Updates keep destabilizing the system

[Rayko]

I might be not well to describe multiple issues in one topic, but I need advice on what to do in some context.

In January I bought a new laptop and decided to install Manjaro on it, since my last laptop was working very well on it. Initially after installation, everything seemed to work fine, but I needed to install the first batch of system updates.

The first update messed the system up, preventing lightdm from running correctly on startup (something related to the amd drivers?..). I found it being a relatively known problem and had to patch myself proper autolaunching of the lightdm service and the backlight service, since the brightness of my screen was always resetting on startup. HDD mounting also went a bit weird relatively to my old laptop - instead of becoming a ‘detachable device’, my mounted HHD became just a folder in the system with no indication that it is another device.

The latest march update that also concerned some grub-related security patching left me with no grub at all, loading me directly into manjaro, even though I had double boot with win10. Moreover, for some reason, it suddenly regressed WINE that stopped being able to run a very old game with which it was very compatible - from Gold to Platinum levels. After the update, I found out that my Timeshift did not create snapshots, even though it was set up to do it daily.

I never had such issues with Manjaro on my old laptop. I believe I can sort out the latest problems introduced myself, but considering that errors keep being piled up I wonder if something went wrong at the very beginning and if the system can be ‘adjusted’ to ‘straighten out’ these issues. Can this be done without reinstalling the system completely?

Here is the inxi -F output:

System:    Host: rayko-pc Kernel: 5.11.2-1-MANJARO x86_64 bits: 64 Desktop: Xfce 4.16.0 Distro: Manjaro Linux 
Machine:   Type: Laptop System: HP product: HP Pavilion Gaming Laptop 15-ec1xxx v: N/A serial: <superuser required> 
           Mobo: HP model: 87B1 v: 31.20 serial: <superuser required> UEFI: AMI v: F.11 date: 07/22/2020 
Battery:   ID-1: BAT0 charge: 47.7 Wh condition: 51.4/51.4 Wh (100%) 
CPU:       Info: 6-Core model: AMD Ryzen 5 4600H with Radeon Graphics bits: 64 type: MT MCP L2 cache: 3 MiB 
           Speed: 1397 MHz min/max: 1400/3000 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1397 2: 1579 3: 1397 4: 1397 5: 1397 6: 1397 7: 1397 
           8: 1397 9: 1397 10: 1397 11: 1397 12: 1397 
Graphics:  Device-1: NVIDIA TU117M driver: nvidia v: 460.56 
           Device-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Renoir driver: amdgpu v: kernel 
           Device-3: Quanta HP TrueVision HD Camera type: USB driver: uvcvideo 
           Display: x11 server: X. Org 1.20.10 driver: loaded: amdgpu, ati, nvidia unloaded: modesetting,nouveau 
           resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: AMD RENOIR (DRM 3.40.0 5.11.2-1-MANJARO LLVM 11.1.0) v: 4.6 Mesa 20.3.4 
Audio:     Device-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Raven/Raven2/FireFlight/Renoir Audio Processor driver: N/A 
           Device-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 17h HD Audio driver: snd_hda_intel 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.11.2-1-MANJARO 
Network:   Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet driver: r8169 
           IF: eno1 state: down mac: f8:0d:ac:14:a0:f5 
           Device-2: Realtek RTL8822CE 802.11ac PCIe Wireless Network Adapter driver: rtw_8822ce 
           IF: wlo1 state: up mac: 18:47:3d:01:54:33 
Bluetooth: Device-1: Realtek Bluetooth Radio type: USB driver: btusb 
           Message: Required tool hciconfig not installed. Check --recommends 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 704.24 GiB used: 139.26 GiB (19.8%) 
           ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Western Digital model: PC SN530 SDBPNPZ-256G-1006 size: 238.47 GiB 
           ID-2: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST500LM021-1KJ152 size: 465.76 GiB 
Partition: ID-1: / size: 184.89 GiB used: 27.56 GiB (14.9%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p5 
           ID-2: /boot/efi size: 256 MiB used: 59.8 MiB (23.4%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1 
Swap:      ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 8 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) file: /mnt/HDD/Storage/swapfile 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 36.2 C mobo: N/A gpu: amdgpu temp: 35.0 C 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Info:      Processes: 298 Uptime: 30m Memory: 7.21 GiB used: 2.87 GiB (39.8%) Shell: Bash inxi: 3.3.01

[Fabby]

@Rayko

Kernel: 5.11.2-1-MANJARO

When you run a rolling release like Manjaro, Kernel Management becomes a thing. So if you want to be on the cutting edge, keep trying new kernels, filing bugs, … and stay on 5.11, 5.12, … but if you want stability choose any LTS (Long Time Support) kernel version number here and use the mhwd-kernel Manjaro CLI program or the kernel GUI program to have at least 2 LTS kernels installed and if one fails you, use the other one.

[67GTA]

Make sure to set up Timeshift so you can roll back updates if things go wrong.

[Fabby]

I respectfully disagree with TimeShift all by itself,because of this:

[HowTo] make a crash-proof backup in Manjaro for your entire system

Difficulty: ★★☆☆☆ If you follow the tutorial completely, you will be able to create a backup of your entire system not only limited to Manjaro, but also including Windows, RHEL, Ubuntu, … and whatever else you might have installed on your system! Even if you replace your HDD by an SSD, your HDD crashes, your entire system gets stolen, … you can always restore a Cold System backup to an identical system (You cannot restore E.G. a Dell XPS onto a Dell PowerEdge and then expect that to…

[67GTA]

I skipped through the last two paragraphs and didn’t notice the OP already stated that Timeshift was set up.

[BigFeet13]

I agree about the kernels. Even though I have an older laptop, I always try new kernels, but always keep an LTS as a backup.

[Kobold]

I don’t see any reason in your quote for that, why should’nt we use timeshift for backup?

I never had to restore my System yet, but i use regular backups on my external HDD.

If i had a system crash or virus (viruses are really rare on Linux anyways, if we don’t use Windows Emulations like wine, right?). So i would boot my System with a USB Stick (Manjaro ISO) and restore the latest backup.

Could you explain whats wrong with timeshift? I really don’t see the point in your link.

[SpaceD_0ut_Ace]

I have an issue with grub as well.

[Fabby]

@Kobold

why should’nt we use timeshift for backup

I never said that. I said:

@Fabby

I respectfully disagree with TimeShift all by itself

You can use TimeShift for warm backups, but need something else for cold backups. Read the entire tutorial and skip anything borg because you use TimeShift already.

[Rayko]

I would like to look into this, however I have a problem.

After the latest update the system simply does not show me the GRUB screen, and so I cannot change the active kernel. It boots me directly into Manjaro, even though I have a Windows installation as well. GRUB itself seems to be fine, since I even did go as far as reinstalling it.

Moreover, is it possible to disable automatic switch to a new kernel when updating? I saw it installing them, but I didn’t notice it was also changing them…

[Fabby]

@Rayko

After the latest update the system simply does not show me the GRUB screen, and so I cannot change the active kernel.

Press Shift while booting to get around this temporarily and read the crash proof tutorial as one of the things it contains is to show the GRUB menu in item #5 of the Cold System Backup.

[Rayko]

Thank you, I managed to get into the grub menu. It seems that the main reason for it disappearing was that the update I had overwrote the menu style as “hidden” and somehow erased Windows 10 from the list, leaving Manjaro the only OS there. Nasty.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to test the latest two LTS kernels. The original issue of not being able to run Light Display Manager, which I originally fixed by adding amdgpu module to the mkinitcpio.conf file, seemed to resurface with older kernels, but this time it simply wouldn’t go away. An alternative solution of configuring “logind-check-graphical=true” in lightdm.conf file that I found on Reddit didn’t do anything either, so I am somewhat stuck with my current kernel.

It seems like the rabbit hole is deeper than I initially anticipated. I wonder if the main reason of all this is simply Manjaro not being able to operate properly if installed on SSD. I will probably test it by making a partition on my HDD and installing an OS there…

[Fabby]

@Rayko

simply Manjaro not being able to operate properly if installed on SSD

I’m running from an SSD, no issue.

[Rayko]

Good to hear, one thing less to test against in this case.

[Kobold]

@Rayko

Thank you, I managed to get into the grub menu. It seems that the main reason for it disappearing was that the update I had overwrote the menu style as “hidden” and somehow erased Windows 10 from the list, leaving Manjaro the only OS there. Nasty.

Everyone got this problem now, because of the latest grub security issue… check this out:

@philm

Grub got some needed security updates . Note that os-prober is now disabled by default for security reasons: broken patch ; fixed patch . More infos about it here . To restore the old behavior, open a terminal and issue echo GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false|sudo tee -a /etc/default/grub && sudo update-grub

[Fabby]

I’ve marked this answer as the solution to your question as it is by far the best answer you’ll get.

Updates keep destabilizing the system

Everyone got this problem now, because of the latest grub security issue… check this out:

However, if you disagree with my choice, please feel free to take any other answer as the solution to your question or even remove the solution altogether: You are in control! (If you disagree with my choice, just send me a personal message and explain why I shouldn’t have done this or or if you agree)

P.S. In the future, please don’t forget to come back and click the 3 dots below the answer to mark a solution like this below the answer that helped you most:

so that the next person that has the exact same problem you just had will benefit from your post as well as your question will now be in the “solved” status.