All,
This is the first fail to boot I've had with Arch in years. After a
relatively small update, which went fine on my test machine (no
RAID/mdadm), I updated the server and was dropped to recovery console on
reboot (mild panic set in looking at the "failed to find ....")
The update included the 6.18.13 kernel and mdadm 4.5-1. Those were
the only packages I could see that may be relevant to this issue
(possibly the firmware) Prior to reboot I'd checked that all drives,
etc. wer okay, no journal entries out of the ordinary, etc..
But on reboot, the boot failed and I was dropped to the recovery
console. I also have LTS on this box, just for the case where an updated
kernel doesn't boot, so instead of groping around half-blind in the
recovery console, I rebooted and chose to boot LTS -- all fine.
This is where I need help. How do I figure out what failed to cause
the new 6.18.13 kernel to not boot? LTS is fine, machine is up, running
and happy, just as it was on 6.18.9.arch1-2 (prior kernel). Not finding
a driver and dropping to the recovery console leaves no logs, so how do
I find out why the new kernel and mdadm package are failing?
Should I just downgrade those packages (kernel and mdadm) and see if
that works, or is there are more systematic way to approach this. I'm
proficient in a lot of areas, but unfortunately diagnosing what went
wrong from the recovery console isn't one of them. (I'd generally boot
the install CD and chroot the system and go at it that way).
Anybody able to provide any guidance on how to recover the 6.18.13
setup, or what information I need to check to see why it's failing? My
only inclination is the download and burn a new install CD, chroot and
try rebuilding initramfs? Curiously, the new initramfs is quite a bit
smaller than LTS:
-rw------- 1 root root 10250207 Feb 26 21:42 initramfs-linux-lts.img
-rw------- 1 root root 9633236 Feb 26 21:43 initramfs-linux.img
I always check the "Latest News" feed for any gotchas before
upgrading the server, and there was nothing this time, but...
Something went very wrong -- help...
The list full list of packages updated were:
Packages (70)
adwaita-fonts-50.0-1 apparmor-4.1.6-2 bubblewrap-0.11.0-2
ca-certificates-mozilla-3.121-1 cpupower-6.19.3-1 ddrescue-1.30-2
deno-2.7.1-1 fasm-1.73.35-1 feh-3.11.3-1 firefox-148.0-1 gawk-5.4.0-1
giac-2.0.0.21-1 glslang-1:1.4.341.0-2 gpgme-2.0.1-3
gst-libav-1.28.1-1 gst-plugins-bad-1.28.1-1
gst-plugins-bad-libs-1.28.1-1 gst-plugins-base-1.28.1-1
gst-plugins-base-libs-1.28.1-1 gst-plugins-good-1.28.1-1
gstreamer-1.28.1-1 inkscape-1.4.3-4 libfyaml-0.9.5-1
libid3tag-0.16.4-1 libinih-62-2 libkeccak-1.4.3-1 libksba-1.6.8-1
libldac-2.0.2.3-3 libmaxminddb-1.13.2-1 libngtcp2-1.21.0-1
libplacebo-7.360.0-2 libreoffice-still-25.8.5-2 libxmp-4.7.0-1
linux-6.18.13.arch1-1 linux-docs-6.18.13.arch1-1
linux-firmware-20260221-1 linux-firmware-amdgpu-20260221-1
linux-firmware-atheros-20260221-1 linux-firmware-broadcom-20260221-1
linux-firmware-cirrus-20260221-1 linux-firmware-intel-20260221-1
linux-firmware-mediatek-20260221-1 linux-firmware-nvidia-20260221-1
linux-firmware-other-20260221-1 linux-firmware-radeon-20260221-1
linux-firmware-realtek-20260221-1 linux-firmware-whence-20260221-1
linux-headers-6.18.13.arch1-1 mdadm-4.5-1 mesa-1:26.0.1-1 nss-3.121-1
openmpi-5.0.10-1 parallel-20260222-1 poppler-26.02.0-2
poppler-glib-26.02.0-2 poppler-qt6-26.02.0-2 postgresql-18.3-1
postgresql-docs-18.3-1 postgresql-libs-18.3-1
python-chardet-6.0.0.post1-1 python-platformdirs-4.9.3-1
python-pypdf-6.7.3-1 python-requests-2.32.5-4 sha3sum-1.2.4-1
shaderc-2026.1-2 spandsp-0.0.6-7 spirv-tools-1:1.4.341.0-2
vim-9.2.0067-1 vim-runtime-9.2.0067-1 xkeyboard-config-2.47-1
--
David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E.
