No boot - black screen after update - loading initial ramdisk

[markusneu]

Hi there,

I am relatively new to the Garuda Linux but have been running it exclusively for the past 9 months and have never had any major issues updating so far. However, for about a month or even longer I was unable to perform a complete system update because it caused the boot screen stops when displaying

loading initial ramdisk

I can see the HDD indicator light still blinking away but I can't get the login manager to appear or get a tty by pressing ALT-F5 or any other key combination. The keyboard still works and I am able to restart using CTRL-ALT-ESC.

Currently, I am stuck at restoring the timeshift backup and working with an un-updated kernel. I have read that it could be related to the proprietary nvidia drivers or the sddm window manager not playing nicely. I was yet unable to pinpoint the issue.

Booting without quiet splash did not yield any further insights.

I am hoping that someone might have come across the same issue or has an idea about how to tackle the problem. Overall, I am very happy with Garuda and thought I could finally settle, stop distro-hopping and avoid a complete reinstall.

Many thanks in advance!

inxi -Faz

System:    Kernel: 5.13.13-zen1-1-zen x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.1.0
           parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/@/boot/vmlinuz-linux-zen root=UUID=6a2b97c6-542c-492c-8b9d-09421cfef9ef rw
           rootflags=subvol=@ quiet splash rd.udev.log_priority=3 vt.global_cursor_default=0
           systemd.unified_cgroup_hierarchy=1 resume=UUID=a09c71c1-9fbe-409a-ad56-c0d570705576 loglevel=3
           Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.22.5 tk: Qt 5.15.2 info: latte-dock wm: kwin_x11 vt: 1 dm: SDDM Distro: Garuda Linux
           base: Arch Linux
Machine:   Type: Desktop Mobo: Gigabyte model: Z590 GAMING X v: x.x serial: <filter> UEFI: American Megatrends LLC. v: F2
           date: 01/06/2021
CPU:       Info: 8-Core model: Intel Core i7-10700 bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Comet Lake family: 6 model-id: A5 (165)
           stepping: 5 microcode: EC cache: L2: 16 MiB
           flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 92796
           Speed: 4703 MHz min/max: 800/4800 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 4703 2: 4702 3: 4704 4: 2498 5: 4662 6: 4649 7: 3720
           8: 4700 9: 4695 10: 4707 11: 4702 12: 4689 13: 4602 14: 4681 15: 4373 16: 4711
           Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX disabled
           Type: l1tf status: Not affected
           Type: mds status: Not affected
           Type: meltdown status: Not affected
           Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp
           Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
           Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Enhanced IBRS, IBPB: conditional, RSB filling
           Type: srbds status: Not affected
           Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:  Device-1: NVIDIA GK208B [GeForce GT 710] vendor: Gigabyte driver: nvidia v: 470.63.01 alternate: nouveau,nvidia_drm
           bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:128b class-ID: 0300
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.13 compositor: kwin_x11 driver: loaded: nvidia display-ID: :0 screens: 1
           Screen-1: 0 s-res: 3840x1080 s-dpi: 95 s-size: 1027x292mm (40.4x11.5") s-diag: 1068mm (42")
           Monitor-1: VGA-0 res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 102 size: 477x268mm (18.8x10.6") diag: 547mm (21.5")
           Monitor-2: HDMI-0 res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 96 size: 510x290mm (20.1x11.4") diag: 587mm (23.1")
           OpenGL: renderer: NVIDIA GeForce GT 710/PCIe/SSE2 v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 470.63.01 direct render: Yes
Audio:     Device-1: Intel vendor: Gigabyte driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1f.3 chip-ID: 8086:f0c8 class-ID: 0403
           Device-2: NVIDIA GK208 HDMI/DP Audio vendor: Gigabyte driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 01:00.1
           chip-ID: 10de:0e0f class-ID: 0403
           Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.13.13-zen1-1-zen running: yes
           Sound Server-2: JACK v: 1.9.19 running: no
           Sound Server-3: PulseAudio v: 15.0 running: no
           Sound Server-4: PipeWire v: 0.3.34 running: yes
Network:   Device-1: Realtek RTL8125 2.5GbE vendor: Gigabyte driver: r8169 v: kernel port: 3000 bus-ID: 03:00.0
           chip-ID: 10ec:8125 class-ID: 0200
           IF: enp3s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 2.61 TiB used: 1.14 TiB (43.6%)
           SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
           ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 maj-min: 259:0 vendor: Samsung model: SSD 970 EVO Plus 500GB size: 465.76 GiB block-size:
           physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 2B2QEXM7 temp: 40.9 C
           scheme: GPT
           ID-2: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Western Digital model: WD20EFRX-68EUZN0 size: 1.82 TiB block-size:
           physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: HDD rpm: 5400 serial: <filter> rev: 0A80 scheme: GPT
           ID-3: /dev/sdb maj-min: 8:16 vendor: SanDisk model: SSD PLUS 240GB size: 223.57 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B
           logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 04RL scheme: GPT
           ID-4: /dev/sdc maj-min: 8:32 vendor: Crucial model: M4-CT128M4SSD2 size: 119.24 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B
           logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 000F scheme: GPT
Partition: ID-1: / raw-size: 188.96 GiB size: 188.96 GiB (100.00%) used: 121.71 GiB (64.4%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sdb2
           maj-min: 8:18
           ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 260 MiB size: 256 MiB (98.45%) used: 563 KiB (0.2%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sdb1 maj-min: 8:17
           ID-3: /home raw-size: 188.96 GiB size: 188.96 GiB (100.00%) used: 121.71 GiB (64.4%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sdb2
           maj-min: 8:18
           ID-4: /var/log raw-size: 188.96 GiB size: 188.96 GiB (100.00%) used: 121.71 GiB (64.4%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sdb2
           maj-min: 8:18
           ID-5: /var/tmp raw-size: 188.96 GiB size: 188.96 GiB (100.00%) used: 121.71 GiB (64.4%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sdb2
           maj-min: 8:18
Swap:      Kernel: swappiness: 133 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default)
           ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 34.35 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 dev: /dev/sdb3 maj-min: 8:19
           ID-2: swap-2 type: zram size: 31.22 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: 100 dev: /dev/zram0
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 48.0 C mobo: 16.8 C gpu: nvidia temp: 49 C
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A gpu: nvidia fan: 36%
Info:      Processes: 400 Uptime: 3m wakeups: 0 Memory: 31.22 GiB used: 3.61 GiB (11.6%) Init: systemd v: 249 tool: systemctl
           Compilers: gcc: 11.1.0 Packages: pacman: 1513 lib: 361 flatpak: 0 Shell: fish v: 3.3.1 default: Bash v: 5.1.8
           running-in: alacritty inxi: 3.3.06

[SGS]

Welcome

Try

Computer doesn’t boot, boots to a black screen, or stops at a message

While there are many potential reasons why your installation doesn’t boot to a desktop, the primary reason is that the graphics drivers haven’t loaded correctly so your login/display manager (DM) doesn’t start. This is why you get a “black screen” or stuck at an [ OK ] Started some service message. The normal reason for this is that you have the incorrect driver version for the kernel. This can happens when the mirror you are updating from is not fully synchronised, or times out, and so y…

[jonathon]

@markusneu

the boot screen stops when displaying

loading initial ramdisk

This happened to me recently when the update process was interrupted (gnome-shell froze part-way through the update and I killed it, but hooks didn’t run even though pacman is supposed to survive parent processes being killed, … or something else odd happened).

You’ll need to boot a live installer environment (or other Linux boot disk) and chroot into your installation, then:

pacman -Syu linux-zen
mkinitcpio -p linux-zen
update-grub

This should restore linux-zen to operation - adjust that for any other kernels you have installed.

[SGS]

@jonathon

mkinitcpio -p linux-zen

Failed.

whoogle

symlink /usr/lib64 → /usr/lib is correct but /etc/mkinitcpio.d/linux-zen.preset

looks like that

#default_image="/boot/initramfs-linux-zen.img"

#fallback_image="/boot/initramfs-linux-zen-fallback.img"
#fallback_options="-S autodetect"

Must be like this

# mkinitcpio preset file for the 'linux-zen' package
ALL_config="/etc/mkinitcpio.conf"
ALL_kver="/boot/vmlinuz-linux-zen"

PRESETS=('default' 'fallback')

#default_config="/etc/mkinitcpio.conf"
default_image="/boot/initramfs-linux-zen.img"
#default_options=""

#fallback_config="/etc/mkinitcpio.conf"
fallback_image="/boot/initramfs-linux-zen-fallback.img"
fallback_options="-S autodetect"

[jonathon]

@SGS

looks like that

Why would it look like that?

The preset file is created when triggered by /usr/share/libalpm/hooks/90-mkinitcpio-install.hook (which triggers on all kernel installs and upgrades), so the preset file must have been edited at some point.

[SGS]

Not by me.

cat /usr/share/libalpm/hooks/90-mkinitcpio-install.hook
File: /usr/share/libalpm/hooks/90-mkinitcpio-install.hook
[Trigger]
Type = Path
Operation = Install
Operation = Upgrade
Target = usr/lib/modules/*/vmlinuz
Target = usr/lib/initcpio/*

[Action]
Description = Updating linux initcpios...
When = PostTransaction
Exec = /usr/share/libalpm/scripts/mkinitcpio-install
NeedsTargets

it's a "new" laptop, dualboot, cacule and zen kernel.

I never changed there this file, I searched some time and see the diff. to
mkinitcpio preset file for the 'linux-cacule' package.

My post was more a reminder for me, I search first for the specified image file
and do not check the preset
As a layman I always search a little longer, but never give up.