Laptop Died While Updating, Now Unable to Boot

Background

While updating my Manjaro-KDE installation, the battery died (it was unplugged). After plugging in, I attempted to boot the device, but have been unable to fully boot.

Dilemma

During boot, I am unable to get to a splash screen for my installation or arrive at any login prompt. Instead, I am only able to progress to a command screen that states the following:

error: file '/boot/initramfs-5.4-x86_64.img' not found.
Press any key to continue...

Pressing any key or waiting will eventually lead to the device’s manufacturer boot screen (Dell Logo) and is unresponsive to any further input.

This is my personal laptop. Hoping that there’s something I can do that will allow me to successfully boot into my installation again.

Luckily, I have the following details from previous troubleshooting:

$ inxi --admin --verbosity=7 --filter --no-host
    System:    Kernel: 5.4.64-1-MANJARO x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 10.2.0 
               parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.4-x86_64 root=UUID=9fe73c41-0e8b-469c-9e83-5f137ea0bd44 rw quiet 
               cryptdevice=UUID=94e1781d-ac46-4d26-987a-d04445f1116f:luks-94e1781d-ac46-4d26-987a-d04445f1116f 
               root=/dev/mapper/luks-94e1781d-ac46-4d26-987a-d04445f1116f 
               resume=/dev/mapper/luks-94e1781d-ac46-4d26-987a-d04445f1116f 
               Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.19.5 tk: Qt 5.15.0 wm: kwin_x11 dm: SDDM Distro: Manjaro Linux 
    Machine:   Type: Laptop System: Dell product: XPS 13 9360 v: N/A serial: <filter> Chassis: type: 9 serial: <filter> 
               Mobo: Dell model: 0TPN17 v: A00 serial: <filter> UEFI: Dell v: 2.12.0 date: 05/26/2019 
    Battery:   ID-1: BAT0 charge: 51.4 Wh condition: 51.4/60.0 Wh (86%) volts: 8.6/7.6 model: SMP DELL TP1GT61 type: Li-poly 
               serial: <filter> status: Full 
    Memory:    RAM: total: 7.38 GiB used: 1.78 GiB (24.1%) 
               RAM Report: permissions: Unable to run dmidecode. Root privileges required. 
    CPU:       Topology: Quad Core model: Intel Core i7-8550U bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Kaby Lake family: 6 model-id: 8E (142) 
               stepping: A (10) microcode: D6 L2 cache: 8192 KiB bogomips: 32012 
               Speed: 800 MHz min/max: 400/4000 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 779 2: 800 3: 800 4: 800 5: 786 6: 800 7: 767 8: 799 
               Flags: 3dnowprefetch abm acpi adx aes aperfmperf apic arat arch_perfmon art avx avx2 bmi1 bmi2 bts clflush 
               clflushopt cmov constant_tsc cpuid cpuid_fault cx16 cx8 de ds_cpl dtes64 dtherm dts epb ept ept_ad erms est f16c 
               flexpriority flush_l1d fma fpu fsgsbase fxsr ht hwp hwp_act_window hwp_epp hwp_notify ibpb ibrs ida intel_pt 
               invpcid invpcid_single lahf_lm lm mca mce md_clear mmx monitor movbe mpx msr mtrr nonstop_tsc nopl nx pae pat pbe 
               pcid pclmulqdq pdcm pdpe1gb pebs pge pln pni popcnt pse pse36 pti pts rdrand rdseed rdtscp rep_good sdbg sep smap 
               smep ss ssbd sse sse2 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 stibp syscall tm tm2 tpr_shadow tsc tsc_adjust tsc_deadline_timer vme vmx 
               vnmi vpid x2apic xgetbv1 xsave xsavec xsaveopt xsaves xtopology xtpr 
               Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: Split huge pages 
               Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: conditional cache flushes, SMT vulnerable 
               Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable 
               Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI 
               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: Full generic retpoline, IBPB: conditional, IBRS_FW, STIBP: conditional, RSB filling 
               Type: srbds mitigation: Microcode 
               Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected 
    Graphics:  Device-1: Intel UHD Graphics 620 vendor: Dell driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0 chip ID: 8086:5917 
               Device-2: Realtek Integrated_Webcam_HD type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus ID: 1-5:5 chip ID: 0bda:568b serial: <filter> 
               Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.8 compositor: kwin_x11 driver: intel unloaded: modesetting alternate: fbdev,vesa 
               display ID: :0 screens: 1 
               Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 508x285mm (20.0x11.2") s-diag: 582mm (22.9") 
               Monitor-1: eDP1 res: 1920x1080 dpi: 168 size: 290x170mm (11.4x6.7") diag: 336mm (13.2") 
               OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel UHD Graphics 620 (KBL GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 20.1.7 direct render: Yes 
    Audio:     Device-1: Intel Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio vendor: Dell driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel alternate: snd_soc_skl 
               bus ID: 00:1f.3 chip ID: 8086:9d71 
               Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.64-1-MANJARO 
    Network:   Device-1: Intel Wireless-AC 9260 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel port: f040 bus ID: 3a:00.0 chip ID: 8086:2526 
               IF: wlp58s0 state: up mac: <filter> 
               IP v4: <filter> type: dynamic noprefixroute scope: global broadcast: <filter> 
               IP v6: <filter> type: noprefixroute scope: link 
               Device-2: Intel Wireless-AC 9260 Bluetooth Adapter type: USB driver: btusb bus ID: 1-3:3 chip ID: 8087:0025 
               IF-ID-1: proton0 state: unknown speed: 10 Mbps duplex: full mac: N/A 
               IP v4: <filter> scope: global broadcast: <filter> 
               IP v6: <filter> virtual: stable-privacy scope: link 
               WAN IP: <filter> 
    Drives:    Local Storage: total: 238.47 GiB used: 166.94 GiB (70.0%) 
               SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required. 
               ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Micron model: PC300 NVMe SK hynix 256GB size: 238.47 GiB block size: physical: 512 B 
               logical: 512 B speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 serial: <filter> rev: 20005A00 scheme: GPT 
               Message: No Optical or Floppy data was found. 
    RAID:      Message: No RAID data was found. 
    Partition: ID-1: / raw size: 229.37 GiB size: 224.77 GiB (97.99%) used: 166.94 GiB (74.3%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/dm-0 label: N/A 
               uuid: 9fe73c41-0e8b-469c-9e83-5f137ea0bd44 
               ID-2: /boot/efi raw size: 300.0 MiB size: 299.4 MiB (99.80%) used: 440 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1 
               label: N/A uuid: D16D-AF8F 
    Swap:      Kernel: swappiness: 60 (default) cache pressure: 100 (default) 
               ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 8.80 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 dev: /dev/dm-1 label: N/A 
               uuid: 9d869365-1fa1-4db3-963e-6bc3d22516d9 
    Unmounted: ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1p2 size: 229.37 GiB fs: crypto_luks label: N/A uuid: 94e1781d-ac46-4d26-987a-d04445f1116f 
               ID-2: /dev/nvme0n1p3 size: 8.80 GiB fs: crypto_luks label: N/A uuid: a5462c71-179f-4071-8f86-5926364e4f4a 
    USB:       Hub: 1-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 12 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s chip ID: 1d6b:0002 
               Hub: 1-1:2 info: Microchip (formerly SMSC) USB2742 ports: 2 rev: 2.1 speed: 480 Mb/s chip ID: 0424:2742 
               Device-1: 1-1.2:4 info: Validity Sensors VFS7552 Touch Fingerprint Sensor type: <vendor specific> driver: N/A 
               interfaces: 1 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s chip ID: 138a:0091 serial: <filter> 
               Device-2: 1-3:3 info: Intel Wireless-AC 9260 Bluetooth Adapter type: Bluetooth driver: btusb interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 
               speed: 12 Mb/s chip ID: 8087:0025 
               Device-3: 1-5:5 info: Realtek Integrated_Webcam_HD type: Video driver: uvcvideo interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 
               speed: 480 Mb/s chip ID: 0bda:568b serial: <filter> 
               Hub: 2-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 6 rev: 3.0 speed: 5 Gb/s chip ID: 1d6b:0003 
               Hub: 2-1:2 info: Microchip (formerly SMSC) USB5742 ports: 2 rev: 3.1 speed: 5 Gb/s chip ID: 0424:5742 
    Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 41.0 C mobo: N/A 
               Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
    Info:      Processes: 310 Uptime: 11h 32m Init: systemd v: 246 Compilers: gcc: 10.2.0 clang: 10.0.1 Packages: pacman: 1399 
               lib: 331 flatpak: 0 Shell: Zsh v: 5.8 running in: yakuake inxi: 3.1.05

So far, the only fix I’ve attempted to do was replace quiet with systemd.unit=multi-user.target on the line beginning with “linux” in the GRUB editor from the Manjaro GRUB menu, but pressing F10 (or Ctrl-x) doesn’t follow with a successful boot.

I also have a Live USB of Manjaro Architect (5.4 kernel) that I can boot into if that might assist any repair (aside from a full re-installation).

1 Like

Boot up from the live USB and open up a terminal. Then issue the following commands… :arrow_down:

sudo su -
manjaro-chroot -a

If you have only one GNU/Linux distribution on your system, press 0.

Now issue the following commands and let the update finish… :arrow_down:

rm -f /var/lib/pacman/db.lck
pacman -Syu
sync

After the command is finished, exit the chroot environment by pressing Ctrl+D and reboot the system. All should be well. :wink:

2 Likes

Hey Aragorn, thank you for the prompt reply!

The following error displays:

[manjaro-architect ~]# manjaro-chroot -a
==> ERROR: You can't mount 0!

You are probably using an older live USB, in which the manjaro-chroot supplied on the medium had a bug. @Wollie has just reminded me of that.

Repeat the procedure, but press 1 this time. :wink:

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To clarify, when running manjaro-chroot -a no numerical menu is returned; only the aforementioned error code.

Nonetheless, thinking the encrypted partition might be one obstacle, I seem to have been able to perform the recommended commands from my live USB - i.e., Linux-5.4.18-1-MANJARO x86_64 - with the following work-around:

But the issue persists. Even if I repeat the GRUB edit - i.e., replacing quiet with systemd.unit=multi-user.target afterwards the same message displays during boot:

error: file 'boot/initramfs-5.4-x86_64.img' not found.
Press any key to continue...

without any functionality following a key press.

What is the content of the /boot directory on the drive?

I would try to chroot again and run:

pacman -Syy
mhwd-kernel -i linux54
mkinitcpio -P
exit

If it boots, first thing to do:

sudo pacman -Sc
sudo pacman-mirrors --country all --api --protocols all --set-branch stable && sudo pacman -Syyu
1 Like

That got it! Note I was prompted to use pacman -Syu after initial input of mhwd-kernel -i linux54:

I was able to boot up and login though! Much appreciated Wollie and Aragorn! Please know that you’ve helped this nurse find some normalcy in his day again!

Now I just have to figure out why my touchpad sensitivity is all messed up and certain zsh aliases seem to be broke. But I’m at least able to access my installation again! Truly appreciate it.

2 Likes

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