• SupportQuestion

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

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

  1. Update for eopkg or the Software Center
  2. Run sudo clr-boot-manager list-kernels to get a list of the available kernels.
  3. Run sudo clr-boot-manager set-kernel <line from kernel list> to set a default kernel (no <> symbols)
  4. Run sudo clr-boot-manager list-kernels to check for the * next to the kernel you selected.
  5. (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).
  6. (Optional) Reboot to confirm that it indeed loaded the entry you selected.

    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! 😀

        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.

          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 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.

              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.

                  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?

                      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.

                        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?).

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

                                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

                                  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.

                                    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.

                                        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 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.

                                                Scotty-Trees I'm afraid not, I had all updates since yesterday before I shut off my laptop for the night (the .conf update that was pushed later is the last one I had installed).

                                                I've been trying to get it to run on the Current kernel for a while now. Tried installing linux-current, nvidia-glx-driver-current, adding nomodeset to boot (I believe I had that before when installing solus for the first time, many years ago. Unfortunately the forum post I used to troubleshoot my issue was on the old domain and has since been lost). Then I tried restarting lightdm. Blank blinking cursor. Tried rebooting several times, and selecting every available entry, but still no dice.

                                                I saw someone on reddit mentioning they ran systemctl --failed to get a list of failed services, so I tried that and I get failed on lightdm.service and vboxdrv.service (on the 5.0 current kernel. Running this on 5.6 gives me a lot more, and it seems my ethernet nor my external keyboard are working on that one, so I gave up on that version for the time being).

                                                Seeing the Virtual Box service fail there led me to believe that it could be the issue linked above, but I'm already on the latest Vbox version and I removed virtualbox-guest-common. Also installed virtualbox-current, but the service still fails.

                                                Not sure what I can try next :/

                                                Sorry for the bad formatting in parts, or some typos that might be there, I'm having to type all this on mobile