Stuck at loading screen after initramfs rebuild

Issues & Assistance KDE
1

Hi. Whenever I try to update my system, and the initramfs is rebuilt, my system breaks and gets stuck in the “Starting terminate plymouth boot screen” stage. I’ve searched about it but the only “solution” I found (rebuild the initramfs with dracut in the recovery mode) doesn’t work. I’ve been trying to update my system for 2 months and nothing, even tried to load a BTRFS backup and updating from there but the result is the same.

System:
Kernel: 6.8.7-zen1-1-zen arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 13.2.1
clocksource: tsc avail: hpet,acpi_pm
parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/@/boot/vmlinuz-linux-zen
root=UUID=e7e26fcf-734a-4ab2-a80c-d9f79c5f9e20 rw rootflags=subvol=@
quiet quiet rd.udev.log_priority=3 vt.global_cursor_default=0 loglevel=3
ibt=off
Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 6.0.4 tk: Qt v: N/A info: frameworks v: 6.1.0
wm: kwin_x11 vt: 2 dm: SDDM Distro: Garuda base: Arch Linux
Machine:
Type: Desktop Mobo: ASUSTeK model: M4A77T/USB3 v: Rev X.0x
serial: <superuser required> uuid: <superuser required>
BIOS: American Megatrends v: 0601 date: 11/29/2010
CPU:
Info: model: AMD Phenom II X4 965 bits: 64 type: MCP arch: K10 level: v1
built: 2009-13 process: AMD 45nm family: 0x10 (16) model-id: 4 stepping: 3
microcode: 0x10000C8
Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 4 smt: <unsupported> cache: L1: 512 KiB
desc: d-4x64 KiB; i-4x64 KiB L2: 2 MiB desc: 4x512 KiB L3: 6 MiB
desc: 1x6 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 1450 high: 3400 min/max: 800/3400 boost: disabled
scaling: driver: acpi-cpufreq governor: schedutil cores: 1: 800 2: 800
3: 800 4: 3400 bogomips: 27322
Flags: ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4a
Vulnerabilities: <filter>
Graphics:
Device-1: NVIDIA GM107 [GeForce GTX 750] vendor: eVga.com. driver: nouveau
v: kernel non-free: 545.xx+ status: current (as of 2024-04; EOL~2026-12-xx)
arch: Maxwell code: GMxxx process: TSMC 28nm built: 2014-2019 pcie: gen: 1
speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 16 link-max: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s ports:
active: HDMI-A-1 empty: DP-1,DVI-I-1 bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:1381
class-ID: 0300 temp: 29.0 C
Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.13 with: Xwayland v: 23.2.6
compositor: kwin_x11 driver: X: loaded: nouveau unloaded: amdgpu
dri: nouveau gpu: nouveau display-ID: :0 screens: 1
Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1360x768 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 359x203mm (14.13x7.99")
s-diag: 412mm (16.24")
Monitor-1: HDMI-A-1 mapped: HDMI-1 model: LG (GoldStar) W1953
serial: <filter> built: 2009 res: 1360x768 hz: 60 dpi: 85 gamma: 1.2
size: 406x229mm (15.98x9.02") diag: 466mm (18.4") ratio: 16:9 modes:
max: 1360x768 min: 720x400
API: EGL v: 1.5 hw: drv: nvidia nouveau platforms: device: 0 drv: nouveau
device: 1 drv: swrast gbm: drv: nouveau surfaceless: drv: nouveau x11:
drv: nouveau inactive: wayland
API: OpenGL v: 4.5 compat-v: 4.3 vendor: mesa v: 24.0.6-arch1.2 glx-v: 1.4
direct-render: yes renderer: NV117 device-ID: 10de:1381 memory: 1.95 GiB
unified: no
API: Vulkan v: 1.3.279 layers: 8 device: 0 type: cpu name: llvmpipe (LLVM
17.0.6 128 bits) driver: mesa llvmpipe v: 24.0.6-arch1.2 (LLVM 17.0.6)
device-ID: 10005:0000 surfaces: xcb,xlib
Audio:
Device-1: AMD SBx00 Azalia vendor: ASUSTeK driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
bus-ID: 00:14.2 chip-ID: 1002:4383 class-ID: 0403
Device-2: NVIDIA GM107 High Definition Audio [GeForce 940MX]
vendor: eVga.com. driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: gen: 1
speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 16 link-max: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s bus-ID: 01:00.1
chip-ID: 10de:0fbc class-ID: 0403
API: ALSA v: k6.8.7-zen1-1-zen status: kernel-api with: aoss
type: oss-emulator tools: N/A
Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.5 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse
status: active 2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin
4: pw-jack type: plugin tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl
Network:
Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8211/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
vendor: ASUSTeK M4A785/P7P55 driver: r8169 v: kernel pcie: gen: 1
speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: e800 bus-ID: 02:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8168
class-ID: 0200
IF: enp2s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Info: services: NetworkManager,systemd-timesyncd
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 119.24 GiB used: 84.48 GiB (70.8%)
SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 model: P3-128 size: 119.24 GiB block-size:
physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 3.0 Gb/s tech: SSD serial: <filter>
fw-rev: 872 scheme: MBR
Partition:
ID-1: / raw-size: 119.24 GiB size: 119.24 GiB (100.00%)
used: 84.48 GiB (70.8%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1
ID-2: /home raw-size: 119.24 GiB size: 119.24 GiB (100.00%)
used: 84.48 GiB (70.8%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1
ID-3: /var/log raw-size: 119.24 GiB size: 119.24 GiB (100.00%)
used: 84.48 GiB (70.8%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1
ID-4: /var/tmp raw-size: 119.24 GiB size: 119.24 GiB (100.00%)
used: 84.48 GiB (70.8%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1
Swap:
Kernel: swappiness: 133 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default) zswap: no
ID-1: swap-1 type: zram size: 7.75 GiB used: 202.2 MiB (2.5%)
priority: 100 comp: zstd avail: lzo,lzo-rle,lz4,lz4hc,842 max-streams: 4
dev: /dev/zram0
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 54.0 C mobo: 29.0 C gpu: nouveau temp: 30.0 C
Fan Speeds (rpm): cpu: 2702 case-1: 783
Power: 12v: 18.67 5v: N/A 3.3v: 3.23 vbat: N/A gpu: nouveau mV: 931.00
Info:
Memory: total: 8 GiB available: 7.75 GiB used: 4.01 GiB (51.8%)
Processes: 297 Power: uptime: 42m states: freeze,standby,mem,disk
suspend: deep avail: s2idle,shallow wakeups: 0 hibernate: platform
avail: shutdown, reboot, suspend, test_resume image: 3.07 GiB
services: org_kde_powerdevil, power-profiles-daemon, upowerd Init: systemd
v: 255 default: graphical tool: systemctl
Packages: 2220 pm: pacman pkgs: 2169 libs: 497 tools: octopi,paru
pm: appimage pkgs: 0 pm: flatpak pkgs: 51 Compilers: clang: 17.0.6
gcc: 14.1.1 Shell: garuda-inxi default: Bash v: 5.2.26 running-in: konsole
inxi: 3.3.34
Garuda (2.6.26-1):
System install date:     2023-11-11
Last full system update: 2024-04-22
Is partially upgraded:   Yes
Relevant software:       snapper NetworkManager dracut
Windows dual boot:       <superuser required>
Failed units:
2

So this is due to dracut hold? Or anything else?
Do you happen to have .pacnew files to be merged? Or, the other way round, you replaced config files with their .pacnew version without merging?

2 Likes
3

Yeah, its partially upgraded because of dracut, it won’t allow me to upgrade since the system breaks.

I need to check for pacnew files. How I’d merge them?

4

I do it with

sudo -H DIFFPROG=kompare pacdiff

(meld instead of kompare is also fine).

1 Like
5

I’ve merged but now I’m getting the message “sudo: you do not exist in the passwd database”. Is there a way to fix this other than using a snapshot? Google didn’t help me.

6

It depends on what you have merged and how.
Merge is not overwrite, but check what’s changed vs what you have and add what’s new.

2 Likes
7

I’ll try again. I rebooted and the system didn’t want to start up so I had to use a snapshot.

8

If you see pacnew files for /etc/passwd or /etc/shadow disregard them.
This might have caused the last issue.

2 Likes
9

Yeah, I managed to merge all pacnew files but when I try to merge “passwd” sudo breaks.

What is my next step after doing this?

(I also noticed chaotic aur was removed from the mirrorlist file)

10

grafik
grafik748×651 77.2 KB

Use pacman :slight_smile:

11

That’s why I told above to not merge it.

This was an overwrite instead of merge, I’ll give you the link to our standard pacman conf.
https://gitlab.com/garuda-linux/tools/garuda-tools/-/raw/master/data/pacman-default.conf
Copy it into /etc/pacman.conf

2 Likes
12

Tried that, same thing, still stuck on the same place during loading.

13

I just noticed you’re using the kernel driver for your Nvidia GPU.
So, the first thing I’d try is to switch to a different kernel, maybe starting from the linux-lts:

sudo pacman -S linux-lts linux-lts-headers

If that doesn’t help, you could try the proprietary Nvidia drivers with your current zen kernel.
Normally you can autoinstall proprietary drivers with the relevant button in Garuda settings manager → HW configuration
If that button is not shown for some reasons (it happened in the past) or you get errors you can try:

sudo pacman -S nvidia-dkms nvidia-settings
2 Likes
14

As an alternative to the previous suggestion, it could also be an issue of sddm.
Do you use a different theme than the standard one?
When the boot hangs, are you able to switch to a TTY? and:

  • provide the status of the sddm service with sudo systemctl status sddm.service
  • provide the errors shown if you try to launch sddm manually from tty with sudo systemctl restart sddm.service
  • provide the boot logs from the journal
4 Likes
15

Sorry for the really late response.

Installing either linux-lts or the nvidia proprietary drivers gave me the same result, stuck on that screen.

Concerning the alternative suggestion:

I’m using the “sweet” theme for SDDM:

Tried TTY with sudo systemctl status sddm.service and I got this:

failed to read display number from pipe
could not start display server on vt 2

Tried systemctl restart sddm.service and I got the “terminate plymouth boot screen” blinking a couple times and then returning to the TTY

16

Should I upload the boot.log file somewhere? I can’t post it here due to character limit.

17

i also had lots of trouble with nvidia drivers

This is how i fixed it;

i installed the nvidia all drivers and deleted the existing drivers doing so this fixed the no booting error. it will give you a choice which version of the driver to install, so you can experiment the best choice.

open a terminal and type;

git clone GitHub - Frogging-Family/nvidia-all: Nvidia driver latest to 396 series AIO installer
cd nvidia-all
makepkg -si
(sudo pacman -S mkinitcpio)
sudo dracut-rebuild
sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
reboot.

1 Like
18

It seems my problem is not specifically related to Nvidia drivers but I’ll try this later today, thanks.

19

Unsurprisingly this didn’t work. My install either screwed up really bad somehow or the newest kernels are not compatible with my hardware, have no idea.

I will keep this driver repo in mind for whenever I reinstall my system though, thanks.

20

Sorry for the triple post but is there really nothing else I can do anymore other than reinstalling? I’ve reached the conclusion my initramfs is broken, it can’t be updated.

I’m trying to find a way to update the system without updating initramfs or to ignore packages that update it so that I at least can use updated apps until I reinstall.