dracut: Skipping udev rule: 56-lvm.rules dracut: Skipping udev rule: 60-persistent-storage-lvm.rules dracut: *** Including module: mdraid *** dracut: Skipping udev rule: 64-md-raid.rules dracut: *** Including module: nvdimm *** dracut: *** Including module: qemu *** dracut: *** Including module: qemu-net *** dracut: *** Including module: lunmask *** dracut: *** Including module: resume *** dracut: *** Including module: rootfs-block *** dracut: *** Including module: terminfo *** dracut: *** Including module: udev-rules *** dracut: Skipping udev rule: 40-redhat.rules dracut: Skipping udev rule: 50-firmware.rules dracut: Skipping udev rule: 50-udev.rules dracut: Skipping udev rule: 91-permissions.rules dracut: Skipping udev rule: 80-drivers-modprobe.rules dracut: *** Including module: virtiofs *** dracut: *** Including module: dracut-systemd *** dracut: *** Including module: usrmount *** dracut: *** Including module: base *** dracut: *** Including module: fs-lib *** dracut: *** Including module: shutdown *** dracut: *** Including modules done *** dracut: *** Installing kernel module dependencies *** dracut: *** Installing kernel module dependencies done *** dracut: *** Resolving executable dependencies *** dracut: *** Resolving executable dependencies done *** dracut: *** Hardlinking files *** dracut: Mode: real dracut: Method: memcmp dracut: Files: 1987 dracut: Linked: 8 files dracut: Compared: 0 xattrs dracut: Compared: 449 files dracut: Saved: 1.42 MiB dracut: Duration: 0.022128 seconds dracut: *** Hardlinking files done *** dracut: *** Generating early-microcode cpio image *** dracut: *** Constructing AuthenticAMD.bin *** dracut: *** Store current command line parameters *** dracut: *** Stripping files *** dracut: *** Stripping files done *** dracut: *** Creating image file '/efi/69f1b920c192454c97831ba6e72bf777/6.4.12-arch1-1/initrd-fallback' *** dracut: *** Creating initramfs image file '/efi/69f1b920c192454c97831ba6e72bf777/6.4.12-arch1-1/initrd-fallback' done *** dracut: Executing: /usr/bin/dracut --hostonly --no-hostonly-cmdline -f /efi/69f1b920c192454c97831ba6e72bf777/6.4.12-arch1-1/initrd 6.4.12-arch1-1(Continues in the second comment)
dracut: dracut module 'dash' will not be installed, because command 'dash' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'mksh' will not be installed, because command 'mksh' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'busybox' will not be installed, because command 'busybox' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'dbus-broker' will not be installed, because command 'dbus-broker' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'rngd' will not be installed, because command 'rngd' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'connman' will not be installed, because command 'connmand' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'connman' will not be installed, because command 'connmanctl' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'connman' will not be installed, because command 'connmand-wait-online' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'network-wicked' will not be installed, because command 'wicked' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'dmraid' will not be installed, because command 'kpartx' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'tpm2-tss' will not be installed, because command 'tpm2' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'iscsi' will not be installed, because command 'iscsi-iname' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'iscsi' will not be installed, because command 'iscsiadm' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'iscsi' will not be installed, because command 'iscsid' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'nvmf' will not be installed, because command 'nvme' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'biosdevname' will not be installed, because command 'biosdevname' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'memstrack' will not be installed, because command 'memstrack' could not be found! dracut: memstrack is not available dracut: If you need to use rd.memdebug>=4, please install memstrack and procps-ng dracut: dracut module 'squash' will not be installed, because command 'mksquashfs' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'squash' will not be installed, because command 'unsquashfs' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'dash' will not be installed, because command 'dash' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'mksh' will not be installed, because command 'mksh' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'busybox' will not be installed, because command 'busybox' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'dbus-broker' will not be installed, because command 'dbus-broker' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'rngd' will not be installed, because command 'rngd' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'connman' will not be installed, because command 'connmand' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'connman' will not be installed, because command 'connmanctl' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'connman' will not be installed, because command 'connmand-wait-online' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'network-wicked' will not be installed, because command 'wicked' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'dmraid' will not be installed, because command 'kpartx' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'tpm2-tss' will not be installed, because command 'tpm2' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'iscsi' will not be installed, because command 'iscsi-iname' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'iscsi' will not be installed, because command 'iscsiadm' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'iscsi' will not be installed, because command 'iscsid' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'nvmf' will not be installed, because command 'nvme' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'memstrack' will not be installed, because command 'memstrack' could not be found! dracut: memstrack is not available dracut: If you need to use rd.memdebug>=4, please install memstrack and procps-ng dracut: dracut module 'squash' will not be installed, because command 'mksquashfs' could not be found! dracut: dracut module 'squash' will not be installed, because command 'unsquashfs' could not be found! dracut: *** Including module: systemd *** dracut: *** Including module: systemd-initrd *** dracut: *** Including module: i18n *** dracut: *** Including module: kernel-modules *** dracut: *** Including module: kernel-modules-extra *** dracut: *** Including module: rootfs-block *** dracut: *** Including module: terminfo *** dracut: *** Including module: udev-rules *** dracut: Skipping udev rule: 40-redhat.rules dracut: Skipping udev rule: 50-firmware.rules dracut: Skipping udev rule: 50-udev.rules dracut: Skipping udev rule: 91-permissions.rules dracut: Skipping udev rule: 80-drivers-modprobe.rules dracut: Skipping udev rule: 70-persistent-net.rules dracut: *** Including module: dracut-systemd *** dracut: *** Including module: usrmount *** dracut: *** Including module: base *** dracut: *** Including module: fs-lib *** dracut: *** Including module: shutdown *** dracut: *** Including modules done *** dracut: *** Installing kernel module dependencies *** dracut: *** Installing kernel module dependencies done *** dracut: *** Resolving executable dependencies *** dracut: *** Resolving executable dependencies done *** dracut: *** Hardlinking files *** dracut: Mode: real dracut: Method: memcmp dracut: Files: 780 dracut: Linked: 2 files dracut: Compared: 0 xattrs dracut: Compared: 38 files dracut: Saved: 356.65 KiB dracut: Duration: 0.010006 seconds dracut: *** Hardlinking files done *** dracut: *** Generating early-microcode cpio image *** dracut: *** Store current command line parameters *** dracut: *** Stripping files *** dracut: *** Stripping files done *** dracut: *** Creating image file '/efi/69f1b920c192454c97831ba6e72bf777/6.4.12-arch1-1/initrd' *** dracut: *** Creating initramfs image file '/efi/69f1b920c192454c97831ba6e72bf777/6.4.12-arch1-1/initrd' done *** (4/5) Check if user should be informed about rebooting after certain system package upgrades. (5/5) Checking which packages need to be rebuiltDid it boot or did it get stuck at the same spot again?
It got stuck at the same spot.
Implies it is the kernel. Mark it on hold and stick to the working kernel for the time being.
Does EndeavourOS use pacman?
You might consider modifying
/etc/pacman.confto include the optionIgnorePkg=linux linux-ltsuntil this is resolved.6.4.12.arch1-1was added ~4 days ago. If you check the releases arch linux kernel releases here, they have nearly a weekly cadence. This may be a case you can ride out until a newer kernel is released that might solve your issue.If you need access to older releases, see the archive.
For root cause analysis – is it possible for you to extract/view the journal logs now that you have upgraded the kernel causing the issue? –
/var/log/journalis a good start. My time is limited, but I’m curious to see what’s going on in there. In any case per your and Illecors’ testing, it seems you have isolated the issue to thelinuxpackage.I just realized you’re also on systemd-boot (I am too). I’ll check into a way to revert back to prior kernels (for I also may run into a similar issue).
edit: updated IgnorePkg line to include both your mainline and LTS kernel (Pacman -Syu updates both) if you opt to hold them for updates.
What is the output of
blkidand the content of/etc/fstabof the installed-but-not-booting system? You will need a live usb to get the those, probably.[root@EndeavourOS /]# blkid /dev/nvme0n1p1: UUID="6903-7FA3" BLOCK_SIZE="512" TYPE="vfat" PARTUUID="86a0a714-815f-45db-ad0e-9eba16861903" /dev/nvme0n1p2: LABEL="endeavouros" UUID="9ae3c50f-be08-4594-ac30-2d094375868d" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4" PARTLABEL="endeavouros" PARTUUID="9b52162c-a4bf-4e5e-8096-bb7f144c481a" /dev/loop0: BLOCK_SIZE="1048576" TYPE="squashfs" /dev/sda2: SEC_TYPE="msdos" LABEL_FATBOOT="ARCHISO_EFI" LABEL="ARCHISO_EFI" UUID="6121-B369" BLOCK_SIZE="512" TYPE="vfat" PARTUUID="1bdb3cc0-02" /dev/sda1: BLOCK_SIZE="2048" UUID="2023-08-05-13-57-43-00" LABEL="EOS_202308" TYPE="iso9660" PARTUUID="1bdb3cc0-01" [root@EndeavourOS /]# sudo cat /etc/fstab # /etc/fstab: static file system information. # # Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a device; this may # be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices that works even if # disks are added and removed. See fstab(5). # # UUID=6903-7FA3 /efi vfat defaults,noatime 0 2 UUID=9ae3c50f-be08-4594-ac30-2d094375868d / ext4 defaults,noatime 0 1 tmpfs /tmp tmpfs defaults,noatime,mode=1777 0Please use tripe backticks to create codeblocks - much easier to read. Like this:
```
some text
```
results in
some textI’m also curious about the specific UUID it’s looking for. Any chance you could take a photo of the screen and upload it somewhere?
What are the kernel parameters?
cat /proc/cmdlineI’m on systemd-boot. Where isn’t a directory
loadersunderloader, but I found the parameters under/etc/kernel/cmdline:nvme_load=YES nowatchdog rw root=UUID=9ae3c50f-be08-4594-ac30-2d094375868dMy bad, I think in your case it’s in
/efi/loader/entries/something.confSince
/is not mounted, yet, bootloader will not be able to read anything under/etc/. Unless it’s used to automatically populate the loader.conf.Also check
/efi/loader/loader.conf.I found it!
[liveuser@eos-2023.08.05 ~]$ cat /mnt/efi/loader/entries/02ef85f9edc146d598502c1b296ff64a-6.4.12-arch1-1.conf # Boot Loader Specification type#1 entry # File created by /etc/kernel/install.d/90-loaderentry.install (systemd 254.1-1-arch) title EndeavourOS version 6.4.12-arch1-1 machine-id 02ef85f9edc146d598502c1b296ff64a sort-key endeavouros-6.4.12-arch1-1 options nvme_load=YES nowatchdog rw root=UUID=9ae3c50f-be08-4594-ac30-2d094375868d systemd.machine_id=02ef85f9edc146d598502c1b296ff64a linux /02ef85f9edc146d598502c1b296ff64a/6.4.12-arch1-1/linux initrd /02ef85f9edc146d598502c1b296ff64a/6.4.12-arch1-1/initrdI’ve never used
machine-idwith systemd-boot, but everything appears to be corrent. Presumably,/bootcontains a directory named6.4.12-arch1-1, which contains fileslinuxandinitrd, correct?You could try rebuilding the initramfs with
mkinitcpio --allpresetswhile chrooted.they are under
/02ef85f9edc146d598502c1b296ff64a/6.4.12-arch1-1/, but yes.EndeavourOS is using dracut by default.
Edit: we tried rebuilding initramfs before, but it didn’t help
[root@EndeavourOS /]# blkid /dev/nvme0n1p1: UUID=“6903-7FA3” BLOCK_SIZE=“512” TYPE=“vfat” PARTUUID=“86a0a714-815f-45db-ad0e-9eba16861903” /dev/nvme0n1p2: LABEL=“endeavouros” UUID=“9ae3c50f-be08-4594-ac30-2d094375868d” BLOCK_SIZE=“4096” TYPE=“ext4” PARTLABEL=“endeavouros” PARTUUID=“9b52162c-a4bf-4e5e-8096-bb7f144c481a” /dev/loop0: BLOCK_SIZE=“1048576” TYPE=“squashfs” /dev/sda2: SEC_TYPE=“msdos” LABEL_FATBOOT=“ARCHISO_EFI” LABEL=“ARCHISO_EFI” UUID=“6121-B369” BLOCK_SIZE=“512” TYPE=“vfat” PARTUUID=“1bdb3cc0-02” /dev/sda1: BLOCK_SIZE=“2048” UUID=“2023-08-05-13-57-43-00” LABEL=“EOS_202308” TYPE=“iso9660” PARTUUID=“1bdb3cc0-01”[root@EndeavourOS /]# sudo cat /etc/fstab /etc/fstab: static file system information. Use ‘blkid’ to print the universally unique identifier for a device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5). UUID=6903-7FA3 /efi vfat defaults,noatime 0 2 UUID=9ae3c50f-be08-4594-ac30-2d094375868d / ext4 defaults,noatime 0 1 tmpfs /tmp tmpfs defaults,noatime,mode=1777 0 0I assume it should look like this
According to your logs when installing the kernel, your nvme modules are nowhere to be found, and basic system tools are unavailable. Your core system seems severely borked… can you do a memtest (broken ram can corrupt your storage and your attemps at finding the problem) and check your smartctl --all of that ssd?
Use a live USB to back up your home directory and a list of your packages, then reinstall. I don’t think it’s worth the trouble.
AHAHAHA that is a proper insane bug. One PCIe device shouldn’t be able to slap others off of the “bus”, “we’re not on a bus all you did was mess up your own personal lanes mate”.
I lost 3 days of my life + now I need reinstall everything 🥲
Try adding “PCIE_ASPM=off” to the kernel boot commandline.
This didn’t help :/
That’s a weird issue. Do you have encryption on by any chance? I had a similar error pop-up when I didn’t have the correct systems hooks for the kernel so that after install update of kernel would make the system not boot.
No, I have never used encryption
Share the errors you are experiencing, please
Could you please take a look at the comments from abrer and Illecors, I have shares a lot of info there.
Could you link to them or quote them, please?
The problem is already solved (At least I found the bug and a temporary solution) At the beginning of the post there is a link to the bug report.
I had se similar issue but with bluetooth, worked on windows not on linux. Fixed it by resetting the BIOSwith the CMOS battery thing
when it gets stuck on something like that, it’s because of a hardware related change; did you update or modify your bios recently or change hardware drivers?
Shot in the dark: Did SecureBoot get re-enabled somehow? Could you check the UEFI?
Hard to not sound condescending in text, so forgive me.
If systemd is trying to mount the drives, we’re at a point where the (most likely) ramdisk has already booted the kernel - secure boot would’ve prevented that.
I won’t take it as condescending then! Thank you for the input :)
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Note to future self: Don’t dual boot any system EVER.
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Dual (or triple or quad) booting isn’t the problem, I did it for a long time, until I had a machine that could handle more than one virtual machine while leaving the base OS also usable.
laugh in quad boot
I always dual boot and have never had an issue in many years. I wonder what I am doing differently.
The only way I could dual boot without Windows breaking things was to unplug the Windows drive, install Linux on another drive, plug the Windows drive back in, and boot to Windows by selecting it in the BIOS.
Trying to use grub would always have issues eventually after booting into Windows.That’s definitely not the norm. Used to be that installing Windows would wreck Grub, but you just needed to but a rescue disk and reinstall Grub one time to fix it. Most people dual booted for decades without any issue there.
My current setup is using the former, but I did the latter for so many years and the only issue I had was the clock would get fucked up after booting Windows. But I agree, it’s much safer to have your Windows SSD physically removed when installing Linux so grub doesn’t get installed on the same SSD as Windows. I wouldn’t do it with all the horror stories I have read. My good experience was probably dumb luck.
