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Live USB updated kernel will not boot
Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2025 3:00 pm
by BV206
I made a MX 23.6 Xfce persistent live USB (UEFI mode) a couple months ago. Right after I made it I enabled ahs repo, installed the latest lquorix kernel (the 6.1 kernel is still there), remastered, updated the kernel, rebooted and it was fine until now.
Today I installed the 6.16 liquorix kernel on the live USB, remastered, updated the kernel, and it won't boot past the grub menu.
The top grub menu choice and check integrity of live media just cause a reboot.
The boot rescue menus work with the hard drive but not the live USB.
I booted another MX USB and tried to roll back the kernel but it says "no linuxfs file found" even though there is a linuxfs and linuxfs.new.
Is there a way to fix this?
The /Live-usb/antiX folder has:
Code: Select all
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4.0K Jul 26 12:17 state/
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4.0K Jul 26 12:17 state.new/
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 37 Jul 22 11:13 bios-dev-uuid
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8.0G Sep 14 12:38 homefs
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 15M Jul 16 09:14 initrd.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 44 Jul 16 09:14 initrd.gz.md5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Jan 7 2025 .keep
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3.4G Sep 9 15:50 linuxfs
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 30 Sep 14 12:37 linuxfs.info
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 42 Sep 9 15:50 linuxfs.md5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 42 Sep 14 12:37 linuxfs.md5.new
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3.9G Sep 14 12:37 linuxfs.new
-rw------- 1 root root 512 Sep 14 12:31 random-seed
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8.0G Sep 14 12:38 rootfs
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7.9M Jul 16 09:14 vmlinuz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 42 Jul 16 09:14 vmlinuz.md5
Re: Live USB updated kernel will not boot
Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2025 3:59 pm
by fehlix
I'd try first rollback bootparameter which you could select within the Advanced boot options menu further down.
Re: Live USB updated kernel will not boot
Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2025 4:10 pm
by dolphin_oracle
I don't think its anything particular to the 6.16 kernel. I do have a working snapshot with that kernel, although I guess Ihaven't gone through a straight remaster with it.
Re: Live USB updated kernel will not boot
Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2025 4:19 pm
by dolphin_oracle
from the looks of the file system, I'm not sure the rollback option will work, as linux.old does not exist, and won't until the first reboot after a remaster.
possibly, possibly, you could rename linuxfs linuxfs.old, and linuxfs.new linuxfs, then try booting.
I am setting up a test run just to make sure there isn’t something up with that 6.16 kernel.
Re: Live USB updated kernel will not boot
Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2025 4:36 pm
by m_pav
You can try running MX Boot repair from a working system with the Live USB plugged in and select it when asked. I have repaired one of my Live USB's using this method in the past, though I can not remember exactly what the issue was with the boot error I needed to fix.
Re: Live USB updated kernel will not boot
Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2025 5:18 pm
by BV206
dolphin_oracle wrote: Sun Sep 14, 2025 4:19 pm
possibly, possibly, you could rename linuxfs linuxfs.old, and linuxfs.new linuxfs, then try booting.
I just tried that and the same thing happens so I changed back to the original names.
Something else I just noticed is when I made the live USB I encrypted it and the boot menu choices don't even get far enough to ask for the password. Usually when you remaster it asks for the password at the stage before copying the files and asking for root an home sizes.
Re: Live USB updated kernel will not boot
Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2025 6:01 pm
by dolphin_oracle
you can use live-kernel-updater to update the kernel on a target device, so perhaps you can roll the kernel back. check out "live-kernel-updater --help" for info on the -d switch
Re: Live USB updated kernel will not boot
Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2025 6:45 pm
by BV206
dolphin_oracle wrote: Sun Sep 14, 2025 6:01 pm
you can use live-kernel-updater to update the kernel on a target device, so perhaps you can roll the kernel back. check out "live-kernel-updater --help" for info on the -d switch
That doesn't work.
Here is the lsblk and live-kernel-updater results. I tried it with the GUI and it says it can't find anything on sdb. Then I tried the command line live-kernel-updater -d on all the sdb partitions.
Code: Select all
demo@mx1:~
$ lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
loop0 7:0 0 2.2G 1 loop /live/linux
sda 8:0 1 114.6G 0 disk
├─sda1 8:1 1 90.6G 0 part
│ ├─ventoy 254:0 0 2.2G 1 dm /live/boot-dev
│ └─sda1 254:1 0 90.6G 0 dm
├─sda2 8:2 1 32M 0 part
└─sda3 8:3 1 954M 0 part /media/demo/zzz
sdb 8:0 1 114.6G 0 disk
├─sdb1 8:1 1 149M 0 part /media/demo/MX-LUSB
├─sdb2 8:2 1 32G 0 part
│ └─luks-fb54477d-d486-469d-83b8-0981ec06befd 252:1 0 32G 0 crypt /media/demo/Live-usb
├─sdb3 8:3 1 49M 0 part
└─sdb4 8:4 1 50G 0 part
└─luks-52d43163-f7d9-4d03-82c2-cb66525745ed 252:2 0 50G 0 crypt /media/demo/BACKUP
sr0 11:0 1 1024M 0 rom
nvme0n1 259:0 0 465.8G 0 disk
├─nvme0n1p1 259:1 0 243M 0 part
├─nvme0n1p2 259:2 0 977M 0 part
├─nvme0n1p3 259:3 0 200.6G 0 part
└─nvme0n1p4 259:4 0 200G 0 part
[sudo] password for demo:
LIVE_MP is /live/boot-dev
===============================================================================
Starting live-kernel-updater
===============================================================================
Please select the system to update
> sda 114.6G USB SanDisk 3.2Gen1
= sdb 114.6G USB SanDisk 3.2Gen1
Press <Enter> to select the highlighted entry
Use 'h' for help, 'r' to redraw, 'q' to quit
Will use live-usb device /dev/sdb1
Error: No linuxfs file found in any directory in /run/live-kernel-updater/usb
Paused at Exit
Press <Enter> to continue
demo@mx1:~
$ sudo live-kernel-updater -d /dev/sdb
LIVE_MP is /live/boot-dev
===============================================================================
Starting live-kernel-updater
===============================================================================
Will use live-usb device /dev/sdb1
Error: No linuxfs file found in any directory in /run/live-kernel-updater/usb
demo@mx1:~
$ sudo live-kernel-updater -d /dev/sdb1
LIVE_MP is /live/boot-dev
===============================================================================
Starting live-kernel-updater
===============================================================================
Will use live-usb device /dev/sdb1
Error: No linuxfs file found in any directory in /run/live-kernel-updater/usb
demo@mx1:~
$ sudo live-kernel-updater -d /dev/sdb2
LIVE_MP is /live/boot-dev
===============================================================================
Starting live-kernel-updater
===============================================================================
Error: Could not mount /dev/sdb2 at /run/live-kernel-updater/usb
demo@mx1:~
$ sudo live-kernel-updater -d /dev/sdb3
LIVE_MP is /live/boot-dev
===============================================================================
Starting live-kernel-updater
===============================================================================
Will use live-usb device /dev/sdb3
Error: No linuxfs file found in any directory in /run/live-kernel-updater/usb
Re: Live USB updated kernel will not boot
Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2025 6:47 pm
by BV206
When I made the live usb I changed the default volume label and also saved some space on it for another partition. I don't think that can break remastering because I did that a few years ago and had no problems.
Re: Live USB updated kernel will not boot
Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2025 7:26 pm
by Stevo
There is also the question of where and why you got the 6.16 kernel, since we still have it in ahs-staging until we can make sure most dkms packages will build with it. I think we are just about there, though.
Re: Live USB updated kernel will not boot
Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2025 7:47 pm
by BV206
I got it from ahs-staging. I wanted to see if it affected my gkrellm problem.
Re: Live USB updated kernel will not boot
Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2025 8:11 pm
by BV206
I tried all the boot repair again and could not fix it so I wiped the USB stick, made a new one with the September snapshot, enabled ahs and ahs-staging, updated everything, installed latest Liquorix kernel from ahs-staging, remastered, updated live kernel, rebooted and this time it worked.