After latest update manjaro system will not load past boot selector screen

I am running the latest kernel and it has been fine for a while. Recently I attempted to update and now it wont load at all. I am not sure where to start since I cannot access Manjaro at all. Any suggestions?

Hello there

Where exactly are you getting stuck? At grub? Tried entering tty?

Thanks for the response. So the computer loads in the the AsRock bios screen, then the boot selector screen. If I choose Manjaro here it goes to the AsRock bios screen again (which is normal, it should only be a few seconds there), but since the last update it just stays on the second AsRock bios screen and never changes. What is TTY?

Basically the Linux equivalent of safe mode where you only get a terminal. You can click e on the boot selection for Manjaro to edit that, then add a 3 at the end of the linux line. Then you should be able to boot and get a terminal right off the bat.

So there was already a 3 on the end of the Linux line. I added one to make it 33 and I got the message:
Failed to parse “undev.log_priority=33”, ignoring: Invalid argument

And it stuck there.

Apologies, but can you take a photo of this?

Add a 3 by itself, do not add a 3 after udev.log_priority=3, add a space before the 3 you add.
adding a 3 at the end of the GRUB command line is to boot with a different runlevel.

But you can go to another TTY (basically a virtual terminal) when stuck in boot, with keyboard shortcut CTRL ALT F3. if it works it asks for user login and password and from there you can do stuff like updating the system or whatever.


I am not sure which line to add the “3” onto.

Ok, so I am able to boot into a terminal. I don’t mean to be such a noob, but now what?

Try to re-run an update.

sudo pacman -Syyu

I just finished that command. I rebooted and it still freezes.

BTW, I had already started the update when I saw your post. I only put one y in Syyu

Can you tell us more about your system now? I would suggest to reinstall video drivers but we need to know what hardware you have ( output of inxi -Fazy would be the best).

mhwd -l and mhwd -li outputs can help to know what is available to your hardware and what you have installed currently.

if you want to try the automatic installation of proprietary drivers (Nvidia) just run sudo mhwd -a pci nonfree 0300 or for open source free drivers run sudo mhwd -a pci free 0300

I could tell you how to remove them first if I knew what you have installed currently.

PS: the double y means it will force a refresh of your mirror databases. Usually not needed but I always do it anyway.

You can see most of the info by clicking on my alien head symbol. But here is the output.

Yeah I usually look into user’s info, but they usually are wrong (users never update them or user just don’t fill them, for once someone had info there :D). I hope yours are (wrong), because you have a typical issue otherwise. Are they accurate?

Yes, they are accurate. I made sure before posting. I even updated which kernel I am using.

OK so your issue is that you have an inexistent kernel installed. Kernel 5.11 is long dead.

Use the Linux 5.10 LTS kernel if you’re not following kernel development (and/or Manjaro announcements posts). First install it sudo mhwd-kernel -i linux510 and reboot, make sure to force using it from GRUB in the advanced option select it (not the fallback linux510 one but the ‘normal’ one). See if you boot properly now. If you reboot properly, now remove the kernel 5.11 with command sudo mhwd-kernel -r linux511 but only when you confirm everything is OK with kernel 5.10

Also you have learned multiple lessons:

  • have a backup kernel, preferably a LTS (Long Term Support) kernel so you can boot if there is an issue with currently used kernel (currently kernel 5.4 and 5.10 are LTS)
  • follow the kernel life from kernel.org or in the Manjaro announcements threads and check the kernel paragraph where they warn when a kernel is going EOL (End Of Life), this is when you should get rid of this kernel to not go into trouble like you had here.
  • you can get out of trouble easily when your system is ‘crashed’ and you have no access to anything (I’m replying this before you confirmed it was OK but I BELIEVE :D)

:crossed_fingers:

I used the advanced option to for the 510 kernel (non fallback). It still freezes. Maybe I should try some other kernel or is there a way to watch the boot and see where it is getting hung?

Yeah you can try Linux 5.13. I didn’t think about it but probably your RTX 3070 requires one of the latest kernels. Just a guess but a good one :wink: Reboot to TTY and:

sudo mhwd -r pci video-nvidia
sudo mhwd-kernel -i linux513
sudo mhwd -i pci video-nvidia
sudo reboot

It should boot on Linux 5.13 if you select the normal Manjaro entry in GRUB (or you can force it manually to be sure).

//EDIT: also do the commands run properly? any error? also from quick search I would say Linux 5.10 should work with your RTX card.

It works, and I have removed the old kernels. Thanks.