Original author on old forum @AlManja
If you are stuck and you can’t log into your system, use one of these steps below. They are sorted from easiest at the top. Start with the first step and if it doesn’t work, try with the next one and so on..
Once you get access to the system, then proceed with updating the system or installing/removing packages, checking log files… Steps (you only need one) are:
- log to tty terminal
- boot without X
- chroot auto (with manjaro-chroot)
- chroot (with manjaro-chroot)
- chroot into encrypted system (with manjaro-chroot)
- chroot into encrypted system (without manjaro-chroot)
1. log to TTY terminal
At black screen press together:
Ctrl+Alt+F3 ← open a tty & login with your user
You can use any of these: F2, F4, F5, F6 but F3 is preferred (non GUI)
Now you are ready to update system… at the end type reboot to restart your system.
(Note you can always use this also in normally working system, say it starting to get really slow, you switch to TTY, run in the terminal " top " or " htop " to see what is slowing down the system, kill the problematic process and then you can return back to your regular session with Ctrl+Alt+F7 )
2. Boot without X - TTY1
- Press " e " when the GRUB menu displays and for the kernel you wish to use
- scroll down to the " linux " command line
- press " End " key(or use arrow key, to get to the end of the kernel command line)
- press space key/bar (to add a space - was not needed in my case though)
- type " 3 " (no quotes)
- press F10
The system should now load but without X - next log in as normal user (not root) and start with system update…
- at the end type: reboot to restart your system
3. manjaro-chroot - auto
Boot up from live Manjaro media then enter into the terminal:
manjaro-chroot -a
This is automatic chroot, useful when multi boot, will list all bootable partitions, select the proper (Manjaro) root partition then proceed with updating or fixing the system
4. manjaro-chroot
For example on the right I used sda1 is / manjaro; sda2 is swap, sda3 is home
lsblk ← list partitions
sudo mount /dev/sdxx /mnt ← example: sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
sudo mount /dev/sdxx /mnt/home/ ← example: sudo mount /dev/sda3 /mnt/home/
sudo mount /mnt/boot/efi ← (optional) if you have UEFI!
sudo manjaro-chroot /mnt
Now you can start updating/fixing your system…
5. chroot into encrypted system
cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/sda2 ssd
cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/sda3 swap
sudo mount /dev/mapper/ssd /mnt
sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot/efi
sudo manjaro-chroot /mnt
6. encrypted, not using manjaro-chroot
sudo su
cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/sda2 ssd
cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/sda3 swap
mount /dev/mapper/ssd /mnt
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot/efi
mount -t proc proc /mnt/proc
mount -t sysfs sys /mnt/sys
mount -o bind /dev /mnt/dev
mount -t devpts pts /mnt/dev/pts/
mount -o bind /run /mnt/run
cp /etc/resolv.conf /mnt/etc/resolv.conf
chroot /mnt
To update your system run:
sudo pacman -Syyu
If you have an issue with file conflicts:
sudo pacman -Sy manjaro-keyring
sudo pacman -Sy manjaro-system
sudo pacman -Syyu