I know, I might’ve been stupid, but after running sudo pacman -Rs $(pacman -Qdtq)
I can’t boot into my system anymore. To be more exact: while booting I don’t even get the manjaro icon and no loading, it just goes blackscreen after the lenovo POST screen and then it rebootes. Pressing ESC let me into the Menu, where I could load the UEFI BIOS or memtest.
Now, with a live boot USB, I tried using this guide:
But, I have the feeling something is going wrong, since I can go through the reinstall guide without failures.
Maybe someone can help me debug this; I’d love to take away some stuff from this, (until I maybe reinstall manjaro)
As noted above it would send the output to a pastebin service.
This would have been handy if it were difficult to share the text otherwise.
These could be related.
Is any kernel installed?
Is some version of grub installed?
pacman -Qs '^linux[0-9]'
pacman -Qs grub
I would need more of the output for it to be clear.
Your command did list orphans and did remove all of them and all dependencies so long as none of those packages are dependencies of anything else. If the kernel was removed during this process it can only mean the kernel was an orphan. This goes beyond EOL (which kernel 6.11 is) status. It would have to mean that linux611 was only ever installed as a dependency of something else and that package was removed.
@cscs I just reinstalled linux611 and tried rebooting, and obviously got back into the system normally.
I removed grub-btrfs because when trying to reinstall grub (to see if that is the problem), it showed to me, that root filesystem is not btrfs
The manjaro thread also said, that it’s just a warning and it’s nothing you need, so I thought uninstalling it might not do MORE harm
Now, since I am back in my system, grub should be running normally, I suppose:
(obv. after installing linux611)
pacman -Qs '^linux[0-9]' ✔
local/linux611 6.11.11-1
The Linux 6.11 kernel and modules
---
$ pacman -Qs grub ✔
local/grub 2:2.12-3
GNU GRand Unified Bootloader (2)
local/grub-theme-manjaro 20.2-16
Manjaro Linux grub theme
local/install-grub 2:2.12-3
GNU Grub (2) Install Script on Updates
local/python-markdown 3.7-1
Python implementation of John Gruber's Markdown
local/update-grub 2:2.12-3
GNU Grub (2) Update Menu Script
Kernel 6.11 is still end of life.
You should still install a different kernel and eventually remove linux611.
(I note it is still available in the Stable Branch repos, but will not be for long.)
As long as you installed grub to replace it.
So you did have no other kernels.
You should install linux66 and/or linux612.
Given that linux-meta was also noted … this all tells me you have not been managing your kernels … got linux-meta when that expriement of automatically replacing EOL kernels was implemented, which in turn gave you kernel 6.11, then somehow removed linux-meta, removed all orphans … which resulted in the (now an orphan) linux611 also being removed.
Please install at least one working LTS so that even if you continue to not pay attention to packages/kernels this wont be a problem again for at least another 2 years.
(kernel 6.6 becomes EOL at that time)
Just to clarify for anyone having the same issue somehow:
Check if you unintentionnaly removed your linux kernel. :^)
I mean, I just installed Manjaro not too long ago (maybe 2-3 weeks) so the 611 kernel had to be installed with that. [Or maybe my kernel got replaced with that one, through an AUR package install, if that somehow is possible?!]
While troubleshooting I did install grub, and tried to do everything the aforementioned guide says. In the last step, the “error/info” came with root filesystem not btrfs; so I uninstalled and tried again.
I have not been managing anything that is concerning the kernels. I have yet to understand what the kernel actually is and does (I suppose it is the equivalent to the System32 path of Windows? Just the “main OS”) But since I haven’t been managing them and the OS was still working, I thought it might be updating and managing itself with me doing regular pacman -Syu
I’ll check out how to update the kernel safely and will have to thank you for the command to find out recently removed software. I also learned to now have a recovery stick with me at all times (which now will be the case )
linux-meta is not included in the ISO’s.
It would be installed automatically if your kernel is end of life.
So we might assume you installed manjaro using an old ISO that contained linux610.
Which was then replaced by linux-meta which in turn provided linux611.
I might also guess that linux-meta itself was not installed ‘explicitly’ … which made it an orphan.
Still this also is from an older ISO, as at least since December 8th or so the images have included linux612 … but maybe it was from just a little before then. The preivous release in October had linux610.
Or at least thats how it seems from the bits of info here.
For whatever reason manjaro defaults to providing grub-btrfs even on installs that dont use btrfs filesystem. This doesnt really create issues outside of those cosmetic errors. But you can replace it with regular grub as you seem to have done.
“Main OS” isnt too far off. the kernel arguably is linux. Its the thing that runs pretty much everything else after firmware (BIOS) and bootloader (grub). And the thing that penguin mascot linus torvalds developed and released. Specifically bundled with GNU tools … thats linux, or what some refer to as ‘GNU/Linux’. All the other constructs, preferences, software, repository, themes, etc bundled with that is what is going to make up your favorite linux ‘distro’.
Kernels have release cycles themselves. LTS (Long term support) kernels should always be kept on hand. At least one. Even if trying out or daily using other kernels. Until recently that meant for me having 6.6 installed and running 6.9, then 6.10, then 6.11. I now have 6.6 and 6.12 installed. 6.12 is the next LTS kernel. And if 6.12 eventually proves very stable and the 6.13 series is released I may have 6.12 and 6.13 installed … and so on.
So each kernel is going to be updated along with all your other packages. sudo pacman -Syu
would suffice. To update kernel 6.6. And update kernel 6.12. etc.
These are different packages. And they do receive updates as normal.
But updating would not mean replacing one kernel series with another.
That is until some weeks ago … when manjaro introduced linux-meta which would automatically replace End Of Life kernels. Which is how you ended up with linux-meta and linux611.
(And apparently those do not get installed ‘explicitly’ thus making them orphans?)
You can have as many kernels installed as you like … but should remove dead ones.
To add or remove kernels using a GUI you can use Manjaro Settings Manager. Or mhwd-kernel in the terminal.
Oh yeah also a link to the kernel webpage where you can see current kernels and some extra info.
@cscs Thank you for the very detailed answer and explanation! Your assumptions were correct.
$grep -E '([l][i][n][u][x])([0-9]+) ' /var/log/pacman.log
[2024-12-06T10:46:02+0100] [ALPM] removed linux610 (6.10.13-3) #looks like I've installed Manjaro before december 8th :)
[2024-12-06T10:46:16+0100] [ALPM] installed linux611 (6.11.10-2)
[2024-12-06T10:46:16+0100] [ALPM] installed linux-meta (6.11-1) #I added this line by hand from the pacman.log, wanted to show you, your assumptions being correct
[2024-12-16T09:57:31+0100] [ALPM] upgraded linux611 (6.11.10-2 -> 6.11.11-1)
[2024-12-16T09:57:31+0100] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] It is recommend to switch to the newer linux612 series:
[2024-12-24T12:40:05+0100] [ALPM] removed linux611 (6.11.11-1) # this is where I uninstalled the kernel accidentally
[2024-12-24T23:56:21+0100] [ALPM] installed linux611 (6.11.11-1) # this is me installing it through manjaro-chroot on the live USB stick
[2024-12-24T23:56:21+0100] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] It is recommend to switch to the newer linux612 series:
[2024-12-25T00:19:54+0100] [ALPM] installed linux66 (6.6.65-1) # this is me managing my kernels; decided to go for the 6.6.67 LTS version (but it installed the 6.6.65, which is probably also fine)
[2024-12-25T00:30:22+0100] [ALPM] removed linux611 (6.11.11-1) # also me removing this, so it doesn't get uninstalled by accident again :D
Yeah, being able to uninstall the only kernel you have is very linux and kind of funny. I think there should be at least a warning from pacman, when trying to uninstall the one kernel you have? Myeh, I learned my lesson.
