SOLUTION BELOW

The actual bug

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!

  • rotopenguin@infosec.pubEnglish
    51·
    1 year ago

    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”.

  • eldain@feddit.nl
    3·
    1 year ago

    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?

  • timicin@kbin.social
    2·
    1 year ago

    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?

  • setVeryLoud(true);@lemmy.ca
    1·
    1 year ago

    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.

  • Illecors@lemmy.cafeEnglish
    0·
    1 year ago

    What is the output of blkid and the content of /etc/fstab of the installed-but-not-booting system? You will need a live usb to get the those, probably.

    • oiram15@lemmy.sdf.orgOP
      1·
      1 year ago
      [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
      • Illecors@lemmy.cafeEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        Please use tripe backticks to create codeblocks - much easier to read. Like this:

        ```

        some text

        ```

        results in

        some text
      • Illecors@lemmy.cafeEnglish
        0·
        1 year ago

        What are the kernel parameters? cat /proc/cmdline

        EDIT actually that will show the live system config. Assuming you’re using grub, what is the content of /etc/default/grub?

        Or /boot/loader/loaders/something.conf if you’re on systemd-boot

        • oiram15@lemmy.sdf.orgOP
          0·
          1 year ago

          I’m on systemd-boot. Where isn’t a directory loaders under loader, but I found the parameters under /etc/kernel/cmdline:

          nvme_load=YES nowatchdog rw root=UUID=9ae3c50f-be08-4594-ac30-2d094375868d

          • Illecors@lemmy.cafeEnglish
            0·
            1 year ago

            My bad, I think in your case it’s in /efi/loader/entries/something.conf

            Since / 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.

            • oiram15@lemmy.sdf.orgOP
              0·
              1 year ago

              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/initrd
              • Illecors@lemmy.cafeEnglish
                0·
                1 year ago

                I’ve never used machine-id with systemd-boot, but everything appears to be corrent. Presumably, /boot contains a directory named 6.4.12-arch1-1, which contains files linux and initrd, correct?

                You could try rebuilding the initramfs with mkinitcpio --allpresets while chrooted.

                • oiram15@lemmy.sdf.orgOP
                  0·
                  1 year ago

                  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

  • abrer@lemmy.one
    0·
    1 year ago

    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).

    If you can boot into the machine, investigate note from the journal:

    • journalctl --list-boots
    • journalctl -b -1,
      • where -1 was the prior boot, -2, the one before that, etc

    – If you are booting into a live environment or are otherwise mounting the disk:

    • journalctl -D /var/log/journal/ID_GOES_HERE
    • example path: /var/log/journal/2dff8304d5114c44bfb1311357a3cd87

    – Keep us posted.

    If truly a driver regression, but you can boot from the prior kernel (if you don’t have it, install it via livecd or so), definitely report this one and remain on the prior kernel until resolved. Bleeding edge things.

    • oiram15@lemmy.sdf.orgOP
      0·
      1 year ago

      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 tried 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.

      • Illecors@lemmy.cafeEnglish
        0·
        1 year ago

        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 linux

        This would rule out some other part of system getting in the way - like systemd.

        • oiram15@lemmy.sdf.orgOP
          0·
          1 year ago

          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)

          • oiram15@lemmy.sdf.orgOP
            0·
            1 year ago
            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 rebuilt
                • abrer@lemmy.one
                  0·
                  1 year ago

                  Does EndeavourOS use pacman?

                  You might consider modifying /etc/pacman.conf to include the option IgnorePkg=linux linux-lts until this is resolved. 6.4.12.arch1-1 was 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/journal is 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 the linux package.

                  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.

  • Parsnip8904@beehaw.org
    0·
    1 year ago

    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.

    • Illecors@lemmy.cafeEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      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.