The Garuda Linux team has issued kernel update linux and linux-zen version 6.15.9.arch1-1.1 and 6.15.9.zen1-1.1 to address a regression potentially resulting in an unbootable system/potential data loss.
These kernel updates will be prioritized over the Arch Linux official packages automatically during the next system update. We highly recommend updating to the latest packages as soon as possible:
garuda-update
# Do not forget to reboot afterwards!
To the extent of my personal knowledge, I do not believe the linux-lts kernel is affected at this time. If you are using a third party kernel on version 6.15 or higher, we strongly recommend using linux, linux-zen or linux-lts for now (until you are sure it is patched).
To see a summary of the issue, please click here
In short, unexpected power outages or other unexpected system shutdowns can lead to an unbootable system due to an error in the BTRFS “replay” system.
The replay system is a sort of “log” of every change made to the BTRFS file system between 30 second “transaction” intervals. When you create, edit or delete a file, that will be logged in the replay log.
Here’s why we need to update the kernels:
For the sake of keeping it short, this log could become “corrupted”, or rather, the log is correct, but the kernel can’t read it anymore. Let’s say… randomly. It’s not random, but you can’t predict it, therefore, it’s random!
This makes the system unbootable. BUT, the most common way this issue is fixed is by deleting the BTRFS log. For all intents and purposes, this means potentially losing up to 30 seconds of file system changes. It’s of course unlikely any of your important files will be affected by this, but in our opinion, any preventable data loss is too much data loss. Needless to say, the inconvenience of your system failing to boot or potentially missing a job interview because you couldn’t join the meeting in time is also not ideal!
