Recent update switched to LTS kernel, boot fails, manual steps required.

kaktuspalme

camtron I had exactly the same problem. Somehow an lts kernel image was still in my boot folder although I didn't have any lts kernel installed. And it seemed like clr-boot-manager always selected that lts kernel over 5.6.18. I don't know how clr-boot-manager works, but I think it somehow "thought" the lts kernel was the newest one?

In my case it was kernel image 4.9.210-151.lts hanging around in the boot folder.

Harvey

Fix is in unstable: https://dev.getsol.us/R3347:c3ea95bdc96b7535b30663b8effffa16c8e9862f

I assume we will get another sync to stable when team are compos mentis.

kaktuspalme

Harvey Dev Team is awesome.

InFamousM

Hope stable fix comes out soon WITH desent directions.

colorado_chris

InFamousM All I know so far is that you will need to boot a Solus .ISO and mount your hard drive to be able to update the broken files.

DataDrake

clr-boot-manager fix has hit Shannon as of a few minutes ago.

Update for eopkg or the Software Center
Run sudo clr-boot-manager list-kernels to get a list of the available kernels.
Run sudo clr-boot-manager set-kernel <line from kernel list> to set a default kernel (no <> symbols)
Run sudo clr-boot-manager list-kernels to check for the * next to the kernel you selected.
(Optional) Run sudo clr-boot-manager update and sudo clr-boot-manager list-kernels to verify that it did not change after you set it.
- Note: sudo clr-boot-manager update will always select the highest kernel release number from the same series (e.g. current-5.6.18-155 instead of current-5.6.13-153, but not lts-4.9.227-160).
(Optional) Reboot to confirm that it indeed loaded the entry you selected.

elfprince

DataDrake How do I remove the lts kernel from the list? btw, it s/b set-kernel not set kernel right? Thank you for your help! 😀

brent

DataDrake Note: sudo clr-boot-manager update will always select the highest kernel release number from the same series (e.g. current-5.6.18-155 instead of current-5.6.13-153, but not lts-4.9.227-160).

Did the update then immediately rebooted. Didn't see the mini-splash featuring the current and older versions, it just simply rebooted and went to the highest kernel. Uname -r confirms this. Success--this probably was exactly as intended.

inxa

DataDrake Worked for me, thanks.

Chrym

I had also the same Issue with 4.9.xx LTS Kernel, which was forced by VirtualBox installation. Did done the steps which DataDrake mentioned, but that didn't work (the system always bootet into the LTS Kernel, even after LTS Kernel and VirtualBox uninstalling). So mounted the boot Partition and removed all LTS entries I've found, did a clr-boot-manager update and rebooted. That worked for me.

So the questien is, why is the system forcing the LTS Kernel (and why VBox requires this Kernel, it should support Kernel 5.7?).

DataDrake

elfprince nice catch. Most kernels will be removed automatically on a successful boot for one of the kernels in that branch. If you want to get rid of one entirely, you'll need to mount /boot and remove the initrd, vmlinuz, and loader/entries/<kernel>.conf, then re-run sudo clr-boot-manager update to fix the menus.

InFamousM

Did the "sudo clr-boot-manager set kernel com.solus.xxxxx.xxxxx.xx"
now it sais cannot mount boot device /dev/sda1 on /boot: no such device?

elfprince

DataDrake Is this even advisable?

DataDrake

elfprince It's mostly safe if you're paying attention. Generally, it's only necessary if you have -current and -lts installed and want to remove one of them entirely.

elfprince

DataDrake hmm, mount: /boot: can't find in /etc/fstab. Anyway, is it a must to remove the lts kernel? I have one current and one lts right now. Can they play in peace?

DataDrake

elfprince They should be fine together. I was only presenting an option. /boot isn't in /etc/fstab because it gets unmounted after the boot process completes. clr-boot-manager knows how to mount it as needed. You can look in lsblk for the drive though.

DataDrake

Chrym Not sure what you mean about forcing? VirtualBox is supported on the non-LTS kernel.

Chrym

DataDrake Everytime I try to install VirtualBox it will install also 4.9. LTS Kernel. If I remove LTS Kernel afterwards, VirtualBox will not run. I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but for now I've decided to do nothing with VirtualBox on Solus.

zonzille

DataDrake Update for eopkg or the Software Center
Run sudo clr-boot-manager list-kernels to get a list of the available kernels.
Run sudo clr-boot-manager set-kernel <line from kernel list> to set a default kernel (no <> symbols)
Run sudo clr-boot-manager list-kernels to check for the * next to the kernel you selected.
(Optional) Run sudo clr-boot-manager update and sudo clr-boot-manager list-kernels to verify that it did not change after you set it.
Note: sudo clr-boot-manager update will always select the highest kernel release number from the same series (e.g. current-5.6.18-155 instead of current-5.6.13-153, but not lts-4.9.227-160).
(Optional) Reboot to confirm that it indeed loaded the entry you selected.

Step 5 seems to fail on my side, with the following error message :

[ERROR] cbm (../src/bootman/update.c:L189): Cannot determine the currently running kernel

I did all the previous steps but there already was a * next to the most recent kernel... Gotta warn that I had to chroot in order to reach a state in which I could run sudo eopkg up without getting an error message. I already updated everything and did all necessary steps from the solus boot rescue but for this kernel problem it seems ineffective !

EDIT : After like the tenth reboot it suddenly started working again, so sorry for the inconvenience, you can safely ignore my post

colorado_chris

Yikes. So tossing my hat into the ring. Dell Latitude E5470 has exact same error after the last update. No boot. Not able to enter anything on the blinking cursor.

Most I can gather is "failed initialize dm devices" and a "handling fault" of some sort before hard shutdown required. Is this fixable? Makes at least the 3rd update that hosed this laptop. I thought I am fairly certain I was already running LTS Kernel because previously it wouldn't boot with the latest kernel but that was months ago.

GueGuerreiro

colorado_chris I think I have the same issue as you. I was running the LTS Kernel for the longest time, because the current would always give me a black screen forcing me to restart. This time around the LTS gives me the white cursor, while the current gives me the black screen. Tried pressing F11 on boot and trying all the possible entries. No dice.

Any way I could possibly debug this even? I get no error mesages or anything 🙁

Edit: Seems I can login into the shell (CTRL+ALT+ one of the F keys) on both LTS and current. Anything I can do here to figure out what's going wrong?

GueGuerreiro

Chrym Try installing virtualbox-current. I noticed that one exists too.

DataDrake

Chrym @kyrios may be able to shed some light on that, I'm not sure why that's a runtime dependency for virtualbox itself. I don't think it needs to be.

kyrios

DataDrake

DataDrake Chrym I am not in front of my computer but virtualbox comes with 4.9 kernel modules (LTS) so it doesn't seem odd to me.

If you are running the current kernel you have to install virtualbox-current as explained in the documentation.

https://getsol.us/articles/software/virtualbox/en/#solus-as-host

Scotty-Trees

GueGuerreiro There has been an update since yesterday that addressed and fixed this. I would recommend when you boot, if you can drop into a TTY and then run a sudo eopkg up command and reboot and hopefully fingers crossed, you should be back in working order, at least with your LTS kernel.