Failed to start "load kernel modules" after full system upgrade

[kelvinhall05]

Hi guys. Running Arch Linux with KDE on my Thinkpad X260. Been working awesome so far. Unfortunatly, I ran a full system upgrade this evening, and now it gets stuck when systemd tries to start "load kernel modules". I can switch to TTY sessions just fine but am unsure where to start. Any suggestions? If I have to reinstall, not a huge deal, but I'd really prefer not to. Thanks!

[svmlegacy]

18 minutes ago, kelvinhall05 said:

Hi guys. Running Arch Linux with KDE on my Thinkpad X260. Been working awesome so far. Unfortunatly, I ran a full system upgrade this evening, and now it gets stuck when systemd tries to start "load kernel modules". I can switch to TTY sessions just fine but am unsure where to start. Any suggestions? If I have to reinstall, not a huge deal, but I'd really prefer not to. Thanks!

How exactly did you upgrade the system? I haven't run my arch machine in a while, but it is important to check if things need manual intervention, when doing so. Is there any relevant messages in dmesg?

[kelvinhall05]

3 minutes ago, svmlegacy said:

How exactly did you upgrade the system? I haven't run my arch machine in a while, but it is important to check if things need manual intervention, when doing so. Is there any relevant messages in dmesg?

Just ran pacman -Syyu. Do it regularly on both my desktop and laptop and have never had any problems. How should I check for dmesg messages, and what in specific am I looking for?

[svmlegacy]

17 minutes ago, kelvinhall05 said:

Just ran pacman -Syyu. Do it regularly on both my desktop and laptop and have never had any problems. How should I check for dmesg messages, and what in specific am I looking for?

At least on my Gentoo machine,

dmesg | grep -i "search term"

IIRC Arch uses a monolithic kernel, so I'm really curious what modules it's loading. < I was a bit too rusty with this meaning

 

I've just checked the Arch news, and there's nothing that should stop it from booting, at least from the past 6 months. When approximately was the last update?

 

When in a tty, run lsmod to display the loaded modules.

Compare that to the modules listed in the files placed in the /etc/modules-load.d/ directory. This directory is where systemd looks for modules to start at boot.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Kernel_module

 

It would also be useful to look at

systemctl status

to see which services are running correctly, to make sure your display manager is attempting to start or not.

[kelvinhall05]

1 minute ago, svmlegacy said:

At least on my Gentoo machine,

dmesg | grep -i "search term"

IIRC Arch uses a monolithic kernel, so I'm really curious what modules it's loading.

 

I've just checked the Arch news, and there's nothing that should stop it from booting, at least from the past 6 months. When approximately was the last update?

Well I've only had this install for about a month. Last update before this was likely a week or two ago, not quite sure.

 

Running "dmesg | grep -i "systemd-modules-load" shows:

systemd-modules-load.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
systemd-modules-load.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.

 

[svmlegacy]

5 minutes ago, kelvinhall05 said:

Well I've only had this install for about a month. Last update before this was likely a week or two ago, not quite sure.

 

Running "dmesg | grep -i "systemd-modules-load" shows:

systemd-modules-load.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
systemd-modules-load.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.

 

This link here appears to be related: https://superuser.com/questions/997938/how-do-i-figure-out-why-systemctl-service-systemd-modules-load-fails

[kelvinhall05]

1 minute ago, svmlegacy said:

This link here appears to be related: https://superuser.com/questions/997938/how-do-i-figure-out-why-systemctl-service-systemd-modules-load-fails

Will give this a shot, thanks!

[kelvinhall05]

@svmlegacy So there's good news and bad news. Good news is, that I got rid of the "load kernel modules" error. The guide you linked helped. Seems tp_smapi was installed which isn't supposed to be on anything newer than the xx30 models. Uninstalled that, rebooted, error is gone. However, it's still not booting into the OS. This time there are no errors, just the usual "starting version 245.6-8-arch", dev/sda1: clean, etc. No errors, nothing. Just a blinking cursor after that. Been sitting on this screen for a few minutes now so it's stuck on something.

[svmlegacy]

1 minute ago, kelvinhall05 said:

@svmlegacy So there's good news and bad news. Good news is, that I got rid of the "load kernel modules" error. The guide you linked helped. Seems tp_smapi was installed which isn't supposed to be on anything newer than the xx30 models. Uninstalled that, rebooted, error is gone. However, it's still not booting into the OS. This time there are no errors, just the usual "starting version 245.6-8-arch", dev/sda1: clean, etc. No errors, nothing. Just a blinking cursor after that. Been sitting on this screen for a few minutes now so it's stuck on something.

In that case, what display manager are you using for KDE (If you haven't changed it, it should be SDDM)?  X or Wayland flavour?

[kelvinhall05]

10 minutes ago, svmlegacy said:

In that case, what display manager are you using for KDE (If you haven't changed it, it should be SDDM)?  X or Wayland flavour?

X, SDDM.

[svmlegacy]

1 minute ago, kelvinhall05 said:

X, SDDM.

Lovely, what does

systemctl status sddm

spit out?

[kelvinhall05]

4 minutes ago, svmlegacy said:

Lovely, what does

systemctl status sddm

spit out?

Haha, this one also failed to start. I will try the same trick in the linked guide, see if that gets me anywhere.

[kelvinhall05]

Two errors I see in journalctl for SDDM are "failed to read display number from pipe", followed by "display server failed to start. exiting".

 

By the way, is there some way I can copy-paste TTY output to another computer? Is there a program I can use to put it on Pastebin or Google Drive or something?

[kelvinhall05]

Ah, found a way I can upload full output to ix.io (and copy-paste here):

-- Logs begin at Thu 2020-06-25 08:30:52 EDT, end at Mon 2020-07-13 22:47:49 EDT. --
Jul 08 16:58:15 x260 sddm[664]: kwalletd5: Checking for pam module
Jul 08 16:58:15 x260 sddm[664]: kwalletd5: Got pam-login param
Jul 08 16:58:15 x260 sddm[664]: kwalletd5: Waiting for hash on 7-
Jul 08 16:58:15 x260 sddm[664]: kwalletd5: waitingForEnvironment on: 3
Jul 08 16:58:15 x260 sddm[664]: kwalletd5: client connected
Jul 08 16:58:15 x260 sddm[664]: kwalletd5: client disconnected
-- Reboot --
Jul 13 22:17:20 x260 sddm[664]: Initializing...
Jul 13 22:17:20 x260 sddm[664]: Starting...
Jul 13 22:17:20 x260 sddm[664]: Logind interface found
Jul 13 22:17:20 x260 sddm[664]: Adding new display on vt 1 ...
Jul 13 22:17:20 x260 sddm[664]: Loading theme configuration from ""
Jul 13 22:17:20 x260 sddm[664]: Display server starting...
Jul 13 22:17:20 x260 sddm[664]: Running: /usr/bin/X -nolisten tcp -auth /var/run/sddm/{244a8299-d436-4542-a8b5-9b8ec19b6533} -background none -noreset -displayfd 17 -seat seat0 vt1
Jul 13 22:17:20 x260 sddm[664]: Failed to read display number from pipe
Jul 13 22:17:20 x260 audit[664]: ANOM_ABEND auid=4294967295 uid=0 gid=0 ses=4294967295 pid=664 comm="sddm" exe="/usr/bin/sddm" sig=6 res=1
Jul 13 22:17:20 x260 sddm[664]: Display server failed to start. Exiting

 

[kelvinhall05]

@svmlegacyforgot to quote you smh my head

[svmlegacy]

10 minutes ago, kelvinhall05 said:

Two errors I see in journalctl for SDDM are "failed to read display number from pipe", followed by "display server failed to start. exiting".

 

By the way, is there some way I can copy-paste TTY output to another computer? Is there a program I can use to put it on Pastebin or Google Drive or something?

Interesting. Let's check the Xorg log.

less /var/log/Xorg.0.log

If it isn't there, it might be at

less ~/.local/share/xorg/Xorg.0.log

 

More info: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xorg#Troubleshooting

________

 

And yes. Check out wgetpaste: https://www.archlinux.org/packages/community/any/wgetpaste/

You can also redirect the output of a command to a file, and copy it to a USB. You might have to manually mount it from the TTY.

 

How to redirect an output:

systemctl status sddm > sddm.o

In this case, the outputs are put into a file called sddm.o The file extension is arbitrary and unnecessary.

[kelvinhall05]

2 minutes ago, svmlegacy said:

Interesting. Let's check the Xorg log.

Spoiler

[     8.556] (--) Log file renamed from "/var/log/Xorg.pid-666.log" to "/var/log/Xorg.0.log"
[     8.557] 
X.Org X Server 1.20.8
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
[     8.558] Build Operating System: Linux Arch Linux
[     8.558] Current Operating System: Linux x260 5.7.8-arch1-1 #1 SMP PREEMPT Thu, 09 Jul 2020 16:34:01 +0000 x86_64
[     8.558] Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-linux root=UUID=be9cba22-5f7b-471d-8120-0ebd6f04a62f rw loglevel=3 quiet i915.enable_psr=0
[     8.558] Build Date: 05 May 2020  05:08:17AM
[     8.558]  
[     8.558] Current version of pixman: 0.40.0
[     8.558] 	Before reporting problems, check http://wiki.x.org
	to make sure that you have the latest version.
[     8.558] Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,
	(++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,
	(WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
[     8.558] (==) Log file: "/var/log/Xorg.0.log", Time: Mon Jul 13 22:17:20 2020
[     8.558] (==) Using config directory: "/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d"
[     8.558] (==) Using system config directory "/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d"
[     8.558] (==) No Layout section.  Using the first Screen section.
[     8.558] (==) No screen section available. Using defaults.
[     8.558] (**) |-->Screen "Default Screen Section" (0)
[     8.558] (**) |   |-->Monitor "<default monitor>"
[     8.559] (==) No device specified for screen "Default Screen Section".
	Using the first device section listed.
[     8.559] (**) |   |-->Device "Intel Graphics"
[     8.559] (==) No monitor specified for screen "Default Screen Section".
	Using a default monitor configuration.
[     8.559] (==) Automatically adding devices
[     8.559] (==) Automatically enabling devices
[     8.559] (==) Automatically adding GPU devices
[     8.559] (==) Automatically binding GPU devices
[     8.559] (==) Max clients allowed: 256, resource mask: 0x1fffff
[     8.559] (WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/misc" does not exist.
[     8.559] 	Entry deleted from font path.
[     8.559] (WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/OTF" does not exist.
[     8.559] 	Entry deleted from font path.
[     8.559] (WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/Type1" does not exist.
[     8.559] 	Entry deleted from font path.
[     8.559] (==) FontPath set to:
	/usr/share/fonts/TTF,
	/usr/share/fonts/100dpi,
	/usr/share/fonts/75dpi
[     8.559] (==) ModulePath set to "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
[     8.559] (II) The server relies on udev to provide the list of input devices.
	If no devices become available, reconfigure udev or disable AutoAddDevices.
[     8.559] (II) Module ABI versions:
[     8.559] 	X.Org ANSI C Emulation: 0.4
[     8.559] 	X.Org Video Driver: 24.1
[     8.559] 	X.Org XInput driver : 24.1
[     8.559] 	X.Org Server Extension : 10.0
[     8.561] (++) using VT number 1

[     8.561] (II) systemd-logind: logind integration requires -keeptty and -keeptty was not provided, disabling logind integration
[     8.563] (II) xfree86: Adding drm device (/dev/dri/card0)
[     8.583] (--) PCI:*(0@0:2:0) 8086:1916:17aa:504a rev 7, Mem @ 0xf0000000/16777216, 0xe0000000/268435456, I/O @ 0x0000e000/64, BIOS @ 0x????????/131072
[     8.584] (WW) Open ACPI failed (/var/run/acpid.socket) (No such file or directory)
[     8.584] (II) LoadModule: "glx"
[     8.584] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions/libglx.so
[     8.587] (II) Module glx: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
[     8.588] 	compiled for 1.20.8, module version = 1.0.0
[     8.588] 	ABI class: X.Org Server Extension, version 10.0
[     8.588] (II) LoadModule: "intel"
[     8.588] (WW) Warning, couldn't open module intel
[     8.588] (EE) Failed to load module "intel" (module does not exist, 0)
[     8.588] (EE) No drivers available.
[     8.588] (EE) 
Fatal server error:
[     8.588] (EE) no screens found(EE) 
[     8.588] (EE) 
Please consult the The X.Org Foundation support 
	 at http://wiki.x.org
 for help. 
[     8.588] (EE) Please also check the log file at "/var/log/Xorg.0.log" for additional information.
[     8.588] (EE) 
[     8.588] (EE) Server terminated with error (1). Closing log file.

 

 

[svmlegacy]

47 minutes ago, kelvinhall05 said:

<Xorg.0.log>

[     8.588] (II) LoadModule: "intel"
[     8.588] (WW) Warning, couldn't open module intel
[     8.588] (EE) Failed to load module "intel" (module does not exist, 0)

Cool. Now we're starting to see the heart of the problem. It seems the intel module is also not getting loaded at boot.

Double check this with

# lsmod | grep -i intel

**Note: It may also be called i915: I don't have the hardware to test this atm.

 

If it does not appear with that command, feel free to run it without the grep.

Per this article in the wiki: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/intel_graphics#Loading

• Make sure you do not have nomodeset or vga= as a kernel parameter, since Intel requires kernel mode-setting.
• Also, check that you have not disabled Intel by using any modprobe blacklisting within /etc/modprobe.d/ or /usr/lib/modprobe.d/

It also might be useful to reconfigure the boot loader, as it sets the kernel parameters. Assuming GRUB2:

 

# grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

 

P.S. / Edit. Just to be sure, you are using Intel Graphics on this system, correct?

[kelvinhall05]

17 minutes ago, svmlegacy said:

[     8.588] (II) LoadModule: "intel"
[     8.588] (WW) Warning, couldn't open module intel
[     8.588] (EE) Failed to load module "intel" (module does not exist, 0)

Cool. Now we're starting to see the heart of the problem. It seems the intel module is also not getting loaded at boot.

Double check this with

# lsmod | grep -i intel

If it does not appear with that command, feel free to run it without the grep.

Per this article in the wiki: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/intel_graphics#Loading

• Make sure you do not have nomodeset or vga= as a kernel parameter, since Intel requires kernel mode-setting.
• Also, check that you have not disabled Intel by using any modprobe blacklisting within /etc/modprobe.d/ or /usr/lib/modprobe.d/

It also might be useful to reconfigure the boot loader, as it sets the kernel parameters. Assuming GRUB2:

 

# grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

 

P.S. / Edit. Just to be sure, you are using Intel Graphics on this system, correct?

Awesome, thanks. I will give it a shot tomorrow.

 

And yes, I am using Intel HD.