Latest -Syu broke my kernel (it seems) what do now?

General system Kernel, boot, graphics & hardware
1

After an -Syu this evening, got this error when attempting to reboot from GRUB:

lLoading Linux linux... error file /boot/vmlinux-linux not found loading initial ramdisk error you need to load the kernel first

Similar error when trying linux-lts

I tried the following after booting into EOS from flash and looking up a few fixes (including on this forum):

[liveuser@eos-2025.11.24 ~]$ lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
loop0 7:0 0 2.8G 1 loop /run/archiso/airootfs
sda 8:0 1 57.8G 0 disk
├─sda1 8:1 1 3G 0 part /run/archiso/bootmnt
└─sda2 8:2 1 251M 0 part
nvme0n1 259:0 0 953.9G 0 disk
├─nvme0n1p1 259:1 0 2G 0 part
├─nvme0n1p2 259:2 0 917.6G 0 part
└─nvme0n1p3 259:3 0 34.3G 0 part
[liveuser@eos-2025.11.24 ~]$ sudo arch-chroot /nvme0n1
==> ERROR: Can't create chroot on non-directory /nvme0n1
[liveuser@eos-2025.11.24 ~]$ sudo arch-chroot /dev/nvme0n1
==> ERROR: Can't create chroot on non-directory /dev/nvme0n1
[liveuser@eos-2025.11.24 ~]$ sudo arch-chroot /nvme0n1p2
==> ERROR: Can't create chroot on non-directory /nvme0n1p2
[liveuser@eos-2025.11.24 ~]$ blkid
/dev/nvme0n1p3: LABEL="swap" UUID="56cd0eba-5a43-405a-9860-9148cb8f615f" TYPE="swap" PARTUUID="9e2df6d0-b184-48b0
-a427-00abd5cf6939"
/dev/nvme0n1p1: UUID="6AB2-227B" BLOCK_SIZE="512" TYPE="vfat" PARTLABEL="EFI" PARTUUID="5e4ee4af-cad5-421c-bec2-8
a53c2651bb2"
/dev/nvme0n1p2: LABEL="endeavouros" UUID="67400523-3634-435b-b294-3f12a474d2e8" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4" PAR
TLABEL="endeavouros" PARTUUID="b5cff0e5-6886-4707-9029-e1f64c1ac570"
/dev/sda1: BLOCK_SIZE="2048" UUID="2025-11-24-21-31-18-00" LABEL="EOS_202511" TYPE="iso9660" PARTUUID="33da4a2d-0
1"
/dev/sda2: LABEL_FATBOOT="ARCHISO_EFI" LABEL="ARCHISO_EFI" UUID="6924-CEA6" BLOCK_SIZE="512" TYPE="vfat" PARTUUID
="33da4a2d-02"
[liveuser@eos-2025.11.24 ~]$ mount /dev/nvme0n1p2
mount: /dev/nvme0n1p2: can't find in /etc/fstab.
[liveuser@eos-2025.11.24 ~]$ sudo arch-chroot
==> ERROR: No chroot directory specified
[liveuser@eos-2025.11.24 ~]$ sudo arch-chroot /dev/nvme0n1p2
==> ERROR: Can't create chroot on non-directory /dev/nvme0n1p2
[liveuser@eos-2025.11.24 ~]$ sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
mount: /mnt: WARNING: source write-protected, mounted read-only.
[liveuser@eos-2025.11.24 ~]$ sudo mount /dev/nvme0n1p2 /mnt
[liveuser@eos-2025.11.24 ~]$ sudo arch-chroot /dev/nvme0n1p2
==> ERROR: Can't create chroot on non-directory /dev/nvme0n1p2
[liveuser@eos-2025.11.24 ~]$ sudo arch-chroot /dev/nvme0n1p2 /mnt
==> ERROR: Can't create chroot on non-directory /dev/nvme0n1p2
[liveuser@eos-2025.11.24 ~]$ sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot
mount: /mnt/boot: WARNING: source write-protected, mounted read-only.
[liveuser@eos-2025.11.24 ~]$ sudo arch-chroot /mnt/boot
mount: /mnt/boot/proc: mount point does not exist.
dmesg(1) may have more information after failed mount system call.
==> ERROR: failed to setup chroot /mnt/boot

I appear to be unable to mount or chroot anything. What am I doing wrong? How do I recover/reinstall the kernel?

2

Before offering any suggestions, are you using systemd-boot or GRUB?

3

I’m using GRUB.

4

OK - for setting up an arch-chroot, you need to mount (at a minimum) your root and EFI filesystems. Based on your output, that should be like this (NOTE: I used /mnt/rootfs as my default for /):

sudo mount -m -v /dev/nvme0n1p2 /mnt/rootfs
sudo mount -m -v /dev/nvme0n1p1 /mnt/rootfs/boot/efi

Now, if this looks OK, then enter the chroot:

sudo arch-chroot /mnt/rootfs

EDIT: fixed mount command to make mountpoint.

5

can you provide

sudo parted -l
6

Hi all, was able to fix this with the help of an irl friend who is also daily driving EndeavourOS. For whatever reason, the bootable EOS that I was trying to use to recover my system was unable to function as the root user and therefore not able to chroot into my system. Using a basic Arch flash boot however allowed me to chroot into the system and recover it. It seems like it was an interrupted/incomplete update where the new kernel was installed but dracut, GRUB, etc. were still looking for the old kernel and unable to find it.