Manjaro - Kernel Panics and Other Tips for Arch-based Distros

Before I start to wrap up for my evening in Oz, Jeffrey had a question elsewhere

Oh wise wizard could I do a multi boot system w/ or 4 OS: 1. Manjaro Gnome, KaOS or openSUSE, Solus, & Mint 19 Cinnamon?
Click to expand...

... which I can associate with his

Jeffrey Lapinski said:
how many distros do you anticipate I can run off of the 256 SSD?
Click to expand...

... above.

Simple answer to the second quote is ... 10 or so, but it depends on issues such as /home vs Home and where you want space for data storage and Timeshift snapshots to safeguard your setup.

Regarding the 1st quote - I would hold off for the moment on installing Solus, there are issues associated with it that raises questions of concern for me, but one of them is that Solus prefers to have your ESP of a size of at least around 550MB, and that in turn raises questions on what size and content you need/must have with your EFI setup.

On my Toshiba referred to earlier, I have had 43 Linux sharing a 549 MiB ESP (from Solus trial), only using 33.61 MiB. I will explain this more in a future thread.

Solus' position in the rankings is possibly disproportionately enhanced by the fact that it is popular with Gamers. With me, the jury is out to consider its verdict.

Some of the problems I encountered have been experienced by others.

Cheers all

Wizard
 


wizardfromoz said:
No worries :)

To fast-track you and given our timezones disparity, your custom.cfg should look like the following, given what you have established on the UUID on /dev/sdb2:

Code: 
menuentry "Manjaro - configfile "  {
    insmod part_gpt
    part part_msdos
    insmod ext2
    search --no-floppy  --fs-uuid --set=root 0912aa12-13df-4188-bea6-f2dd9df01b78
    configfile /boot/grub/grub.cfg
}

If that matches yours, go for it.

A word to The Viewers here - if you are copying and pasting text to and from a word processor application to somewhere like this Forum, just proof-read your commands. Fonts in one can override the formatting in others. In the line above commencing "search", there are three (3) double-dashes, before no, before fs, and before set.

Continuing where I left off above at #16:


  • /dev/sda18 Manjaro GNOME (17.1.12)
  • /dev/sda21 Bluestar Linux
  • /dev/sda25 SwagArch
  • /dev/sda30 Netrunner Rolling (2018.1)
  • /dev/sda35 Antergos
  • /dev/sda36 Anarchy
  • /dev/sda43 Chakra and
  • /dev/sda47 Manjaro Cinnamon (17.1.12)
So, you can see I have eight (8) Arch-based Distros living side-by-side in relative harmony with Debian-based Distros, RPM-based Distros, and a Gentoo-based one (Sabayon) as well.

All possible because of this custom.cfg configuration.

More next Post

Cheers for now

Wizard
Click to expand...
PROGRESS REPORT!
After a lousy night's sleep (kids, dogs, and thunderstorms) and a few cups of coffee I decided to take the dive and create the custom.cfg file. I am happy to report that it works!!

I now need to move on to putting some additional distros on to laptop #1 but I am going to start a new thread for it!
 
Jeffrey Lapinski said:
PROGRESS REPORT!
After a lousy night's sleep (kids, dogs, and thunderstorms) and a few cups of coffee I decided to take the dive and create the custom.cfg file. I am happy to report that it works!!

I now need to move on to putting some additional distros on to laptop #1 but I am going to start a new thread for it!
Click to expand...
wizardfromoz said:
No worries :)

To fast-track you and given our timezones disparity, your custom.cfg should look like the following, given what you have established on the UUID on /dev/sdb2:

Code: 
menuentry "Manjaro - configfile "  {
    insmod part_gpt
    part part_msdos
    insmod ext2
    search --no-floppy  --fs-uuid --set=root 0912aa12-13df-4188-bea6-f2dd9df01b78
    configfile /boot/grub/grub.cfg
}

If that matches yours, go for it.

A word to The Viewers here - if you are copying and pasting text to and from a word processor application to somewhere like this Forum, just proof-read your commands. Fonts in one can override the formatting in others. In the line above commencing "search", there are three (3) double-dashes, before no, before fs, and before set.

Continuing where I left off above at #16:


  • /dev/sda18 Manjaro GNOME (17.1.12)
  • /dev/sda21 Bluestar Linux
  • /dev/sda25 SwagArch
  • /dev/sda30 Netrunner Rolling (2018.1)
  • /dev/sda35 Antergos
  • /dev/sda36 Anarchy
  • /dev/sda43 Chakra and
  • /dev/sda47 Manjaro Cinnamon (17.1.12)
So, you can see I have eight (8) Arch-based Distros living side-by-side in relative harmony with Debian-based Distros, RPM-based Distros, and a Gentoo-based one (Sabayon) as well.

All possible because of this custom.cfg configuration.

More next Post

Cheers for now

Wizard
Click to expand...
I forgot to ask, do I need a custom config file for each distro?
 
Jeffrey Lapinski said:
do I need a custom config file for each distro?
Click to expand...

Yes. You can either build custom.cfg from scratch again in the newly added Distro, or if your File Manager (Nemo for your Cinnamon) permits the right-click and Open as Root/Admin privilege, simply copy the file from point A to Point B. You will need the UUID from your Manjaro partition to be the same in each case.

If for some reason you have to blow away your Manjaro and then replace it, your Manjaro will be assigned a new UUID and you will have to substitute that in each of your files custom.cfg across the range of Distros in your stable.

I will explain more about this in a Thread on multi-multi-booting, but briefly:

In most but not all cases, when you install a new Distro to be in company with others, following reboot, the new Distro will move to the top of your Grub Menu, I call this TLS - The Leaderboard Shuffle - like a golf tournament in the Majors on the 3rd and 4th days. More technically, the new Distro becomes the Primary Partition. Then Manjaro and a number of the other Arch-based Distros fall over again with Kernel Panic.

So with the new Distro, apart from enabling your firewall, one of the first things I do is to copy or create the custom.cfg and then it's back to business.

More soon.

Enjoy your Linux.

Wizard
 
No, just the UUID for your Manjaro, that was 0912aa12-13df-4188-bea6-f2dd9df01b78 I believe.

The Manjaro itself does not need a custom.cfg.

Wiz
 
Oh, ok so for each new distro I need to put a custom.cfg file in /boot/grub with my Manjaro UUID as we did with LM19 Cinnamon? Should I install the additional distros to the HHD then or can I put them on the SSD? I have started a new thread for this topic as well (and although I mentioned you to show my appreciation for your help, I DID NOT page you this time :D)
 
Jeffrey Lapinski said:
...for each new distro I need to put a custom.cfg file in /boot/grub with my Manjaro UUID as we did with LM19 Cinnamon?
Click to expand...

Yes, so firewall first, custom.cfg 2nd on any new Distro you install.

The second part to your question I will answer over at the new Thread.

Cheers

Wiz
 
Ok. I am indisposed for the next 2 days (I'll be on service) and I hope to add a few installs (or at least 1 - 2 more) this weekend. Before I push the button (install now) I will post what I am about to do! I think I need a guide for at the very least 1 new install on the SSD! Is there a particular distro that you think would be best as a first install on the SSD? I am leaning toward either Manjaro XCFE or LM XCFE (I have to admit I kind of like the little mouse)!
 
wizardfromoz said:
Yes. You can either build custom.cfg from scratch again in the newly added Distro, or if your File Manager (Nemo for your Cinnamon) permits the right-click and Open as Root/Admin privilege, simply copy the file from point A to Point B. You will need the UUID from your Manjaro partition to be the same in each case.

If for some reason you have to blow away your Manjaro and then replace it, your Manjaro will be assigned a new UUID and you will have to substitute that in each of your files custom.cfg across the range of Distros in your stable.

I will explain more about this in a Thread on multi-multi-booting, but briefly:

In most but not all cases, when you install a new Distro to be in company with others, following reboot, the new Distro will move to the top of your Grub Menu, I call this TLS - The Leaderboard Shuffle - like a golf tournament in the Majors on the 3rd and 4th days. More technically, the new Distro becomes the Primary Partition. Then Manjaro and a number of the other Arch-based Distros fall over again with Kernel Panic.

So with the new Distro, apart from enabling your firewall, one of the first things I do is to copy or create the custom.cfg and then it's back to business.

More soon.

Enjoy your Linux.

Wizard
Click to expand...
Hey Wizard... you may be going to cover this in your upcoming thread on multi-multi-booting, but I'll ask now anyway. It's been great following along with your advice to Jeffrey so far. :cool::D But I may have missed some things.

So, I understand that you need the Manjaro UUID in each custom.cfg added to every new distro to keep Manjaro from kernel panic. My hypothetical situation is this:

1) Adding to what Jeffrey has now, what if a 3rd new distro is added, but it is another Arch-based, such as Bluestar.
2) My guess is that it goes to the top of the Leaderboard Shuffle, add a custom.cfg to it for Manjaro, and all is good.
3) Then to add a 4th distro, a non-Arch, such as Debian, and this one would now go to the top of the Leaderboard.
4) I assume (bad idea, I know) that both Bluestar and Manjaro will kernel panic... yes?

Sorry, but I did not yet review the custom.cfg format, and perhaps that would answer my own question... which is, "Can you add more than one UUID for Arch-based distros?" Or, "Do you need multiple custom.cfg files?" Or, "Something else?"

Again, nice work and very entertaining while I worked my latest set of midnight shifts. And I'm glad they are over now!

Cheers
 
Stan, regrets on taking so long to get back to this. My comments and answers in attributes

atanere said:
So, I understand that you need the Manjaro UUID in each custom.cfg added to every new distro to keep Manjaro from kernel panic. YES My hypothetical situation is this:

1) Adding to what Jeffrey has now, what if a 3rd new distro is added, but it is another Arch-based, such as Bluestar. Bluestar will need a custom.cfg pointed at Manjaro while Bluestar controls the Grub Menu rankings. If the roles are reversed, Manjaro will not need a custom.cfg for Bluestar, as Bluestar is not subject to the Kernel Panic.
2) My guess is that it goes to the top of the Leaderboard Shuffle, add a custom.cfg to it for Manjaro, and all is good. Correct.
3) Then to add a 4th distro, a non-Arch, such as Debian, and this one would now go to the top of the Leaderboard. Yes, it does.
4) I assume (bad idea, I know) that both Bluestar and Manjaro will kernel panic... yes? Half marks, Manjaro will panic, Bluestar not. So a custom.cfg with the Manjaro UUID is added to Debian.

Sorry, but I did not yet review the custom.cfg format, and perhaps that would answer my own question... which is, "Can you add more than one UUID for Arch-based distros?" Or, "Do you need multiple custom.cfg files?" Or, "Something else?" This one requires more detail, I will answer outside the quotes, likely as a standalone Post so it is easily focused on
Click to expand...

Wizard
 
A bit late on the following, regrets

atanere said:
Sorry, but I did not yet review the custom.cfg format, and perhaps that would answer my own question... which is, "Can you add more than one UUID for Arch-based distros?" Or, "Do you need multiple custom.cfg files?" Or, "Something else?"
Click to expand...

For the benefit of The Viewers, that custom.cfg again:

menuentry "Manjaro - configfile " {
insmod part_gpt
part part_msdos
insmod ext2
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
configfile /boot/grub/grub.cfg
}

In code

Code: 
menuentry "Manjaro - configfile "  {
   insmod part_gpt
   part part_msdos
   insmod ext2
   search --no-floppy  --fs-uuid --set=root xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
   configfile /boot/grub/grub.cfg
}

... where the 32-digit (standard) UUID represented by x's, is the UUID for your Manjaro that falls over OR (importantly) a Manjaro of your choice, if you are booting multiple Manjaro, as I am.

Can you add more than one UUID for Arch-based distros?

No idea ... try it and brick it. That sounds facetious, let's try that again.

No idea ... try it and brick it. BUT (you know where Wizard is, his but is not far behind), have a fallback Distro or two to keep running. :p

Actually, what you could do instead, if you run two or more Manjaro, and a number of non-Manjaro Distros, is to have a couple of custom.cfg with just one of the Manjaro's UUID housed in different Distros, so that when, inevitably TLS occurs, which can be following:
  • A major kernel update
  • Updates including new grub-efi/grub-efi-signed
  • certain firmware upgrades
  • new Matthew Garrett shim/shim-signed
  • a Restoration of a Timeshift snapshot
  • a combination of the above
  • other
... you can run a secondary Grub Menu featuring a different Manjaro as King of the Castle.

Do you need multiple custom.cfg files?

No need, that I can see, currently, but you can if you wish, as above. If you have a majority of non-Arch-based Distros in your stable, as I do, with a bunch of Debian-based, a sprinkle of RPM-based, and a Gentoo-based ... I would be inclined to KISS (keep it simple, stupid) and just have them all having the same custom.cfg in their /boot/grub/ for easier maintenance.

Stan, like myself, and others, is a Tolkien fan, and will be familiar with the line "one ring to rule them all".

Manjaro currently has at least 13 different versions that I am aware of.

The three official ones are
  • GNOME
  • KDE and
  • XFCE
Then there are nine (9) "Community Editions":
  • Awesome
  • Bspwm
  • Budgie
  • Deepin
  • Cinnamon
  • i3
  • LXDE/LXQT
  • MATE and
  • Openbox
All of the above, as with the official flavours, are currently 17.1.12 I think, except for Bspwm which is 17.1.7

3 + 9 = 12 so what's the 13th?

Manjaro Strit - is not very well known. It is a spin by Manjaro Maintainer Dan 'Strit' Johansen, Danish fellow.

Strit's spin I have used, but not in some time, and it is groundbreaking in that to my knowledge, it was the first Linux Distro to ship with Timeshift installed. (link to my Tute)

That is, before Clement Lefebvre's Linux Mint 18.3 'Sylvia' series, and before Linux Lite's 4.0 version.

So I have only tried 7 of 13, but with all of them -

"one ring to rule them all"

... If a Manjaro is on top of your Leaderboard, its Grub Menu will allow booting of all other Manjaro and Arch-based Distros.

If its spot has been usurped by TLS, then it only needs each non-Manjaro or non-Manjaro-based (such as Netrunner Rolling [there is also a Netrunner, Debian-based] Distro to have a custom.cfg in its /boot/grub/ to allow for TLS ... and you are covered.

Once you get to the secondary menu, with Manjaro in the ascendancy, all other Distros on your system can be booted.

Cheers

Wiz
 
a BTW here as a standalone.

I will be updating my Timeshift tute to reflect same, but for the benefit of Jeffrey and others using a Manjaro

Everything Linux changes and evolves, as you would expect (Heraclitus), and Manjaro is no different.

In my video about installing Yaourt to get access to the AUR (Arch User Repository), that has changed.

You can now install Timeshift with the simple following:

Code: 
sudo pacman -S timeshift

Cheers

Wiz
 
wizardfromoz said:
The three official ones
Click to expand...
wizardfromoz said:
Then there are nine (9) "Community Editions"
Click to expand...
Three rings for Elven kings
Nine for mortal Men, doomed to die

How encouraging! :eek::D

Just kidding, of course... great explanation! And I think you're pointing out that I have been mistaken that this is an Arch-based problem. Instead, it seems quite restricted to Manjaro... yes?

Also, as you noted, Linux changes... and maybe this issue will be cured one day, or maybe other distros will fall victim to the same issue.

It's been briefly mentioned that the Solus/Budgie distro has issues in multi booting, and I remember Jeffrey was also interested in that one. Is it the same problem? Or perhaps you want to discuss that one separately?

Cheers
(Glad to be back home! :D)
 
Nice call on the Elven Kings et al, Stan :) Trust you to spot that.

atanere said:
Instead, it seems quite restricted to Manjaro... yes?
Click to expand...

No, but mostly ... I am still establishing and identifying patterns.

Netrunner Rolling is directly based on MJRO, so it falls victim.

Swagarch, on the other hand, is not, but also falls victim. Swagarch is also unusual for the fact that the "short-term fix", I describe on page 1 here https://www.linux.org/threads/manja...tips-for-arch-based-distros.19795/#post-58686 ... does not apply to Swagarch, it does not have the appropriate syntax for replacement.

When Manjaro is King of the Roost, Swagarch will comply, which is fortunate, because it is where I run an Oracle Vbox iteration of Arch itself.

And no, I don't yet know about Arch itself, as I have only scraped the surface with it via VM :)

The problem may be caused by Manjaro's insistence on loading the intel-ucode.img ahead of other processes, but I have yet to learn more on the technical side.

Solus is a can o worms I will leave for elsewhere, for now.

Cheers

Wiz
 
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