Is there some easy command line that will fix this? I don't know grub very well kitty-cri

For context I was reinstalling vlc, I guess I should have updated first

  • sovietknuckles [they/them]
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago
    1. Put the installer on a USB drive
    2. Boot from the installer
    3. Mount your partitions
    4. Chroot into your mounted partitions (on Arch/Arch derivatives, using arch-chroot)
    5. Reinstall the kernel, just to make sure it's there
    6. Generate your grub config (which is generally only necessary to redo when updating grub): grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
    7. Get out of the chroot
    8. Unmount partitions and reboot
    • PorkrollPosadist [he/him, they/them]
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Generate your grub config (which is generally only necessary to redo when updating grub): grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

      This needs to get done every time a new kernel is installed, but USUALLY it is done automatically by the package manager. In this case, it wasn't. Many distros only keep 2 or 3 kernels on hand before deleting the old ones. I presume several kernel updates without the grub configuration being updated is what lead to @maccruiskeen@hexbear.net's current predicament. Either that, or he has more than one Grub bootloader installed and the UEFI firmware is not booting the same one that his distro is updating (very possible if you have tried out several distributions).

      • maccruiskeen [he/him]
        hexagon
        ·
        1 year ago

        There were some updates that I didn't do before reinstalling vlc. Anyways it's not recognizing 'grub-mkconfig' or 'mkconfig' as a command

        • PorkrollPosadist [he/him, they/them]
          ·
          1 year ago

          What you're looking at (at least in the screenshot you posted) is Grub. Grub has a command line of its own, but it is extremely limited. It is only capable of locating / booting kernels. grub-mkconfig is an ordinary program which can only be used after you've booted a functioning Linux system. This is why sovietknuckles recommends booting the installation media.

          • sovietknuckles [they/them]
            ·
            1 year ago

            @maccruiskeen@hexbear.net If you are booted into the installer, the grub-mkconfig command won't be found.

            For step 3, mounting the partitions, mount your computer's root partition to /mnt, then mount your computer's boot partition to /mnt/boot

            If you do that, step 4 is just arch-chroot /mnt.

            And then maybe grub-mkconfig will be found?

        • captcha [any]
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          If grub-mkconfig from inside an arch-chroot isn't working then double check what your boot loader actually is. Check pacman -Qs grub and pacman -Qs boot. If its something weird like systemd-bootd I'd be pissed at the manjaro team.

          If it looks like its grub and just the grub-mkconfig binary isn't installed then pacman -Ss to figure out what it is and download it. Maybe you did a partial update and it got lost.

          Also check if /etc/default/grub exists. You also just look under the hood in /boot

    • maccruiskeen [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      1 year ago

      Do you know what I should do if I get an 'unknown filesystem' error?

      • captcha [any]
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        At what step are you getting that error? Mounting some partition? which?

        If you have LUKS disk encryption setup you might get that error if you dont decrypt with cryptsetup first.

        # cryptsetup luksOpen </dev/disk> <name> 
        (enter password)
        # mount /dev/mapper/<name> /mnt/<point>
        

        If you dont enter a password at a terminal prompt when you normally boot your system then something much worse is going on. Try running fsck on the partition.

        • maccruiskeen [he/him]
          hexagon
          ·
          1 year ago

          This is after I've made a bootable drive. I haven't been asked for a password when booting up my pc so I don't know if I'm skipping any steps

          • captcha [any]
            ·
            1 year ago

            Oh you're failing to boot into the USB drive? It sounds like you must have set it up wrong. Usually there aren't steps to "make it bootable". Instead you burn the installer image for your OS and that will make it bootable.

            Just to be clear: when you first installed manjaro you must have downloaded an installer image from the manjaro website and burn it to a USB drive. Then you would've booted from that USB drive into a live manjaro OS and run some installer program. Stop me if that doesn't sound familiar.

            If you still have that old USB drive lying around plug it in and boot. If not, or if its been rewritten you'll have to follow the instructions again to return a new manjaro USB installer.

            Once you've booted into the USB and are in some manjaro desktop. Open a terminal and proved with mounting and fixing your system like we've described above. It'll probably auto open the manjaro installation wizard, close it or ignore it. Do not run the installation wizard again because it will probably nuke your old system.

            Sorry if I'm being too hand holding here but I'm trying to avoid too much back and forth.

            • maccruiskeen [he/him]
              hexagon
              ·
              edit-2
              1 year ago

              when you first installed manjaro you must have downloaded an installer image from the manjaro website and burn it to a USB drive. Then you would've booted from that USB drive into a live manjaro OS and run some installer program.

              Sounds about right.

              If not, or if its been rewritten you'll have to follow the instructions again to return a new manjaro USB installer.

              Do you suggest using the terminal to write onto the USB? I've been using unetbootin. If it matters, I've formatted the usb to fat32 beforehand

              also let me know if i failed to read something obvious that you wrote because that happens often

              • captcha [any]
                ·
                edit-2
                1 year ago

                However you did it the first time you successfully installed Manjaro should still work. If you dont remember beforehand then it depends on what computers you have available. But in any case I suggest following the Manjaro wiki I linked.

                UNetBootin is overkill. Its for burning multiple live-isos to one drive which is really neat and useful but not what you need and overly complicated.

                If you have access to a linux terminal on another computer I do recommend it but only because its easier for us to talk about it as we are all text here. If something goes wrong you can just paste the output. Make sure you get your drive letter right though. It should error if you try writing to a mounted drive but you really dont want two borked systems.

                • maccruiskeen [he/him]
                  hexagon
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  are there instructions for mounting partitions? i dont think ive ever used chmod and i dont want to screw something up

                  • captcha [any]
                    ·
                    1 year ago

                    Mount a Filesystem. But you'll have to investigate which drive or partition has your root partition. Mount a disk to /mnt, check if its the root partition. Once you find the root partition, you'll want to read its /etc/fstab - which will be /mnt/etc/fstab when mounted - to check for other partitions you may need to mount. You absolutely need to mount any separate boot if they exist.

                    You should probably also start reading the Arch Installation Guide because you're literally repeating steps from this guide to repair your system. Specifically, you are on step 1.11, then you'll want to do 3.2, 3.6, and 3.8. 3.8 blows up into the Boot Loader guide, which leads to the guide for GRUB. I think you only need to do GRUB 1.1 to fix your system. But your should read everything in between. Some instructions won't make sense if you dont.

                • mop [he/him]
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  i got the usb to work using the terminal, i just have to do the other stuff now