[SOLVED]Mageia 5 won't boot again

[nickdegraeve]

My Mageia 5 installation won't boot again, once more. It isn't a video driver problem as it was previously (see this thread); the boot process doesn't even get that far.

A normal boot of MGA5 stops immediately after GRUB. No disk access and just a blank screen. And nothing is logged at all.

When I choose the recovery option from GRUB I get a little farther: messages scroll by and something is written to the logs. But then process stops too.
I don't see anything wrong in the logs.

recovery.log

Log from recovery boot

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I have no idea what's wrong.
When I boot the Live version I can mount my partitions and I can access the data. So I don't think it's a hardware issue.
What's weird though, is that I can't boot the Mageia-6-sta1-LiveDVD-PLASMA5-x86_64-DVD either. Immediately after the popup about loading the kernel, it stops too, just like the normal MGA5 boot.

Can you point me in the right direction?

[doktor5000]

I don't see an actual issue in the log from recovery boot at all. If you remove splash and quiet from the boot options, what actually happens? What output do you get when you add "debug" as boot option?
And how long do you wait to determine that the boot process stopped? One minute, a few minutes, 10-15 minutes ? What other operating system currently run on this box at all?

[nickdegraeve]

If you remove splash and quiet from the boot options, what actually happens?

I don't have those in my GRUB config.

What output do you get when you add "debug" as boot option?

For the standard entry, nothing happens: no logging at all.
For the 'failsafe' entry I get more logging:

failsafe_debug.txt

Failsafe log with debug

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But I noticed that there aren't any kernel messages:

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...
Sep 18 15:55:03 hal9000 systemd-journal[509]: Missed 887 kernel messages
...
Sep 18 15:55:03 hal9000 systemd-journal[509]: Missed 3 kernel messages
...
-- more of those --

Am I consulting the journals correctly?
I mount my root partition to a dir, eg /mnt/root and than I ran

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journal -a -D /mnt/root/var/log/journal/

And how long do you wait to determine that the boot process stopped? One minute, a few minutes, 10-15 minutes ?

I tried waiting from 1 minute to even more than 1 hour.

What other operating system currently run on this box at all?

I have Windows 10 and SteamOS on their own partitions (included a dedicated swap partition for Steam). Both run as they should.

[doktor5000]

Well, the failsafe logs are actually only from one second ... does not seem complete. In any case, did you try reinstalling or doing a repair installation over the existing install yet?

[nickdegraeve]

I tried the repair option but that doesn't seem to help. I'd rather not do a complete re-install yet. At least until I completely tried all other possible solutions.

[boombaby]

Hello, nickdegraeve...

Did you resolve this? What's the status?

Regards,

[nickdegraeve]

It still isn't ok.

I'm wondering if it is a kernel issue.
Doesn't boot:

Installed Mageia 5, fully updated (kernel 4.4.1)
Mageia 6 sta1, live DVD (kernel 4.7)

Boots:

Mageia 5, live DVD (kernel 3.19.8)

Can I install an older version? How would I do that?
Is it something to be done via "chroot". I never tried that.

[gohlip]

We cannot tell from the input so far what could be wrong. But there's some things to help along.

If you can boot to prompt, there's still some hope it can be salvaged. So let's check this out first.
The method here is for grub2, if using grub-legacy, some modifications may be required, see notes at bottom of grub menu on how to do it. (parenthesis is for grub-l)
At grub menu, at Mageia entry press 'e'
Arrow down to line to linux (kernel) line
Arrow right past 'quiet' 'splash'
Backspace to remove 'quiet' 'splash' - taking care not to remove 'ro'
Add '3' - no appostrophes here - to this linux (kernel) line.
F10 or 'ctl' + 'x' ('b' for grub -l) to boot

If it boots to prompt, login with password.
If you reach this stage, your system is probable fixable, likely a graphic drivers or a plymouth issue.
Anyway at this point, just do a urpmi auto update first.

Check if you can go to gui with 'startx'
Fix whatever needs fixing.

[nickdegraeve]

Adding 3 didn't make any difference. Almost immediately the screen goes blank, there's no disk access and even the fans go quiet.

[gohlip]

Sorry then Nick.
If others have input, please jump in.
Otherwise I guess you will need to reinstall.

[boombaby]

Hello, nickdegraeve...

< Remember, I haven't seen any logs (if there are any).>

< You might need to find a working LIVE dvd. I know you said Mageia-6 DVD Live won't boot. Got the Mageia-5 disk? Something else for now? >


* My experience with this kind of thing (in Linux) has been that Grub isn't (or can't) function as intended. In other words, it (maybe) cannot find "init".

* Possible re-install of Grub might help

* Else it might be "init" itself. How init is "repaired" others can advise. (I did it once with in another distro with ??dracut?? but cannot tell you, now, how.)

For me, with the detail provided...

* If I had this trouble, I would first try and boot some LIVE distro (other than what you have already tried) and see if "gparted" comes up with a correct partition scheme (ie with all the details reading correct).

HOWEVER...

* At this point - without any further input from others (ie "specialists") - I feel the best "immediate" solution is probably to do what doktor5000 suggested - ie the repair, or full re-install.

[EDIT] Oh; and check the BIOS settings.

Sorry, if that's a bit "vague" for you. That's all I have. (I still would like to know outcomes.)


Regards,
aka boombaby.

[nickdegraeve]

< Remember, I haven't seen any logs (if there are any).>

When I add 'debug' on the 'linux' line in GRUB I get logging in the journal, but only when there's also 'failsafe' on the line. And there's only about 1s messages and none of the kernel.
(see earlier in the thread for the log file)

< You might need to find a working LIVE dvd. I know you said Mageia-6 DVD Live won't boot. Got the Mageia-5 disk? Something else for now? >

The 5 Live DVD boots just fine; the '6-sta1' Live DVD fails about the same moment as the installed version.

* My experience with this kind of thing (in Linux) has been that Grub isn't (or can't) function as intended. In other words, it (maybe) cannot find "init".
* Possible re-install of Grub might help

I don't think it's a GRUB issue because it wouldn't explain why the MGA6 Live doesn't boot.

* If I had this trouble, I would first try and boot some LIVE distro (other than what you have already tried) and see if "gparted" comes up with a correct partition scheme (ie with all the details reading correct).

Partitioning seems ok. Windows 10, SteamOS and when I mount my linux partitions in the live distrnbution, everythings seems to work.

* At this point - without any further input from others (ie "specialists") - I feel the best "immediate" solution is probably to do what doktor5000 suggested - ie the repair, or full re-install.

Repair doesn't work. I'll wait for the 5.1 release to do a full re-install.

Oh; and check the BIOS settings.

Nothing out of the ordinary, as far I can see.


Thanks anyway.

[nickdegraeve]

After months of booting the Live version I tried the installation again, and surprise, it just booted. The V6 beta also started working.
Very weird. I didn't change anything, hardware nor software. Anyway, everything seems to work again. I have no idea why it started failing , and why it seems to have fixed itself.

[gohlip]

Good to hear.
Cheers.