Can't boot after update initramfs image missing

Ask Fedora
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1

First of all I’m not very prolific with linux and english so sorry if I name things wrong.

Yesterday I updated from Fedora 42 to Fedora 43 and then into Fedora 44 using the Discover App. Today I updated all packages with pending updates using the Discover App just like I always did. System reboots like always but this time I can’t boot and I get the following error.

error init
error init1920×1080 67.5 KB

Pressing any key prints de same message and sends me back to the grub menu

grub menu
grub menu1920×1080 155 KB

Luckily I still have the fedora 42 entry so I can still log into the computer with that option (the rescue one was useless since I have no idea how to use it properly)

Upon getting back with the f42 entry I do some troubleshooting online and I see other users with similar problems but I can’t find anything that works for me which is why I make this post.

robaq2@fedora:~$ fastfetch
             .',;::::;,'.                 robaq2@fedora
         .';:cccccccccccc:;,.             -------------
      .;cccccccccccccccccccccc;.          OS: Fedora Linux 44 (KDE Plasma Desktop Edition) x86_64
    .:cccccccccccccccccccccccccc:.        Host: Z390 D
  .;ccccccccccccc;.:dddl:.;ccccccc;.      Kernel: Linux 6.19.14-104.fc42.x86_64
 .:ccccccccccccc;OWMKOOXMWd;ccccccc:.     Uptime: 38 seconds
.:ccccccccccccc;KMMc;cc;xMMc;ccccccc:.    Packages: 6307 (rpm), 33 (flatpak)
,cccccccccccccc;MMM.;cc;;WW:;cccccccc,    Shell: bash 5.3.9
:cccccccccccccc;MMM.;cccccccccccccccc:    Display (VG249QM1A): 1920x1080 in 24", 144 Hz [External] *
:ccccccc;oxOOOo;MMM000k.;cccccccccccc:    Display (2381): 1920x1080 in 23", 60 Hz [External]
cccccc;0MMKxdd:;MMMkddc.;cccccccccccc;    DE: KDE Plasma 6.6.5
ccccc;XMO';cccc;MMM.;cccccccccccccccc'    WM: KWin (Wayland)
ccccc;MMo;ccccc;MMW.;ccccccccccccccc;     WM Theme: plastik
ccccc;0MNc.ccc.xMMd;ccccccccccccccc;      Theme: Breeze (Dark) [Qt], Breeze [GTK3]
cccccc;dNMWXXXWM0:;cccccccccccccc:,       Icons: breeze-dark [Qt], breeze-dark [GTK3/4]
cccccccc;.:odl:.;cccccccccccccc:,.        Font: Noto Sans (10pt) [Qt], Noto Sans (10pt) [GTK3/4]
ccccccccccccccccccccccccccccc:'.          Cursor: Breeze_Light (24px)
:ccccccccccccccccccccccc:;,..             Terminal: konsole 26.4.1
 ':cccccccccccccccc::;,.                  CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-9700K (8) @ 4.90 GHz
                                          GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Rev. A [Discrete]
                                          Memory: 4.01 GiB / 62.72 GiB (6%)
                                          Swap: 0 B / 8.00 GiB (0%)
                                          Disk (/): 397.14 GiB / 1.82 TiB (21%) - btrfs
                                          Disk (/mnt/datos): 268.78 GiB / 931.50 GiB (29%) - fuseblk
                                          Local IP (enp5s0): 192.168.0.107/24
                                          Locale: es_ES.UTF-8

                                                                  
                                                                  
robaq2@fedora:~$ ls /boot
config-6.19.14-104.fc42.x86_64                           symvers-6.19.14-104.fc42.x86_64.xz
config-7.0.9-202.fc44.x86_64                             symvers-7.0.9-202.fc44.x86_64.xz
efi                                                      System.map-6.19.14-104.fc42.x86_64
grub2                                                    System.map-7.0.9-202.fc44.x86_64
initramfs-0-rescue-7305f5eb177d45d69ebfa09fef73f806.img  vmlinuz-0-rescue-7305f5eb177d45d69ebfa09fef73f806
initramfs-6.19.14-104.fc42.x86_64.img                    vmlinuz-6.19.14-104.fc42.x86_64
loader                                                   vmlinuz-7.0.9-202.fc44.x86_64
lost+found
robaq2@fedora:~$

Upon checking on the console it seems the initramfs image is indeed missing in the boot folder (I have no idea what this means)

I did some research and seems like I can regenerate it using the command ‘sudo dracut --kver 7.0.9-202.fc44.x86_64’

But this one also fails with the following error

robaq2@fedora:~$ sudo dracut --kver 7.0.9-202.fc44.x86_64
[sudo] contraseña para robaq2: 
dracut-install: ERROR: could not locate dependency libsystemd-shared-257.13-1.fc42.so requested by '/var/tmp/dracut.d7tkoc4/initramfs/usr/lib64/systemd/libsystemd-core-257.13-1.fc42.so'
dracut-install: ERROR: could not locate dependency libsystemd-shared-258.7-1.fc43.so requested by '/var/tmp/dracut.d7tkoc4/initramfs/usr/lib64/systemd/libsystemd-core-258.7-1.fc43.so'
dracut[F]: Resolving executable dependencies failed
robaq2@fedora:~$

I try to locate them manually …

robaq2@fedora:/usr/lib64/systemd$ ls
libsystemd-core-257.13-1.fc42.so  libsystemd-core-259.5-1.fc44.so     libsystemd-shared-258.7-1.fc43.so
libsystemd-core-258.7-1.fc43.so   libsystemd-shared-257.13-1.fc42.so  libsystemd-shared-259.5-1.fc44.so
robaq2@fedora:/usr/lib64/systemd$ ls | grep 'libsystemd-core-257.13-1.fc42.so'
libsystemd-core-257.13-1.fc42.so
robaq2@fedora:/usr/lib64/systemd$ ls | grep 'libsystemd-core-258.7-1.fc43.so'
libsystemd-core-258.7-1.fc43.so
robaq2@fedora:/usr/lib64/systemd$

And both seem to exist in a simular route to the one output by dracut.

Disk space also seems fine…

robaq2@fedora:/usr/lib64/systemd$ df -h /boot
S.ficheros     Tamaño Usados  Disp Uso% Montado en
/dev/nvme0n1p2   974M   396M  511M  44% /boot

What should I try next?
Should I just keep using f42 entry until a new update prompts?
Any way to fix the f44 entry?

Some additiona info:

robaq2@fedora:/usr/lib64/systemd$ ls -l /lib/modules/
total 0
drwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 366 may 11 15:54 6.19.10-100.fc42.x86_64
drwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 366 may 18 20:07 6.19.12-100.fc42.x86_64
drwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 366 may 18 20:55 6.19.14-100.fc42.x86_64
drwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 366 may 18 20:55 6.19.14-101.fc42.x86_64
drwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 790 may 18 20:52 6.19.14-104.fc42.x86_64
drwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 772 may 18 20:45 7.0.8-200.fc44.x86_64
drwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 772 may 20 14:41 7.0.9-202.fc44.x86_64
2

Start with this:
Failed partial upgrade from 43 to 44 leaves system confused - #2 by vgaetera

Then reinstall the kernel:

sudo dnf reinstall kernel\* --skip-unavailable
3

Looks like you have the same issue as this user:

4

I firstly tried

sudo dnf distro-sync \
    --refresh \
    --releasever=44 \
    --allowerasing \
    --skip-broken \
    --setopt=protected_packages=

It got some confusing messages not sure it worked BUT

sudo dnf reinstall kernel\* --skip-unavailable

Fixed it. Before rebooting I checked /boot and ‘initramfs-7.0.9-202.fc44.x86_64.img’ was now there.

When I turned off the pc it got stuck in a black screen with a blinking cursor but after waiting too much and forcing it shut the F44 entry now works first try.

Many Thanks!

5

I was having this issue after upgrading from Fedora 43 to Fedora 44 through Discover and even tried the same initial fix using the dracut command (which was also unsuccessful) before finding this thread.

I attempted reinstalling the kernel first with:

sudo dnf reinstall kernel\* --skip-unavailable

but it had no effect by itself. After running

sudo dnf distro-sync \
    --refresh \
    --releasever=44 \
    --allowerasing \
    --skip-broken \
    --setopt=protected_packages=

and then reinstalling the kernel with the above command I was able to boot into my Fedora 44 grub entry properly after restarting without any problems.

I was a bit slow discovering this issue since the system was booting (or more accurately, falling back to the f43 entry) until actually paying attention to grub during boot. Sure enough, although fastfetch was reporting the OS as Fedora Linux 44, the kernel was still on fc43, so I figured that I was stuck in-between updates.

For clarity, the upgrade was uninterrupted so I’m still unsure what could have caused this, but I’m leaning towards it being some weirdness with Discover.

Thanks a lot for making and everyone that contributed to this thread!