Now I want to change it in grub to choose 5.4 over 4.19 (current). After selecting the new kernel in the advanced menu, I get redirected to an emergency shell where I don’t know what do do.
This is what is displayed (I need to type it by hand as I have only one machine available):
mount: /new_root: unknown filesystem type 'ext4'
You are now being dropped into an emergency shell.
sh: can't access tty; job control turned off
[rootfs ]# exit
Failed to mount the real root deice
Bailing out, you are on your own. Good luck.
sh: can't access tty; jobcontrol turned off
[rootfs ]#
Well, everything that’s needed appears to be there. So then the only possible cause of the problem would be that you haven’t been keeping your system up-to-date, and that there may be a conflict now between the 5.4 kernel you installed and some of the outdated stuff that was used for installing the kernel, building the initramfs and setting up GRUB.
Also, as far as I know, linux419 isn’t even on any of the recent installer .isos anymore, so that begs the following questions…:
I always had to refresh the mirrors manually to do updates with octopi or pacman so I always waited some time to do updates. I could not find a solution for that, tbh.
When did you install this system?
I installed it in August 2019
What .iso did you use for doing so?
I used the current .iso from August 2019 from back then. I cannot really tell which file it was as the USB stick from my room mate. He probably deleted the file.
When was the last time you updated the system?
A few days ago. But I remember not being able to enter my system as the password would not get accepted. I therefore restarted the computer. I don’t know if the updated were done… You got a point there but I cannot prove if the updates were done or were still in process.
If there was a problem with updates, how can I resolve that?
This suggests that you hadn’t been keeping the system up-to-date, because there was an update quite a while ago that introduced login problems if one did not pay attention to the (announced) requirement for manual intervention.
The typical newbie mistake, if you don’t mind my saying so. Something takes too long during an update and they hit the reset button. And then they get breakage.
Well, you can try this…
sudo pacman-mirrors -f 5 && sudo pacman -Syyu
That will tell you whether the system was updated, because if it wasn’t, then it will commence (or resume) the update process.
However, if you did not regularly keep your system updated, then perhaps Manjaro would not be a good choice for you, and then you might be better off with a so-called fixed-point-release distribution. Manjaro is a rolling-release distribution, and the idea is that you keep up with the evolution of things.
Another but related aspect of not having kept your system up-to-date may be that things are now so broken that troubleshooting them becomes impossible, and that a reinstall (with a new .iso) would be warranted.
Well I wouldn’t mind updating if the download mirrors wouldn’t be such a problem with maintaining the mirrors every time I want to update. Or is this on purpose of manjaro? Mirrors seem to be up and online and yet my downloads would fail with a 404. This gets tedious with each update. In the beginning I would take my time updating but sometimes you’re short on time and need to finish a given task that you think “nah, I will update later” and then you forget. And then there were times where you had to do some extra effort other than updating the mirrors list that the updating itself got a problem.
The typical newbie mistake, if you don’t mind my saying so. Something takes too long during an update and they hit the reset button. And then they get breakage.
I wouldn’t mind! I love manjaro and appreciate your help.
Well, you can try this…
sudo pacman-mirrors -f 5 && sudo pacman -Syyu
::INFO Downloading mirrors from repo.manjaro.org
::INFO Using default mirror file
::INFO Querying mirrors - This may take some time
..... Japan : http://ftp.tsukuba.wide.ad.jp/Linux/manjaro/
1.430 United_States : http://distro.ibiblio.org/manjaro/
0.508 Denmark : https://mirrors.dotsrc.org/manjaro/
0.315 United_Kingdom : http://manjaro.mirrors.uk2.net/
0.330 Germany : http://ftp.tu-chemnitz.de/pub/linux/manjaro/
0.609 Germany : ftp://ftp.tu-chemnitz.de/pub/linux/manjaro/
::INFO Writing mirror list
::United_Kingdom : http://manjaro.mirrors.uk2.net/stable
::Denmark : https://mirrors.dotsrc.org/manjaro/stable
::Germany : http://ftp.tu-chemnitz.de/pub/linux/manjaro/stable
::United_States : http://distro.ibiblio.org/manjaro/stable
::Japan : http://ftp.tsukuba.wide.ad.jp/Linux/manjaro/stable
::INFO Mirror list generated and saved to: /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
:: Synchronizing package databases...
core 169.3 KiB 1303 KiB/s 00:00 [###########################################################] 100%
extra 2019.8 KiB 2.44 MiB/s 00:01 [###########################################################] 100%
community 6.3 MiB 6.41 MiB/s 00:01 [###########################################################] 100%
multilib 191.3 KiB 9.34 MiB/s 00:00 [###########################################################] 100%
:: Starting full system upgrade...
resolving dependencies...
looking for conflicting packages...
Packages (1) firefox-82.0.3-0.1
Total Download Size: 57.88 MiB
Total Installed Size: 207.82 MiB
Net Upgrade Size: -0.08 MiB
:: Proceed with installation? [Y/n] Y
error: could not open file: /etc/mtab: No such file or directory
error: could not determine filesystem mount points
error: failed to commit transaction (unexpected error)
Errors occurred, no packages were upgraded.
Another but related aspect of not having kept your system up-to-date may be that things are now so broken that troubleshooting them becomes impossible, and that a reinstall (with a new .iso ) would be warranted.
I guess a new clean start will be best. I am unable to work on my machine currently. And I will keep your advice in the back of my head of being more patient and updating regularly. But how much patience is enough patience (a little philosophical here)?
I had the same problem with unknown filesystem type 'ext4' upon booting kernel 5.4. Same upgrade, from 4.19 to 5.4. I had regularly updated my system, at least every few weeks.
My solution:
Boot back to 4.19.
Run: sudo mkinitcpio -P && sudo update-grub.
Boot to 5.4.
Then 5.4 booted up just fine.
I think the main problem with updating kernels in Manjaro is that even if you religiously pacman -Syu on a regular basis, that does nothing for your kernel.
