Broken system : unable to boot - Question 1

I have a lot of questions about how to repair a broken system. I have already read a lot of things on your forum.
As I did not want to mix different questions with different answers I am going to open a thread for each subject.

Before system got broken :

uname -a
Linux linux-u6go 4.4.104-39-default #1 SMP Thu Jan 4 08:11:03 UTC 2018 (7db1912) x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Hardware info : http://paste.opensuse.org/80894240

Question 1 : When booting from usb stick in UEFI mode, and after choosing “Rescue system”, is it possible to have an internet connection to download and install a missing package ?
I have seen somewhere a command using curl in that situation.

Hi,

fwiw - why don’t you just download DVD image to USB stick and reinstall the system?

Regards

And what exactly is broken?

I just tried that. And I’m not sure how to start the network. I tried running “yast” to configure the network, but it said “command not found”.

So I rebooted. And this time I chose “install” instead of the rescue system.
After a few screens, it gave me a partitioning proposal.

At that point, I used CTRL-ALT-F2. And that gave me a root command line. And the network was already up.

You should be able to do the chroot fix that I mentioned in my answer to your question 4 from there. But maybe the system is already mounted, so perhaps you have to use it where it is already mounted. And you will have to copy “/etc/resolv.conf” into the mounted system, so that it can use DNS when accessing the network.

It would be easier if you can use the Tumbleweed live rescue CD/DVD (or on a USB). But if you use that, be sure to use the 64-bit version since you are rescuing a 64-bit system.

I retried this (on a VM). And after hitting CTRL-ALT-F2, nothing seems to be mounted. But my encrypted LVM had been opened (I had provided the key). So I tested mounting the root file system, the “/boot” file system and “/boot/efi”, and that all worked. So I think I could easily do the chroot to fix the system. But remember to copy “/etc/resolv.conf” into the mounted system, so that it can use DNS.

I don’t have anything to actually rescue, so I didn’t try more than mounting.

The why of all this stuff is explain ( tell ) in Broken system : unable to boot - Question 4 - Install/Boot/Login - openSUSE Forums

Nice trick.
Noted

I try to rescue the system from a geckolinux leap 42.2 Live USB.
Should not be different from using Tumbleweed live rescue ?

This leads me to a new question :
If I boot from a live USB, when the startup is finished, may I do some chroot fix the same way as if I was booting in rescue mode ?

I’m assuming that Question 4 is the real issue.

I think I gave enough details in my earlier answer to that.

To summarize:

Boot to the rescue system.
When you see the partitioning proposal, use CTRL-ALT-F2
which should give you are root shell.

ifconfig -a

should show that you have a network connection. If not, then no point in continuing.

Mount your root partition at “/mnt”
If there is a “/boot” partition, mount that at “/mnt/boot”
Mount your EFI partition at “/mnt/boot/efi”
(Optional) Mount your home partition at “/mnt/home”
Do the three --bind mounts that I mentioned in my earlier answer to question 4.

cp /etc/resolv.conf  /mnt/etc/resolv.conf
chroot /mnt

You should now be able to install a kernel. Either use zypper, or start a command line yast to install.

I’m pretty sure that the kernel install will also update your bootloader.

Exit from the chroot environment.
Unmount what you mounted

umount -R /mnt

Use CTRL-ALT-F7 to get back to the GUI installer.
Abort the install, and reboot.

Oops! You should boot to the installer, not to the rescue system.

Ok.
I am doing that wright now.

You saved me.

Thank you very much for your patience.

I’m glad that it worked out for you.

Now that you are experienced in rescues, maybe you will be able to use that experience to help others.

yes, if i could