Linux to linux-zen fail ???

[abarbarian]

So I am still having trouble with Steam only showing a black screen. I managed a workaround that enabled me to finish playing Witcher, great game by the way. That was by installing Lutris and starting the game through it. I still got a black screen for the Steam part of it but Witcher started and ran ok.

Steam ran sort of for a while with "steam -vgui" but after a few updates to the system the loverly black screen appeared and stayed.

 

so I thought why not try the linux-zen route. Installed linux-zen, linux-zen-headers and nvidia-dkms. Everything seemed to go ok and mkinitcpio seemed to generate new

 

initramfs-linux-zen.img

initramfs-linux-zen-fallback.img

vmlinuz-linux-zen

 

My rEFInd boot config shows the old linux and the new linux-zen options for booting.

 

However the pc will not boot linux-zen.

 

Thinking I had made some mistake I tried to do

 

-->mkinitcpio -p linux-zen
==> Building image from preset: /etc/mkinitcpio.d/linux-zen.preset: 'default'
==> Using default configuration file: '/etc/mkinitcpio.conf'
  -> -k /boot/vmlinuz-linux-zen -g /boot/initramfs-linux-zen.img --microcode /boot/intel-ucode.img
==> ERROR: Unable to write to '/boot/initramfs-linux-zen.img'
==> Building image from preset: /etc/mkinitcpio.d/linux-zen.preset: 'fallback'
==> Using default configuration file: '/etc/mkinitcpio.conf'
  -> -k /boot/vmlinuz-linux-zen -g /boot/initramfs-linux-zen-fallback.img -S autodetect --microcode /boot/intel-ucode.img
==> ERROR: Unable to write to '/boot/initramfs-linux-zen-fallback.img'

 

As you can see it did not workj and neither did trying too boot linux-zen.

 

So what is wrong ??

[abarbarian]

I posted over at the Arch Forums and so far this is the result,

 

Quote

Roken wrote:

Are you using a user account, or root? You need to be root (or sudo).

 

 

My reply

 

Thanks that was my rookie mistake. Yes "sudo mkinitcpio -p linux-zen" works and creates the files.

However the initramfs-linux-zen.img ,initramfs-linux-zen-fallback.img both still fail to boot. ;-(

[abarbarian]

At the failed boot it seems to start ok with scrolling text. Then it stops for one minute and thirty seconds and does a check, carries on but shows some dependency fails and ends up with,

 

Started Emergency Shell
Reached Target Emergency Mode
Press Enter to continue

 

However pressing enter does nothing. I can not do a Ctrl+Alt+F2 or similar. Ctrl+Alt+Delete does not work and the only thing I can do is switch of the pc at the mains.

Nvidia worked and after installing nvidia-dkms graphics seem to work ok too, tried a couple of games and videos with no problems. I used the same mkinitcpio.conf for both kernels.

 

HOOKS=(base systemd autodetect modconf keyboard keymap consolefont block filesystems fsck)
COMPRESSION="zstd"
MODULES_DECOMPRESS="yes"

 

In /etc/mkinitcpio.d the presets look almost identical except one uses "linux" and the other uses "linux-zen".

 

# mkinitcpio preset file for the 'linux' package

#ALL_config="/etc/mkinitcpio.conf"
ALL_kver="/boot/vmlinuz-linux"
ALL_microcode=(/boot/*-ucode.img)

PRESETS=('default' 'fallback')

#default_config="/etc/mkinitcpio.conf"
default_image="/boot/initramfs-linux.img"
#default_uki="/efi/EFI/Linux/arch-linux.efi"
#default_options="--splash /usr/share/systemd/bootctl/splash-arch.bmp"

#fallback_config="/etc/mkinitcpio.conf"
fallback_image="/boot/initramfs-linux-fallback.img"
#fallback_uki="/efi/EFI/Linux/arch-linux-fallback.efi"
fallback_options="-S autodetect"

 

I can not see anything out of place. The system is always fully updated and is started up each morning it was working fine and all I did was to install the linux-zen stuff which seems to install ok and generate an image etc but does not boot.

[abarbarian]

I can not see anything out of place but a kind person "V1del" over at the Arch Forums put me on the track.

 

Quote

Did you setup the extra kernel version strings as mentioned in https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/REFInd … _by_rEFInd ? I'm suspecting you are booting the wrong initramfs.

 

Quote

Yes I had done that,

"extra_kernel_version_strings linux-lts,linux,linux-zen"

 

re-reading the advisor I see that I should have done,

 

"extra_kernel_version_strings linux-zen,linux"

 

I use "refind_linux.conf" to boot with as I had not got around to setting up "refind.conf" fully as I found it a tad confusing. In setting up zen I misread the advisor in "refind.conf".

Sorry about the large picture. If I need to in future I will post links to pictures.

 

I made the change to the "refind.conf"  and the pc now boots into zen.

 

Put brain in gear before pressing enter18:21:03-->Tue Aug 08-->~
-->uname -r
6.4.8-zen1-1-zen

 

So many thanks for the help  this case is solved.

 

Many thanks to the excellent folks at Arch Forums.

[securitybreach]

Glad that you managed to get it working.

 

I've never actually used rEFInd however I have been using the linux zen kernel for years.

[abarbarian]

13 hours ago, securitybreach said:

Glad that you managed to get it working.

 

Me too.  I tried to install a zen kernel a tear or two ago and got meself into all sorts off difficulties which put me of somewhat.  I thought the zen might help with me Steam problem. I did not.

 

As to rEFInd or this new Limine well they are the way forward as Grub is so so old hat. Limine seems pretty much similar to rEFInd and from looking at it it may be just a tad easier to set up and run.

 

 

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Limine

 

[securitybreach]

10 hours ago, abarbarian said:

 

Me too.  I tried to install a zen kernel a tear or two ago and got meself into all sorts off difficulties which put me of somewhat.  I thought the zen might help with me Steam problem. I did not.

 

As to rEFInd or this new Limine well they are the way forward as Grub is so so old hat. Limine seems pretty much similar to rEFInd and from looking at it it may be just a tad easier to set up and run.

 

 

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Limine

 

 

I do not see any mention of encryption or luks  on the wiki or their homepage, so it would be dead in the water for me.