Boot failed, stuck in emergency mode with root user locked [SOLVED] | Arch Linux Community | Page 1

jade scarab Jul 23, 2025, 5:12 PM

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After a power outage I had to set my EFI boot stub

Used efibootmgr right (omitting these comments like so with parenthesis),

efibootmgr --create --disk /dev/nvme0n1 --part 1 (for nvme0n1p1 /boot) --label "Arch Linux" --loader /vmlinuz-linux --unicode 'root=(exact blkid for root) rw initrd=\initramfs-linux.img'

opaque flume Jul 23, 2025, 5:15 PM

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I suspect that reinstalling the kernel and regenerating the initramfs would sort this out

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You'll probably need your iso usb

heady surgeBOT Jul 23, 2025, 5:20 PM

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What

arctic mauve Jul 23, 2025, 5:21 PM

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@jade scarab

heady surgeBOT Jul 23, 2025, 5:21 PM

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What's wrong

arctic mauve Jul 23, 2025, 5:22 PM

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heady surge What's wrong

wrong ping :v)

jade scarab Jul 23, 2025, 5:22 PM

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installed kernel and regenerated the initramfs and it didnt work

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tried

heady surgeBOT Jul 23, 2025, 5:22 PM

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do you have a live usb

connnor ↩️

[Reply to:](#1397627514771472425 message) installed kernel and regenerated the initramfs and it didnt work

jade scarab Jul 23, 2025, 5:22 PM

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heady surge do you have a live usb

yea

heady surgeBOT Jul 23, 2025, 5:22 PM

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boot into it

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then mount your root filesystem and chroot into it

jade scarab Jul 23, 2025, 5:23 PM

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alright

heady surgeBOT Jul 23, 2025, 5:23 PM

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then do usermod -U root && passwd root

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set a password, and regenerate the initramfs

opaque flume Jul 23, 2025, 5:24 PM

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If this is systemd-boot I think the root account needs activating in a config somewhere? I've not used it but I think I read that

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journalctl -xb would be useful to look at, as it mentions

jade scarab Jul 23, 2025, 5:26 PM

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opaque flume `journalctl -xb` would be useful to look at, as it mentions

funny enough really nothing stands out in journalctl

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oh wait

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i should prob fsck nvme0n1p1

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jade scarab Jul 23, 2025, 5:30 PM

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heady surge set a password, and regenerate the initramfs

still same outcome after regerating initramfs and changing password of root

compact bone Jul 23, 2025, 5:31 PM

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jade scarab still same outcome after regerating initramfs and changing password of root

May use kernel reinstall, as mentioned.

opaque flume Jul 23, 2025, 5:32 PM

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Yeah, I'm curious how you're regenerating the initramfs

jade scarab Jul 23, 2025, 5:32 PM

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mkinitcpio -P

opaque flume Jul 23, 2025, 5:32 PM

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Most complete way is to pacman -S <your kernel>

opaque flume Jul 23, 2025, 5:32 PM

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jade scarab mkinitcpio -P

That should do the trick. Is your ESP mounted?

jade scarab Jul 23, 2025, 5:32 PM

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yeah

opaque flume Jul 23, 2025, 5:32 PM

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Well fiddlesticks

jade scarab Jul 23, 2025, 5:32 PM

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opaque flume Jul 23, 2025, 5:33 PM

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Does systemd-boot have a way of reinstalling it or regenerating its config?

jade scarab Jul 23, 2025, 5:37 PM

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opaque flume Does systemd-boot have a way of reinstalling it or regenerating its config?

unsure, i think pacstrap -K from when you install arch from the boot iso installs it but aside from that hmm

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no

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im wrong

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wait 💀

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im all confused here

opaque flume Jul 23, 2025, 5:39 PM

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I can only go what I know of grub so please take it all with a grain of salt

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I can only figure that bootloaders would work similarly

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But for grub you run grub-install against the ESP to install grub there, and then grub-mkconfig to generate the grub config it will refer to to print all the boot entries when it starts

jade scarab Jul 23, 2025, 5:40 PM

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compact bone May use kernel reinstall, as mentioned.

reinstalled kernel through pacman -S linux same issue though

opaque flume Jul 23, 2025, 5:40 PM

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opaque flume But for grub you run grub-install against the ESP to install grub there, and the...

I'm suggesting doing whatever the systemd-boot equivalent is, to make sure everything lines up properly

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Assuming it has an equivalent.

jade scarab Jul 23, 2025, 5:40 PM

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systemd-boot is tied to systemd, it comes with as a package

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it makes it more complicated

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thats why i like using really anything that systemd supports because in theory it'd have no issue connecting the dots from systemd->systemd-boot but something's gotta be wrong

compact bone Jul 23, 2025, 5:43 PM

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btrfs?

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Is that what you are using for filesystem?

jade scarab Jul 23, 2025, 5:43 PM

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ext4

jade scarab Jul 23, 2025, 5:44 PM

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jade scarab

this is my fstab file and my loader entry arch.conf

opaque flume Jul 23, 2025, 5:46 PM

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We've not really seen an error yet, besides that fsck warning

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hmm looking closer, this does look quite error-y

jade scarab Jul 23, 2025, 5:48 PM

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looked it up and ppl said they could run with it on, it's just bc the nvme firmware is "bad" like the cheap kinda bad

opaque flume Jul 23, 2025, 5:48 PM

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Actually, looking it up it is looking less error-y and more just a warning

jade scarab Jul 23, 2025, 5:57 PM

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opaque flume Actually, looking it up it is looking less error-y and more just a warning

i dont get it

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modules literally load

cedar tiger Jul 23, 2025, 5:58 PM

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hi, what does journalctl -b -p 5 says?

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are you chroot ing into the root drive?

opaque flume Jul 23, 2025, 5:58 PM

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jade scarab i dont get it

These logs look like they're from the iso

jade scarab Jul 23, 2025, 5:59 PM

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cedar tiger are you chroot ing into the root drive?

yup, chrooted into nvme0n1p2

cedar tiger Jul 23, 2025, 5:59 PM

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exactly what muesli said

jade scarab Jul 23, 2025, 6:00 PM

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cedar tiger hi, what does `journalctl -b -p 5` says?

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heady surgeBOT Jul 23, 2025, 6:00 PM

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the error is that the initramfs fails to mount the rootfs and switch to the root

jade scarab Jul 23, 2025, 6:00 PM

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opaque flume These logs look like they're from the iso

if im chrooted into /mnt does journalctl read from iso??

heady surgeBOT Jul 23, 2025, 6:01 PM

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no

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journalctl reads from /var/log/journal

jade scarab Jul 23, 2025, 6:02 PM

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excuse my mistake, those are from the iso

cedar tiger Jul 23, 2025, 6:02 PM

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ok, so your kernel is tainted

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you're prob using propietary stuff

heady surgeBOT Jul 23, 2025, 6:02 PM

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nvidia driver i saw

cedar tiger Jul 23, 2025, 6:02 PM

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and is dumping core

heady surgeBOT Jul 23, 2025, 6:02 PM

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that is not a problem

jade scarab Jul 23, 2025, 6:03 PM

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jade scarab excuse my mistake, those are from the iso

no it's not ugh

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excuse that comment aswell im chrooted

heady surgeBOT Jul 23, 2025, 6:03 PM

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did you regenerate initramfs

jade scarab Jul 23, 2025, 6:03 PM

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yeah

heady surgeBOT Jul 23, 2025, 6:04 PM

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something is causing it to fail to mount the real root

jade scarab Jul 23, 2025, 6:05 PM

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when chrooting?

opaque flume Jul 23, 2025, 6:05 PM

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what kernel?

heady surgeBOT Jul 23, 2025, 6:05 PM

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here is the error

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failed to mount sysroot

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this is the error that causes your system to not boot

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what did fsck result in

jade scarab Jul 23, 2025, 6:07 PM

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this, and a dirty bit (which i unset)

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heady surgeBOT Jul 23, 2025, 6:08 PM

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oh oh oh oh oh oh that is not the problem

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check /dev/nvme0n1p2

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not nvme0n1p1

jade scarab Jul 23, 2025, 6:08 PM

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oh oh

opaque flume Jul 23, 2025, 6:08 PM

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Should the init not be fscking automagically? thonk

jade scarab Jul 23, 2025, 6:09 PM

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heady surgeBOT Jul 23, 2025, 6:09 PM

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it only does it periodically

muesli ↩️

[Reply to:](#1397627514771472425 message) Should the init not be fscking automagically? thonk

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unless you create /.autorelabel which causes it to fsck on every boot

opaque flume Jul 23, 2025, 6:10 PM

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TIL. I figured it would do it every time

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I wish that error was more descriptive

heady surgeBOT Jul 23, 2025, 6:11 PM

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it fsck's only when the time has arrived iirc

opaque flume Jul 23, 2025, 6:14 PM

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jade scarab

looking at this entry, should it be root=UUID=blahblah?

cedar tiger Jul 23, 2025, 6:14 PM

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no, the fstab looks fine

opaque flume Jul 23, 2025, 6:15 PM

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Not in the fstab, in the boot entry

cedar tiger Jul 23, 2025, 6:15 PM

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root=UUID=ksdjfksdj applies to the kernel boot parameters

jade scarab Jul 23, 2025, 6:15 PM

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fixed arch.conf and rebooting

cedar tiger Jul 23, 2025, 6:15 PM

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opaque flume Not in the fstab, in the boot entry

where?

opaque flume Jul 23, 2025, 6:16 PM

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In the 3rd pic of the three

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If it is that I'm going to be upset on your behalf @jade scarab

jade scarab Jul 23, 2025, 6:17 PM

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still no, even after the fix sysroot is failing to mount the drive

cedar tiger Jul 23, 2025, 6:17 PM

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opaque flume In the 3rd pic of the three

i think those are the boot parameters from the arch iso

opaque flume Jul 23, 2025, 6:17 PM

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jade scarab still no, even after the fix sysroot is failing to mount the drive

I think you need to regen initramfs again if you didn't

jade scarab Jul 23, 2025, 6:17 PM

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damn

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still, same outcome

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it's gotta be efibootmgr

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i def did something wrong

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but like ?? it's exactly the same UUID

opaque flume Jul 23, 2025, 6:22 PM

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including the UUID=?

jade scarab Jul 23, 2025, 6:22 PM

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yeah

opaque flume Jul 23, 2025, 6:22 PM

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can you show a pic of the efibootmgr output?

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no args should show what's in your nvram

jade scarab Jul 23, 2025, 6:24 PM

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should i add UUID= from efibootmgr

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root=UUID=

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oh

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ok

opaque flume Jul 23, 2025, 6:30 PM

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I think so

jade scarab Jul 23, 2025, 6:30 PM

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yea ur gonna be dissapointed on my behalf

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NOOOO

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it works

opaque flume Jul 23, 2025, 6:30 PM

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🎉

cedar tiger Jul 23, 2025, 6:31 PM

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nice

jade scarab Jul 23, 2025, 6:31 PM

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im writing this down in my "when my power goes out what to fix for arch breaking efi partitions" checklist

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Boot failed, stuck in emergency mode with root user locked [SOLVED]

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ugh

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my bad guys LMAO

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i usually get the efibootmgr right

opaque flume Jul 23, 2025, 6:31 PM

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If this is a single OS machine, may I suggest a unified kernel image? :D Dodge all this EFI/bootloader nonsense

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"Hey compooter, run this"

jade scarab Jul 23, 2025, 6:34 PM

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unified kernel image sounds like something i need, because windows is the only boot manager that isn't fragile as my linux boot stub

#Boot failed, stuck in emergency mode with root user locked [SOLVED]