Issues Booting After Kernel Update in Qubes OS - Older Kernel Working

[HappyHippo]

Hi everyone!

I’m new to Qubes OS and really appreciate any help or guidance you can offer.

I recently updated my system via the Qubes Updater and rebooted, but unfortunately, my system hasn’t been booting properly since. After the GRUB screen, when trying to boot with the latest kernel version (6.6.54), I only see a blinking underscore, and nothing else happens.

Out of curiosity, I tried booting with an older kernel version through GRUB, and that got me back into my system. Originally, I was using kernel 6.6.48, which used to work fine, but now it also refuses to boot. The only kernel that somewhat works is 6.6.41.

Here’s what I’ve tried so far:

Kernel Reinstallation Attempts: Thinking 6.6.54 might not be compatible, I tried reinstalling kernel 6.6.48 using sudo dnf remove to clear out:
    kernel-6.6.54-1.qubes.fc37.x86_64
    kernel-modules-6.6.54-1.qubes.fc37.x86_64
    kernel-qubes-vm-6.6.54-1.qubes.fc37.x86_64
    kernel-devel-6.6.54-1.qubes.fc37.x86_64

I then rebooted and used sudo qubes-dom0-update kernel and also directly tried sudo qubes-dom0-update kernel-6.6.54, but this didn’t solve the problem.

Testing with Kernel 6.6.48: After the reinstallation attempts didn’t work, I also tried a similar approach with kernel 6.6.48, but had no luck there either.

I suspect I might be doing something wrong here, and that the issue isn’t actually with Qubes itself. I’m open to any advice or troubleshooting steps you can suggest. Thanks so much in advance for any tips or insights!

[apparatus]

Do you use NVIDIA in dom0?
If yes then see this:

Qubeos 4.2.3 fresh install stuck after entering successfully luks password

There seems to be a problem with NVIDIA and new kernels: Try to boot with nouveau.modeset=0 kernel command line option. If it’ll boot then you can try to install the older kernel 6.6.42 and use nouveau or try to install proprietary NVIDIA driver in dom0 instead of nouveau.

[HappyHippo]

Thank you for the reply!

If you mean adding nouveau.modeset=0 in the GRUB screen after pressing “e” on the kernel selection, I tried that, but unfortunately, it didn’t resolve the issue. Just to confirm, is that the right place to add it, or should I be entering it somewhere else to start with nouveau.modeset=0?

For context, I do have an NVIDIA card, though it’s an older GTX 1070. Thanks again to you (and anyone else who might have ideas) for the help!

[apparatus]

@HappyHippo

If you mean adding nouveau.modeset=0 in the GRUB screen after pressing “e” on the kernel selection, I tried that, but unfortunately, it didn’t resolve the issue. Just to confirm, is that the right place to add it, or should I be entering it somewhere else to start with nouveau.modeset=0?

You can add it like this:
Autostart troubleshooting | Qubes OS

@HappyHippo

For context, I do have an NVIDIA card, though it’s an older GTX 1070. Thanks again to you (and anyone else who might have ideas) for the help!

Then this is your issue:

Not booting with Linux 6.6.48 but still booting with 6.6.42

Issue was reported here: Building recent kernels with the reverted commit works for me. I’m not sure when this will be fixed, for now I’ve been including a revert commit patch in my kernel builds and it’s worked perfectly on all recent releases.