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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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I am desperate. Linux is not booting (lemmy.sdf.org)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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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!

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

No worries. When checking that output, it is for the working 6.4.8-arch1-1 kernel. The broken kernel boot attempt would be most useful, but I don't want to make you suffer to get it, if you are back to a working system. I think at this point it is safe to say your laptop isn't a fan of the newer kernels.

I would :

(fresh install/andor working machine) update your /etc/pacman.conf to ignore updates to packages linux and linux-lts
Devise a way to add multiple systemd-boot boot entries. I was working on this just a bit ago but I don't have it fool proof and it drops you to an emergency shell. So I am hesitant to share this at the moment.

--

Ideally: You could (from a working system) install a known working LTS image (pkg linux-lts), and exclude that from updates until you land on a working kernel release (keep an eye on testing and core repos once a week or so). in this way, you'll have a working LTS, and can upgrade/downgrade mainline kernels as you please, booting back into LTS to correct issues should they arise.

edit: minor

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I found the problem! It was actually the kernel, just both the latest and the lts versions released after 11th of August don't work. So for now I need to stick to the versions from 11th. Thank you very much for the help!

Edit: this is the bug