Unable to start my pc after enabling all PCI devices in sys-usb

Please help. My sys-usb was not starting so I tried enabling and disabling some PCI devices. Nothing was working so I enabled them all. When I pressed to start sys-usb, it crashed and my whole pc did shutdown. I tried to start it but no results. I can unlock the disk but afterwards the screen turns black and I can’t do anything.

What should I do? Is there a way to at least get my data or even repair the system?

Use the kernel parameter qubes.skip_autostart to prevent autostart.

I disabled sys-usb autostart back while the system was still working since it was slowing down the booting process. Yet still, I am unable to start to my pc.

Hey guys. To those who would encounter something similar in the future, I found a possible solution.

I booted into a live system on a usb disk, and from there I was able to decrypt the main disk and copy the data to another usb, thus saving the data. Afterwards it is needed to reinstall Qubes, and next time one has to be more careful about PCI devices.

@warden, do you actually understand why this caused your computer to implode?

Basically, you told the computer to pass every single piece of hardware it has into sys-usb, including the ones that dom0 was using.

This is likely because your sys-usb was still told to autostart…with all those PCI devices still passed through, hence the boot loop you would have experienced.

@renehoj is right. Adding this to your grub config before you boot would tell Qubes OS not to start any qubes, even if they are set to autostart. This would have allowed you to go back to the settings of sys-usb and remove all those PCI devices.

So if that’s the case, that doesn’t really explain fully what’s going on behind the scenes when your computer refused to start.

Either you have a hardware issue, your dom0 is corrupted, or didn’t actually disable autostart…

Here’s a guide for anyone interested:


Thats True GIFs | Tenor
:wink:

Oh :sweat_smile:

Gotta try it, thanks!