Is it worth repairing my broken Manjaro KDE, or shall I go for reinstall, without disturbing my documents in /home

abad.140101 · 3 June 2022 11:07

Last week I moved from Xubuntu to Manjaro. My system has,

Manjaro KDE Plasma with Timeshift, btrfs
I have about 100+ gb of Documents folder, and would like them to be backed up periodically
My partitions :

sda1 —> 300mb — FAT32 — /boot/efi
sda2 —> Balance (about 922.42GB) — BTRFS — Mounted on /, /home, /run/timeshift/backup, /var/cache, /var/log
sda3 —> 8.8GB — Swap

I would like to be able to restore Manjaro system files AS WELL AS documents in /home using Timeshift/btrfs. At present I do NOT take snapshots of /home

Today I messed up my Manjaro installation. And then I tried to restore to a timeshift snapshot. After restore, system takes about 15 minutes to boot with following errors.
Timed out waiting for device …
Dependency failed for /boot/efi
Dependency failed for …
Dependency failed for Local file Systems
You are in emergency mode …Give root password …

Even after difficult booting, system is very slow. I read somewhere that this problem is because of separate /boot.

I need help on following :

Is it possible to easily recover my broken Manjaro installation?
Is it possible to reinstall Manjaro KDE, without disturbing my documents in sda2 (/home)?
What would be the best partitioning scheme for new installation?

My system information is as follows,

System:
  Kernel: 5.15.41-1-MANJARO arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 12.1.0
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/@/boot/vmlinuz-5.15-x86_64
    root=UUID=2e646780-2ffb-409b-b567-fb0780bd7300 rw rootflags=subvol=@ quiet
    apparmor=1 security=apparmor
    resume=UUID=2b349ccd-c725-40e4-927d-e49c60e5a66a udev.log_priority=3
  Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 5.24.5 tk: Qt v: 5.15.4 wm: kwin_x11 vt: 1 dm: SDDM
    Distro: Manjaro Linux base: Arch Linux
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: LENOVO product: 81D2 v: Lenovo ideapad 330-15ARR
    serial: <superuser required> Chassis: type: 10 v: Lenovo ideapad 330-15ARR
    serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: LENOVO model: LNVNB161216 v: SDK0Q55724 WIN
    serial: <superuser required> UEFI: LENOVO v: 7VCN46WW date: 12/10/2018
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 24.6 Wh (97.6%) condition: 25.2/35.0 Wh (72.1%)
    volts: 8.3 min: 7.6 model: LGC L17L2PF0 type: Li-poly serial: <filter>
    status: N/A
Memory:
  RAM: total: 7.38 GiB used: 4.99 GiB (67.6%)
  RAM Report:
    permissions: Unable to run dmidecode. Root privileges required.
CPU:
  Info: model: AMD Ryzen 3 2200U with Radeon Vega Mobile Gfx bits: 64
    type: MT MCP arch: Zen family: 0x17 (23) model-id: 0x11 (17) stepping: 0
    microcode: 0x810100B
  Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 2 tpc: 2 threads: 4 smt: enabled cache:
    L1: 192 KiB desc: d-2x32 KiB; i-2x64 KiB L2: 1024 KiB desc: 2x512 KiB
    L3: 4 MiB desc: 1x4 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 1516 high: 1656 min/max: 1600/2500 boost: enabled
    scaling: driver: acpi-cpufreq governor: schedutil cores: 1: 1395 2: 1457
    3: 1656 4: 1557 bogomips: 19969
  Flags: 3dnowprefetch abm adx aes aperfmperf apic arat avic avx avx2 bmi1
    bmi2 bpext clflush clflushopt clzero cmov cmp_legacy constant_tsc cpb cpuid
    cr8_legacy cx16 cx8 de decodeassists extapic extd_apicid f16c flushbyasid
    fma fpu fsgsbase fxsr fxsr_opt ht hw_pstate ibpb irperf lahf_lm lbrv lm
    mca mce misalignsse mmx mmxext monitor movbe msr mtrr mwaitx nonstop_tsc
    nopl npt nrip_save nx osvw overflow_recov pae pat pausefilter pclmulqdq
    pdpe1gb perfctr_core perfctr_llc perfctr_nb pfthreshold pge pni popcnt pse
    pse36 rapl rdrand rdseed rdtscp rep_good sep sev sev_es sha_ni skinit smap
    smca sme smep ssbd sse sse2 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 succor svm svm_lock
    syscall tce topoext tsc tsc_scale v_vmsave_vmload vgif vmcb_clean vme
    vmmcall wdt xgetbv1 xsave xsavec xsaveerptr xsaveopt xsaves
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: itlb_multihit status: Not affected
  Type: l1tf status: Not affected
  Type: mds status: Not affected
  Type: meltdown status: Not affected
  Type: spec_store_bypass
    mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp
  Type: spectre_v1
    mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2
    mitigation: Retpolines, IBPB: conditional, STIBP: disabled, RSB filling
  Type: srbds status: Not affected
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Raven Ridge [Radeon Vega Series / Radeon Mobile Series]
    vendor: Lenovo driver: amdgpu v: kernel pcie: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16
    ports: active: eDP-1 empty: HDMI-A-1 bus-ID: 03:00.0 chip-ID: 1002:15dd
    class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: IMC Networks EasyCamera type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 3-1:2
    chip-ID: 13d3:5a02 class-ID: 0e02 serial: <filter>
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.3 compositor: kwin_x11 driver: X:
    loaded: amdgpu unloaded: modesetting alternate: fbdev,vesa gpu: amdgpu
    display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 508x285mm (20.00x11.22")
    s-diag: 582mm (22.93")
  Monitor-1: eDP-1 mapped: eDP model: AU Optronics 0x38ed built: 2014
    res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 142 gamma: 1.2 size: 344x193mm (13.54x7.6")
    diag: 394mm (15.5") ratio: 16:9 modes: max: 1920x1080 min: 640x480
  OpenGL: renderer: AMD RAVEN (LLVM 13.0.1 DRM 3.42 5.15.41-1-MANJARO)
    v: 4.6 Mesa 22.0.4 direct render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: AMD Raven/Raven2/Fenghuang HDMI/DP Audio vendor: Lenovo
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16
    bus-ID: 03:00.1 chip-ID: 1002:15de class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: AMD Family 17h/19h HD Audio vendor: Lenovo driver: snd_hda_intel
    v: kernel pcie: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 03:00.6
    chip-ID: 1022:15e3 class-ID: 0403
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.15.41-1-MANJARO running: yes
  Sound Server-2: JACK v: 1.9.21 running: no
  Sound Server-3: PulseAudio v: 15.0 running: yes
  Sound Server-4: PipeWire v: 0.3.51 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8821CE 802.11ac PCIe Wireless Network Adapter
    vendor: Lenovo driver: rtw_8821ce v: N/A modules: rtw88_8821ce pcie: gen: 1
    speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: 3000 bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:c821
    class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlp1s0 state: up mac: <filter>
  IP v4: <filter> type: dynamic noprefixroute scope: global
    broadcast: <filter>
  IP v6: <filter> type: dynamic noprefixroute scope: global
  IP v6: <filter> type: noprefixroute scope: link
  Device-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
    vendor: Lenovo driver: r8169 v: kernel pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1
    port: 2000 bus-ID: 02:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8168 class-ID: 0200
  IF: enp2s0 state: down mac: <filter>
  WAN IP: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Realtek Bluetooth Radio type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8
    bus-ID: 3-2:3 chip-ID: 0bda:c024 class-ID: e001 serial: <filter>
  Report: rfkill ID: hci0 rfk-id: 2 state: up address: see --recommends
Logical:
  Message: No logical block device data found.
RAID:
  Message: No RAID data found.
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 931.51 GiB used: 210.75 GiB (22.6%)
  SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
  ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Toshiba model: MQ04ABF100
    size: 931.51 GiB block-size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s
    type: HDD rpm: 5400 serial: <filter> rev: 3E scheme: GPT
  Message: No optical or floppy data found.
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 922.42 GiB size: 922.42 GiB (100.00%)
    used: 209.73 GiB (22.7%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2 label: N/A
    uuid: 2e646780-2ffb-409b-b567-fb0780bd7300
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 300 MiB size: 299.4 MiB (99.80%)
    used: 568 KiB (0.2%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1 label: NO_LABEL
    uuid: B8BC-E27B
  ID-3: /home raw-size: 922.42 GiB size: 922.42 GiB (100.00%)
    used: 209.73 GiB (22.7%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2 label: N/A
    uuid: 2e646780-2ffb-409b-b567-fb0780bd7300
  ID-4: /var/cache raw-size: 922.42 GiB size: 922.42 GiB (100.00%)
    used: 209.73 GiB (22.7%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2 label: N/A
    uuid: 2e646780-2ffb-409b-b567-fb0780bd7300
  ID-5: /var/log raw-size: 922.42 GiB size: 922.42 GiB (100.00%)
    used: 209.73 GiB (22.7%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2 label: N/A
    uuid: 2e646780-2ffb-409b-b567-fb0780bd7300
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 60 (default) cache-pressure: 100 (default)
  ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 8.8 GiB used: 1.01 GiB (11.5%)
    priority: -2 dev: /dev/sda3 maj-min: 8:3 label: swap
    uuid: 2b349ccd-c725-40e4-927d-e49c60e5a66a
Unmounted:
  Message: No unmounted partitions found.
USB:
  Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: Hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 4 rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900
  Hub-2: 2-0:1 info: Super-speed hub ports: 4 rev: 3.1 speed: 10 Gb/s
    chip-ID: 1d6b:0003 class-ID: 0900
  Hub-3: 3-0:1 info: Hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 2 rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900
  Device-1: 3-1:2 info: IMC Networks EasyCamera type: Video driver: uvcvideo
    interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s power: 500mA chip-ID: 13d3:5a02
    class-ID: 0e02 serial: <filter>
  Device-2: 3-2:3 info: Realtek Bluetooth Radio type: Bluetooth
    driver: btusb interfaces: 2 rev: 1.1 speed: 12 Mb/s power: 500mA
    chip-ID: 0bda:c024 class-ID: e001 serial: <filter>
  Hub-4: 4-0:1 info: Super-speed hub ports: 1 rev: 3.1 speed: 10 Gb/s
    chip-ID: 1d6b:0003 class-ID: 0900
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: N/A mobo: N/A gpu: amdgpu temp: 50.0 C
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Info:
  Processes: 263 Uptime: 18h 33m wakeups: 60185 Init: systemd v: 250
  tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 12.1.0 clang: 13.0.1 Packages: 1334
  pacman: 1325 lib: 368 flatpak: 0 snap: 9 Shell: Zsh v: 5.9 default: Bash
  v: 5.1.16 running-in: konsole inxi: 3.3.16

Thank you.

ruziel · 3 June 2022 12:04

Hi there. I can’t help you beyond saying that in such situations in the past, I have gone for a clean install. I prefer to start from scratch & tend to go with the default partitioning scheme suggested by the Manjaro installer. More power to you. Ruziel

Ben · 3 June 2022 12:18

Last time I did a major upheaval, I simply copied my entire /home/ben directory, wiped it clean, then manually copied back what was needed - it’s cleaner that way (and you can leave behind any crud left behind from a year or two of removing software but not cleaning out the configs/caches).

Then I reinstalled and manually copied files back as I got it set up again.

abad.140101 · 3 June 2022 12:51

Thank you and Ben. Does this also mean timeshift/btrfs is not a reliable snapshot? I have multiple snapshots of date/time when my system was fine. But when I restore to any of them, I remain saddled with broken system.

Or do I need other partitioning scheme for reliable timeshift snapshot?

And, if reinstallation is the only way to go, it is possible to reinstall Manjaro KDE without losing /home?

Link to a tutorial/step-by-step guide would help a new user like me. Thank you.

GaVenga · 3 June 2022 13:21

Assume your Manjaro is totaly broken ==> install new
First thing is to backup your HOME-Directory:

every “not hidden” Files - like Downloads, Documents and so on
all “hidden” files to a separate Directory
mostly you will need .mozilla (Firefox) and .thunderbird (Thunderbird) after new install.
Then:
you are advised to install/store the HOME-Directory on a separate partition or better Disk.
The advantage: new install does not touch your home-directory any longer.
.
You will need a live-medium on an USB-thumb-drive.
Do the install in uefi-mode if possible.
When the Installer asks what you want to do (partitioning)
choose: “something different”
For uefi you need one partition of ~200MiB ==> labeled “boot-efi” and formatted with fat32
and on the same drive (hopefully a SSD-Drive) a partition called root ( / ), formatted with ext4
Next: choose the home-drive or partition (e.g. sda1)

If allready exists /home on a separate partion ==> do not format this!! (use it instead)
You have to choose another name for your home-directory, because
there may or will be broken configs. Use backup if necessary instead.
Renaming the old /home before new install is a splendid good idea…
do not choose autologin at installation! If the KDE runs flawlessly, then you may choose Autologin…

abad.140101 · 3 June 2022 13:28

Thank you. It is not totally broken. In about 15 minutes I am able to login to a working system which is very slow.

Does your suggestion give me RELIABLE and easily restorable snapshots of / and /home? How?

GaVenga · 3 June 2022 13:46

Look at: GitHub - teejee2008/timeshift: System restore tool for Linux. Creates filesystem snapshots using rsync+hardlinks, or BTRFS snapshots. Supports scheduled snapshots, multiple backup levels, and exclude filters. Snapshots can be restored while system is running or from Live CD/USB.
BTRFS - I knew this when using oepensuse long time ago
Has / is an automatic backupsystem, and Timeshift is the frontend in this case.
Some configs of XUbuntu are very very different from Manjaro - gives errors…
When I changed froim Ubuntu to Manjaro on some PCs - I had do create a new /home/user…
In your case, if you really cannot use a second SSD-Drive:
! After external backup !
new install ==> “something different”
==> sda1 keep and use
==> sda2 change to ~100 GiB and use as root ( / ) - format with btrfs
==> sda3 change to “rest of drive” ( - 10% free space approximately) and /home , format ext4
Use a swapfile - how to is described in manjaro or arch WIKIs.
Inside “Timeshift” -config there are filters…
EDIT: use the Timeshift version in Manjaro Unstable - there where errors in old version.
https://manjaro.moson.eu/unstable/community/x86_64/timeshift-22.06.1-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst

Ben · 3 June 2022 13:52

Haha forgot about the TEST user. If that works okay, then you know it’s your settings messed up - so you could just delete your .config file and copy stuff back from older snapshots.

brahma · 3 June 2022 13:53

try creating a new user, and if everything works with it, then there would be no need to reinstall …

abad.140101 · 3 June 2022 13:55

Creating new user may not help, because getting to login screen itself is very difficult & time consuming.

GaVenga · 3 June 2022 13:56

May help, but:
his partition scheme is not really good - he will loose /home if the system crashes…

Ben · 3 June 2022 13:56

Ok, then reinstall - and then manually start copying from old Timeshift snapshots.

brahma · 3 June 2022 13:56

i see… so probably reinstall is the best option…

zbe · 3 June 2022 13:58

Looks like a broken /etc/fstab. Double check if UUIDs are correct. Also, what’s with those weird characters, is your tty drunk?

abad.140101 · 3 June 2022 13:59

What partitioning scheme would be good for 1TB. I need reliable snapshot restoration. I read that timeshift/btrfs is good. But may be I made some mistake.

GaVenga · 3 June 2022 14:02

Normal partition scheme for 1TB:

1. 200 MiB fat32   ->    "boot/efi
2. 100 Gib btrfs   ->    /
3. about 800 GiB   ->    /home

Swapfile on /home - 8GiB sufficiant even if 64 GiB RAM

abad.140101 · 3 June 2022 14:03

Ok, I will check on /etc/fstab after few hours and get back. I hope this may solve the issue. I am also confused about such characters.

GaVenga · 3 June 2022 14:05

(off topic!) Like current german politicans

abad.140101 · 3 June 2022 16:40

Just confirmed that /etc/fstab is not broken. UUIDs are correct.

zbe · 3 June 2022 17:17

No idea then.

This would need thorough explanation and steps what you actually did or else we are just guessing. And if it’s timeshift’s fault, then search for similar issues and solutions if available.
Also those weird characters aren’t a good sign. Like some broken conf file or binary file being ran in tty which messes it.