Computer Help and Support

eppur_se_muova

(40,573 posts) Sun Nov 9, 2025, 01:55 PM Nov 9

Question about initramfs ... default is corrupted, how to safely delete ... (Manjaro, ARCH Linux)

I'm assuming that if I delete the most recent initramfs the system will boot from the backup, and then save the backup as a new default fs .... please correct me if I'm wrong. I'm planning to back up critical files as soon as I can find my 128GB thumb drives, then start doing some seriously irreversible things to the old SSD.

I've looked for advice online, but it all seems to be mixed in with people having other kinds of problems booting, and using unfamiliar utils which I don't think I actually need ... can I get a README version ?

At worst, I'll just migrate to a new SSD, but would like to restore the old partition to working order if possible.

(I'm using Manjaro XFCE, a fork of Arch Linux, but that might or might not last.)

2 replies

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Question about initramfs ... default is corrupted, how to safely delete ... (Manjaro, ARCH Linux) (Original Post) eppur_se_muova Nov 9 OP

how to handle a corrupted initramfs IbogaProject Nov 9 #1

Is there a rescue kernel to boot from? BadgerKid Nov 9 #2

IbogaProject

(5,457 posts)

1. how to handle a corrupted initramfs

Reply to eppur_se_muova (Original post)

Sun Nov 9, 2025, 02:22 PM

Nov 9

Search for that, you have to rebuild your directory w fsck, or rebuild that file during a multi step process or roll it back from a snapshot or backup. Good luck and thanks for the heads up to get my backups going. I'm over on MX Linux, but I did Use Manjaro until my kid took the laptop over. I regressed onto windows for awhile and eventually went back to linux, and have actually moved my SSD a couple of times now.

BadgerKid

(4,933 posts)

2. Is there a rescue kernel to boot from?

Reply to eppur_se_muova (Original post)

Sun Nov 9, 2025, 02:26 PM

Nov 9

If so , you could select this manually every time you boot. To make this choice automatic, you would need to edit a grub config file (maybe /etc/grub/grub.conf) and run a command like grub-mkconfig command to make it stick.

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