Linux Update Interrupted And Now Linux Broken

Linux was in the middle of an update (via pacman) when my pc totally froze. I hard rebooted, only to come back to a Linux that no longer can even boot.

What is one supposed to do to solve this issue if it occurs?

I had to reinstall Windows after this. But I already miss Linux. I want to use Linux, but boy oh boy is it a OS of searching and learning. Its like a manual car vs. a automatic.

How do you know that it did really freeze? Some updates take a longer time to install, and there’s only so much data that your drive can handle at the same time.

The mistake all of the impatient newbies make, and the result is always the same. :face_with_hand_over_mouth:

At the start of the upgrade process, pacman removes the kernels and the initcpios. That is why your system can’t boot anymore if you interrupt the process.

Boot up from the installer medium in live mode, open up a terminal window and type the following two commands… :arrow_down:

sudo su -
manjaro-chroot -a

If necessary, confirm which is your Manjaro installation. Then type the following set of commands, and let each of them finish until they return you to a command prompt… :arrow_down:

pacman-mirrors -f 5 && pacman -Syyu
update-grub
sync
exit
systemctl reboot

Bookmark this post for future reference. :grin:

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Boot up from the installer medium in live mode, open up a terminal window and type the following two commands…

But how do I even do this haha? When I had this issue, I was basically stuck on what appeared to be like a Manjaro BIOs screen. Where it offered me 2 kernal options; 5.10 and 5.10 blah blah blah (I cant remember) I didnt see any options for opening up a terminal.

This is why @Aragorn suggests to boot from the installer medium, not your installed system.

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I know its too late for you now but if you keep a live usb of manjaro you can repair almost anything by booting the live usb and using chroot.

There’s also a script in the repos that creates a timeshift backup everytime you run an update. I configure timeshift to backup daily so I can restore a recent backup if anything breaks

You can even place the ISO inside of the hard drive and boot directly with grub,so it can be like a recovery mode.

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What is a “installer medium”? I am a extreme newb at Linux, and Windows. I am not a programmer or have any background in computing. I am a consumer level user of computers.

How does one do this?

And, how would I access Timeshift if the OS simply wont even load?

How did you install manjaro? If you used a USB flash drive that is a live usb. You can boot the USB flash drive without installing it. Once you are booted into your USB flash drive you can use chroot to access your system and repair it or you can restore a timeshift backup

If you still have a timeshift backup somewhere you can even reinstall manjaro and restore your backup (providing your backup is on another disk/spare partition)

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Tips and tricks to ensure a safe update

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How does one access chroot while doing this boot from the USB that you are talking about? What menus would I go into to access this?

@Iwanttolinux You need to enter the terminal commands outlined here. Linux Update Interrupted And Now Linux Broken - #2 by Aragorn

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There’s an excellent guide on chroot on the forums

And another on the manjaro wiki

https://wiki.manjaro.org/index.php/GRUB/Restore_the_GRUB_Bootloader

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Good reading.

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See GRUB/Restore the GRUB Bootloader - Manjaro

You can also use TimeShift which comes with Manjaro to save the current state of your system prior to updating. You can use your installation media (the USB stick you used to install Manjaro) to boot up, and then use Timeshift to “bring you back in time.”

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