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Update: With some hints from Terrence and heynnema, this problem is resolved. The update to kernel 5.4.0-52 was available, so I removed the kernel 51 files from /boot (carefully leaving the kernel 48 files in place) and allowed the updater to run. The system booted on the 52 kernel just fine.

I'm running an AMD Ryzen 2400G on an Asus PRIME X-470 Pro motherboard. A recent update gave me 5.4.0-51-generic, and the system no longer boots, coming up instead to BusyBox and the initramfs> prompt.

Falling back to 5.4.0-48-generic works.

Now there's another software update available, but I need to hang onto all of the 5.4.0-48-generic stuff in /boot in case 5.4.0-whatevercomesnext-generic doesn't boot, either.

# dmidecode -s bios-version
5603
root@deepsky:~# free -h
              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:           60Gi       2.0Gi        56Gi        81Mi       2.6Gi        58Gi
Swap:          62Gi          0B        62Gi
root@deepsky:~# lshw -c memory
  *-firmware                
       description: BIOS
       vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
       physical id: 0
       version: 5603
       date: 07/28/2020
       size: 64KiB
       capacity: 16MiB
       capabilities: pci apm upgrade shadowing cdboot bootselect socketedrom edd int13floppy1200 int13floppy720 int13floppy2880 int5printscreen int9keyboard int14serial int17printer acpi usb biosbootspecification uefi
  *-memory
       description: System Memory
       physical id: 2e
       slot: System board or motherboard
       size: 64GiB
     *-bank:0
          description: DIMM DDR4 Synchronous Unbuffered (Unregistered) 2133 MHz (0.5 ns)
          product: CMK32GX4M2B3000C15
          vendor: Corsair
          physical id: 0
          serial: 00000000
          slot: DIMM_A1
          size: 16GiB
          width: 64 bits
          clock: 2133MHz (0.5ns)
     *-bank:1
          description: DIMM DDR4 Synchronous Unbuffered (Unregistered) 2133 MHz (0.5 ns)
          product: CMK32GX4M2B3000C15
          vendor: Corsair
          physical id: 1
          serial: 00000000
          slot: DIMM_A2
          size: 16GiB
          width: 64 bits
          clock: 2133MHz (0.5ns)
     *-bank:2
          description: DIMM DDR4 Synchronous Unbuffered (Unregistered) 2133 MHz (0.5 ns)
          product: CMK32GX4M2B3000C15
          vendor: Corsair
          physical id: 2
          serial: 00000000
          slot: DIMM_B1
          size: 16GiB
          width: 64 bits
          clock: 2133MHz (0.5ns)
     *-bank:3
          description: DIMM DDR4 Synchronous Unbuffered (Unregistered) 2133 MHz (0.5 ns)
          product: CMK32GX4M2B3000C15
          vendor: Corsair
          physical id: 3
          serial: 00000000
          slot: DIMM_B2
          size: 16GiB
          width: 64 bits
          clock: 2133MHz (0.5ns)
  *-cache:0
       description: L1 cache
       physical id: 30
       slot: L1 - Cache
       size: 384KiB
       capacity: 384KiB
       clock: 1GHz (1.0ns)
       capabilities: pipeline-burst internal write-back unified
       configuration: level=1
  *-cache:1
       description: L2 cache
       physical id: 31
       slot: L2 - Cache
       size: 2MiB
       capacity: 2MiB
       clock: 1GHz (1.0ns)
       capabilities: pipeline-burst internal write-back unified
       configuration: level=2
  *-cache:2
       description: L3 cache
       physical id: 32
       slot: L3 - Cache
       size: 4MiB
       capacity: 4MiB
       clock: 1GHz (1.0ns)
       capabilities: pipeline-burst internal write-back unified
       configuration: level=3
root@deepsky:~# ls -alh /boot
total 127M
drwxr-xr-x  3 root root 4.0K Oct 19 08:27 .
drwxr-xr-x 25 root root 4.0K Sep  9 13:58 ..
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 233K Sep 10 03:12 config-5.4.0-48-generic
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 233K Oct  5 06:34 config-5.4.0-51-generic
drwxr-xr-x  4 root root 4.0K Oct 15 06:28 grub
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root   27 Oct 14 06:25 initrd.img -> initrd.img-5.4.0-51-generic
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  48M Oct  6 07:53 initrd.img-5.4.0-48-generic
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  48M Oct 14 06:25 initrd.img-5.4.0-51-generic
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root   27 Oct 14 06:25 initrd.img.old -> initrd.img-5.4.0-48-generic
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 179K Aug 18 03:46 memtest86+.bin
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 181K Aug 18 03:46 memtest86+.elf
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 181K Aug 18 03:46 memtest86+_multiboot.bin
-rw-------  1 root root 4.6M Sep 10 03:12 System.map-5.4.0-48-generic
-rw-------  1 root root 4.6M Oct  5 06:34 System.map-5.4.0-51-generic
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root   24 Oct 14 06:25 vmlinuz -> vmlinuz-5.4.0-51-generic
-rw-------  1 root root  12M Sep 10 03:36 vmlinuz-5.4.0-48-generic
-rw-------  1 root root  12M Oct  5 06:54 vmlinuz-5.4.0-51-generic
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root   24 Oct 14 06:25 vmlinuz.old -> vmlinuz-5.4.0-48-generic
root@deepsky:~# exit

% grep -i swap /etc/fstab


swap was on /dev/sda3 during installation


UUID=5c04123d-f760-4e3a-8e04-88ad2671dc38 none   swap     0       0
behindthecurve
  • 77

1 Answers1

1

BIOS

Asus PRIME X-470 Pro

Your BIOS is current at 5603.

/boot/initrd.img-5.4.0-51-generic

This file may be corrupt. The best way to rebuild it is, boot to the -48 kernel and:

sudo update-initramfs -c -k 5.4.0-51-generic

Then reboot to the -51 kernel.

memtest

Ryzen processors are notorious for memory compatibility issues, so...

Go to https://www.memtest86.com/ and download/run their free memtest to test your memory. Get at least one complete pass of all the 4/4 tests to confirm good memory. With 64G RAM, this WILL take many hours to complete.

swap

You have 64G RAM and 60G swap, which is way excessive for swap, unless you're hibernating. We'll discuss some different sizing. Show me grep -i swap /etc/fstab.

Update #1:

It looks like the -51 kernel is broken for you. We removed it and re-ran Software Updater and it installed the -52 kernel, and it's all good now.

heynnema
  • 73,649