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[SOLVED] Unable to boot

All i see on my screen, after the System76 logo displays, is: "booting a command list", then nothing happens.

The last thing i did was update my system... but not the kernel.  Then i ran something like:
Code: [Select]
sudo loginctl reboot | at <some-time>

and went to bed.  When i got up, the laptop was off and trying to reboot gives the above message.
I can get into a grub menu, but not able to do anything (lack of knowledge) but boot to that message.
I can boot off an old Artix install stick (which is what i'm using right now), and see my disk.
Everything looks fine.  Don't see any disk corruption and laptop seems to be working ok.

I have no idea what to do.  My Artix install stick doesn't have any "repair" options, unfortunately.

Looking at my hard drive, i have:

Code: [Select]
/dev/nvme0n1p5   19G   15G  3.0G  83% /run/media/artix/3b2ab9d1-6f14-4cdc-aca3-6a6fbf1d0841
/dev/nvme0n1p3   19G   11G  7.0G  61% /run/media/artix/264fc78e-274e-43d6-ac03-991e512bd34d
/dev/nvme0n1p4  870G  520G  306G  63% /run/media/artix/5650f92b-9512-49e4-96be-4a5d3b90fc51

The first is what i (think i) have been booting off of as my root partition (that id, 3b2ab...) is what is in the grub config for the UUID.  The 2nd partition, looking at the files, is almost identical to the first, but with dates of 2021.  I have no idea where that partition came from but... it's been a while since i messed with any of that stuff (when i first installed) and my memory isn't so good.  The 3rd partition is where my home directory gets mounted.

In my grub.cfg file i have:

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submenu 'Advanced options for Artix Linux' $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-advanced-3b2ab9d1-6f14-4cdc-aca3-6a6fbf1d0841' {
	menuentry 'Artix Linux, with Linux linux' --class artix --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-linux-advanced-3b2ab9d1-6f14-4cdc-aca3-6a6fbf1d0841' {
	savedefault
		load_video
		set gfxpayload=keep
		insmod gzio
		insmod part_gpt
		insmod ext2
		search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 3b2ab9d1-6f14-4cdc-aca3-6a6fbf1d0841
		echo	'Loading Linux linux ...'
		linux	/boot/vmlinuz-linux root=UUID=3b2ab9d1-6f14-4cdc-aca3-6a6fbf1d0841 rw net.ifnames=0 quiet
		echo	'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
		initrd	/boot/intel-ucode.img /boot/amd-ucode.img /boot/initramfs-linux.img
	}

Any suggestions?

Re: Unable to boot

Reply #1 –
After entering the grub menu, press e to start editing the kernel command line, and then replace "quiet" to "loglevel=4".

Re: Unable to boot

Reply #2 –
I had already tried simply removing "quiet"... with only the output i stated.  So, i tried what was suggested.  After replacing "quiet" with "loglevel=4" i hit <ctrl-x> and suddenly i was in the live Artix (from my old USB stick) menu (?).  I'd already been in there several times.  One option was to "Detect EFI bootloaders".  So, before rebooting again, i went down to the middle of the list of EFI entries and selected:

Code: [Select]
(hd1,gpt1)/efi/Artix/grubx64.efi

The first and last entries i'd already tried.  The first was:

Code: [Select]
(hd1,gpt1)/efi/bootx64.efi

The last was:

Code: [Select]
(hd1,gpt1)/system76-firmware-update/boot.efi

Previously, selecting the first entry, and then rebooting, seemed to do pretty much what booting without intervention did -- either the message "Booting 'Artix Linux'" and then hanging, or no output at all and hanging (don't remember which).
Selecting the last entry brought up a screen and i think i aborted without anything being done.

Anyway, after selecting the middle, then rebooting, my system came up "normally"... with a lot of extra flashing of the display (i assume because of loglevel=4).

I wanted to provide the specific details, above, so i rebooted (without the old Artix stick) and i got the "Booting 'Artix Linux'" message and it hung.   I tried again (no stick), replacing "quiet" with "loglevel=4" and got no output at all, and hang.  I put the stick back in, booted into the old, live version, went into "Detect EFI bootloaders", selected:

Code: [Select]
(hd1, gpt1)/efi/Artix/grubx64.efi

and it booted up fine.  Rebooted and back to the first EFI menu (from live stick):

Code: [Select]
(hd1,gpt1)/efi/bootx64.efi

then replaced "quiet" with "loglevel=4" in grub, hit <ctrl-x> which brought me back to a grub menu with two entries:

Code: [Select]
Artix Linux, with Linux linux

and a 2nd line, the same except with a different initfs or something (don't remember).  When i hit enter on the first entry, immediately above, it hung, with the menu unchanged on the screen, that entry still highlighted.

I went back (booting from live stick), selected the EFI entry:
Code: [Select]
(hd1,gpt1)/efi/Artix/grubx64.efi

and, again, it booted up normally/fine.  So, the picture is consistent.  By default, my system seems to be using the "wrong" bootloader to boot, but will boot with the above.

One last thing i forgot to mention... before my troubles began, i ran "paru" (which i think is equivalent to "paru -Syu") -- as well as "pacman -Syu"... but i don't believe "paru" actually had anything to update, although i'm not positive it didn't do anything.  Oh... and i also ran "paru paru".  I think i read (may have been outdated) that this doesn't work, but it seemed to work ok for me.  Not that that should have anything to do with bootloaders, but just in case...

Re: Unable to boot

Reply #3 –
You might need to run update-grub, or reinstall grub and then run update-grub (if you are using grub) from your OS once it's booted and any other partitions are mounted if you have them , like a separate /boot:
https://wiki.artixlinux.org/Main/Installation#Boot_Loader
and also check in your BIOS menu which sometimes has UEFI boot order settings, and efibootmgr can be used from the OS to add or edit these from your OS too.
But read about the subject before issuing commands because there are numerous possible setup variations and you would need to act according to yours.

SOLVED Re: Unable to boot

Reply #4 –
This System76 laptop (Galagos?) has a coreboot bootload manager (using EDK2) which only offers the hard drive as a boot option, although in the EFI partition on that drive are 6 or 7 EFI bootloaders.  Somehow the configuration is completely messed up... and missing any actually bootable entries.  Adding the one that worked:
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   sudo efibootmgr -c -d /dev/nvme0n1 -p 1 -l EFI/Artix/grubx64.efi
and now my system boots up normally.

I could find nothing revealing about the "useless" entries that it still knew about:
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Boot0000* UiApp MemoryMapped(11,0x840000,0xffffff)/FvFile(462caa21-7614-4503-836e-8ab6f4662331)
Boot0001* WDC WDS100T2B0C-00PXH0        PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x6,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)/NVMe(0x1,00-1B-44-8B-41-6F-A2-EE){auto_created_boot_option}

I did see examples where that 0000 entry was present in a bootloader listing, but no explanation of what it is.  For the other entry, there's no actual bootloader referenced.  Yet it was auto-generated.  Many questions, no answers, but a working system.