Initramfs unpacking failed: invalid magic as start of compressed

hape · 31 March 2023 11:37

i have a serios problem after this update. I can no longer boot, message is:
Intiramfs unpacking failed: invalid magic as start of compressed
kernel panic
…

changing the kernel or trying the fallback initramfs does not help. I have installed 4.19 and 5.4

Now what to do?
HP

Zesko · 31 March 2023 11:55

You need to download Manjaro ISO on other computer and flash it on USB stick.
You need to chroot to your broken system
Reinstall Kernel and GRUB.

philm · 31 March 2023 12:08

If you can’t boot into either the kernels you can only fall back to an install media of Manjaro and then chroot into it. As @Zesko already mentioned you may want to reinstall the kernel and pay attention to the output. Maybe try also to install linux510. Reinstalling grub might not been needed.

hape · 31 March 2023 12:10

thanks, is there a description how to reinstall a kernel from a chroot? Can this also be done from a XUbuntu (which i already had on a stick)?

HP

Zesko · 31 March 2023 12:14

Unforunately Ubuntu doesn’t support chroot Manjaro.

philm · 31 March 2023 12:16

Well you can use actually any Linux USB Stick to do so. Here is a more in detail written guide on how to chroot: How to: Chroot into a broken system via live CD/ISO or alternate Linux system | TurnKey GNU/Linux

You have to manually mount the common system folders before you can call chroot Also the Arch Wiki has a section for manual chrooting.

Uberpanda · 31 March 2023 12:34

Reinstalling by itself does not suffice. Here is the problem :
For some reason, mkinitpcio now creates zstd compressed images instead of the previous default gzip.
kernels 5.4 and 4.19 cannot read these images.
A workaround is to uncomment

COMPRESSION=“gzip”

in /etc/mkinitpcio.conf, and rebuild with

mkinitcpio -P

I am not sure if there is a way to make 5.4 and below able to read zstd.

Zesko · 31 March 2023 12:40

Indeed, the compression was changed in Arch mkinitcpio to zstd and breaks the backwards compatibility of old kernels.

Only kernel 5.10+ supports zstd.

github.com

archlinux/mkinitcpio/blob/master/mkinitcpio.conf#L55


      
          #    HOOKS=(base udev modconf keyboard keymap consolefont block mdadm_udev encrypt filesystems fsck)
          #
          ##   This setup loads an lvm2 volume group.
          #    HOOKS=(base udev modconf block lvm2 filesystems fsck)
          #
          ##   NOTE: If you have /usr on a separate partition, you MUST include the
          #    usr and fsck hooks.
          HOOKS=(base udev autodetect modconf kms keyboard keymap consolefont block filesystems fsck)
          
          
# COMPRESSION
          # Use this to compress the initramfs image. By default, zstd compression
          # is used. Use 'cat' to create an uncompressed image.
          #COMPRESSION="zstd"
          #COMPRESSION="gzip"
          #COMPRESSION="bzip2"
          #COMPRESSION="lzma"
          #COMPRESSION="xz"
          #COMPRESSION="lzop"
          #COMPRESSION="lz4"
          
          
# COMPRESSION_OPTIONS

tempograd · 31 March 2023 12:52

Dito - i’ve got the same screen after updating. I made my XPS 13 unbootable too with the most recent manjaro update. It’s critical, cause i had not the opportunity to save my last work (ok, a live stick solves this, but i need it for further work today) - of course i have an older image, but this is embarassing. Please don´t tell me i have to reinstall my whole system?!? - if i only knew it, i would have upgraded my kernel first.
Are there any other solutions?

brahma · 31 March 2023 12:56

read the thread, there is a solution if you are running the older kernels…

tempograd · 31 March 2023 13:37

I already read all postings, sorry for my breakout. I have the same 5.4 kernel like hape. Which of the solutions do you mean, chroot oder edit mkinitpcio.conf? Sorry, i´m not really shure about this. Till today my Manjaro works stable, i never had to work on the “open heart”.

Zesko · 31 March 2023 13:40

There are two solutions:

solution: Switch to Kernel 5.10 or newer LTS in GRUB menu

OR

solution: You need to chroot to your broken system with live USB stick, then edit /etc/mkinitpcio.conf to change the compression to gzip, then run mkinitcpio -P && update-grub, then reboot

tempograd · 31 March 2023 13:45

Thanks! I just need to delete “#” infront of the line, correct?

Zesko · 31 March 2023 13:47

Yes, that should be COMPRESSION="gzip" without # in mkinitcpio.conf

Char · 31 March 2023 14:05

I have this same issue and same kernel , so I guess this is the solution, right? Please excuse my naivety.
Also is there also a way to install new kernel along this.

I don’t have to do anything else , right?

I have a boot ready in usb

Zesko · 31 March 2023 14:09

Yes, this is 3. possible solution:

You need to chroot to your broken system then install Kernel 5.15 LTS or 6.1 LTS to fix the issue:
pamac install linux515

Then remove old kernel e.g. 5.4 that does not support the compression zstd.

hape · 31 March 2023 14:27

just to confirm:

i created a bootable Manjaro ISO and booted from the stick
i opened a terminal and did ‘manjaro-chroot’ (which is installed on the iso but not in my normal version???)
following the proposal from @Zesko i edited mkinitpcio.conf as described, did a grub-update
reboot and here i’m again in my desktop!
i installed a newer kernel and will test later.

Remark: the update process should really cover this and change mkinitpcio.conf if older kernels are detected. I think older LTS must stay supported, if you have older HW than newer kernels are not always better.

Thanks to all who helped so fast.

HP

Char · 31 March 2023 14:56

How to do chroot?
Cus after booting from usb I typed manjaro-chroot and it gave an error “Can’t create chroot on non-directory”

Can’t i do it without chroot?
Like going to terminal and nano /etc/mkinitpcio.conf because its there

hape · 31 March 2023 15:01

i think you have to type ‘sudo manjaro-chroot’
then edit /etc/mkinitpcio.conf. If you edit before the change root, you will edit the file on the stick and not on your real installation. After editing, ‘sudo update-grub’ and then type exit and reboot.

Char · 31 March 2023 15:10

Its same error
“Can’t create chroot on non-directory”

But i guess i need to manually go to my hard drive partition where my /etc/mkinitcpio.conf is so that way manjaro-chroot work , right?

Cus I think thats my flas drive partition thats why its giving this error

I know this sound so annoying, cus I’m totally aware of it

but after this error I m so confuse