Saw there was an issue with the AUR being compromised a month or two back, has that been resolved such that it’s now safe to just update all packages or should I go through and check to make sure none were compromised?

Windows has destroyed my GRUB bootloader because of Windows updates, now Windows boot manager replaces GRUB Arch doesn't show up in the UEFI/BIOS menu. How I can fix it ?

As you can imagine, my computer is slow. I switched to linux and Firefox on it cause windows and chrome used up a lot of RAM.

But even so the laptop has seen only slightly better days, and just today I faced 3 OOM events during a session in Firefox.

What kind of browsers and other applications should I use to keep the RAM usage really normal and effective for my 4GB RAM?

I ofc would need to use other coding(vs code, Arduino, etc) and was trying how to install ms applications like word,ppt,etc. I was really wondering what should I do.

I have been running into weird issues right after I installed a new 500gb hdd that I share between Linux and windows .

It varies from weird freezes where I can use mouse or keyboard and even the clock stops and I just have to reboot (but I think I solved that one ) to blue screens this is the second time here it is if that helps

Panic Report

Arch: x86_64

Version: 7.2.8-arch1-2

[ 932.307323] CPU: 3 UID: 0 PID: 11870 Comm: rm Tainted: G D OE 7.2.8-arch1-2 #1 PREEMPT(full) 186163caea6eb5dc4b2a0252463c7ce1c6927294 [ 932.307329] Tainted: [D]=DIE, [O]=OOT_MODULE, [E]=UNSIGNED_MODULE [ 932.307331] Hardware name: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. MS-7C96/A520M-A PRO (MS-7C96), BIOS 1.G0 10/16/2023 [ 932.307334] RIP: 0010:__list_del_entry_valid_or_report+0xe3/0xf6 [ 932.307338] Code: 48 0f b9 3a e9 60 ff ff ff b0 01 48 39 7d 08 74 23 48 89 ef e8 6e 7f 46 00 48 8d 3d 67 86 8d 02 48 8b 55 08 48 89 e9 48 89 de <67> 48 0f b9 3a e9 35 ff ff ff 5b 5d 41 5c e9 7a f4 35 01 48 89 df [ 932.307341] RSP: 0018:ffffceca85d57c98 EFLAGS: 00010202 [ 932.307345] RAX: 0000000000000001 RBX: ffff8d94131c78c8 RCX: ffff8d94131c7ec8 [ 932.307348] RDX: ffff8d94131c78c0 RSI: ffff8d94131c78c8 RDI: ffffffff885226f0 [ 932.307350] RBP: ffff8d94131c7ec8 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: ffffffff8825e540 [ 932.307353] R10: ffffceca85d579e0 R11: ffffceca85d579d8 R12: ffff8d94131c7748 [ 932.307355] R13: 0000000000000000 R14: ffff8d954400fae8 R15: ffff8d954400fad0 [ 932.307358] FS: 00007f747166d740(0000) GS:ffff8d9806fea000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [ 932.307360] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [ 932.307363] CR2: 00007fc9a4c3b8e0 CR3: 00000001bd8cf000 CR4: 0000000000350ef0 [ 932.307366] Call Trace: [ 932.307369] <TASK> [ 932.307374] list_lru_del.cold+0x8/0xd [ 932.307379] ? __pfx_select_collect+0x10/0x10 [ 932.307384] list_lru_del_obj+0x80/0xa0 [ 932.307390] d_lru_del+0x53/0x90 [ 932.307395] ? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f [ 932.307399] __move_to_shrink_list+0x99/0xd0 [ 932.307404] select_collect+0x6a/0x90 [ 932.307407] d_walk+0xd5/0x2d0 [ 932.307412] ? __pfx_select_collect+0x10/0x10 [ 932.307415] shrink_dcache_tree+0x91/0x1a0 [ 932.307422] vfs_rmdir+0x12c/0x270 [ 932.307427] filename_rmdir+0x1a3/0x260 [ 932.307434] __x64_sys_unlinkat+0x74/0x80 [ 932.307438] do_syscall_64+0xaa/0x660 [ 932.307442] ? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f [ 932.307446] ? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f [ 932.307449] ? do_syscall_64+0x5f/0x660 [ 932.307453] ? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f [ 932.307457] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e [ 932.307461] RIP: 0033:0x7f747151252b [ 932.307472] Code: 77 05 c3 0f 1f 40 00 48 8b 15 e1 67 10 00 f7 d8 64 89 02 b8 ff ff ff ff c3 66 0f 1f 44 00 00 f3 0f 1e fa b8 07 01 00 00 0f 05 <48> 3d 01 f0 ff ff 73 01 c3 48 8b 0d b5 67 10 00 f7 d8 64 89 01 48 [ 932.307475] RSP: 002b:00007ffda3dbb948 EFLAGS: 00000216 ORIG_RAX: 0000000000000107 [ 932.307478] RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 000055f8a4d26290 RCX: 00007f747151252b [ 932.307481] RDX: 0000000000000200 RSI: 000055f8a4d26390 RDI: 0000000000000006 [ 932.307483] RBP: 00007ffda3dbba10 R08: 0000000000000003 R09: 00007ffda3dbba3c [ 932.307486] R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000216 R12: 000055f8a47dc060 [ 932.307488] R13: 0000000000000001 R14: 00007ffda3dbbb20 R15: 000055f8a47dc001 [ 932.307496] </TASK> [ 932.307498] ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]--- [ 932.322157] Oops: invalid opcode: 0000 [#2] SMP NOPTI [ 932.322166] CPU: 3 UID: 0 PID: 39 Comm: ksoftirqd/3 Tainted: G D W OE 7.2.8-arch1-2 #1 PREEMPT(full) 186163caea6eb5dc4b2a0252463c7ce1c6927294 [ 932.322173] Tainted: [D]=DIE, [W]=WARN, [O]=OOT_MODULE, [E]=UNSIGNED_MODULE [ 932.322175] Hardware name: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. MS-7C96/A520M-A PRO (MS-7C96), BIOS 1.G0 10/16/2023 [ 932.322178] RIP: 0010:__d_free+0xd/0x30 [ 932.322185] Code: ff 90 66 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 f3 0f 1e fa 0f 1f 44 00 00 48 8d b7 50 <ff> ff ff 48 b8 00 05 2e 00 95 8d ff ff 48 89 c7 e9 fe e2 f2 ff 0f [ 932.322188] RSP: 0018:ffffceca80283da0 EFLAGS: 00010246 [ 932.322192] RAX: ffff8d94131cfef0 RBX: 0000000000005009 RCX: ffff8d9500372c00 [ 932.322195] RDX: ffffffff86201be8 RSI: 0000000000000002 RDI: ffff8d94131cfef0 [ 932.322197] RBP: ffff8d978fef42c0 R08: ffff8d94131cf3c0 R09: ffffffff85e64970 [ 932.322200] R10: fffff3dbc04c73c0 R11: ffff8d95002e0500 R12: ffff8d9500c49bc0 [ 932.322202] R13: ffffceca80283df0 R14: 0000000000000008 R15: 000000d912e8c8ed [ 932.322205] FS: 0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff8d9806fea000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [ 932.322208] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [ 932.322210] CR2: 00007fc9a4c3b8e0 CR3: 00000001bd8cf000 CR4: 0000000000350ef0 [ 932.322213] Call Trace: [ 932.322216] <TASK> [ 932.322219] rcu_do_batch+0x360/0x630 [ 932.322226] ? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f [ 932.322234] rcu_core+0x141/0x2e0 [ 932.322240] handle_softirqs+0xe8/0x2a0 [ 932.322246] ? __pfx_smpboot_thread_fn+0x10/0x10 [ 932.322251] run_ksoftirqd+0x2f/0x40 [ 932.322255] smpboot_thread_fn+0xf3/0x220 [ 932.322260] kthread+0xe4/0x120 [ 932.322264] ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10 [ 932.322269] ret_from_fork+0x2a7/0x330 [ 932.322274] ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10 [ 932.322278] ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 [ 932.322287] </TASK> [ 932.322289] Modules linked in: rfcomm snd_seq_dummy snd_hrtimer snd_seq uhid algif_hash algif_skcipher af_alg snd_ctl_led bnep vfat exfat fat btusb btmtk btrtl btbcm snd_hda_codec_alc662 btintel intel_rapl_msr snd_hda_codec_realtek_lib snd_hda_codec_atihdmi snd_hda_codec_generic snd_hda_codec_hdmi intel_rapl_common bluetooth snd_hda_intel rfkill snd_usb_audio ee1004 snd_hda_codec snd_usbmidi_lib aesni_intel snd_hda_core snd_ump r8169 gf128mul snd_intel_dspcfg snd_rawmidi aead snd_intel_sdw_acpi realtek snd_seq_device snd_hwdep rapl phy_package wmi_bmof pcspkr snd_pcm sp5100_tco mdio_devres joydev mousedev snd_timer libphy k10temp mc snd i2c_piix4 mdio_bus soundcore i2c_smbus gpio_amdpt vboxnetadp(OE) vboxnetflt(OE) gpio_generic mac_hid vboxdrv(OE) kvm_amd ccp kvm irqbypass pkcs8_key_parser crypto_user uinput i2c_dev zram 842_decompress 842_compress lz4hc_compress amdgpu drm_buddy amdxcp i2c_algo_bit drm_ttm_helper ttm drm_exec drm_panel_backlight_quirks nvme gpu_sched drm_suballoc_helper nvme_core nvme_keyring [ 932.322400] hid_playstation drm_display_helper nvme_auth led_class_multicolor video cec ff_memless wmi [ 932.322415] ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]--- [ 932.322418] RIP: 0010:__d_lookup_rcu+0x61/0x120 [ 932.322422] Code: 00 48 8b 04 c2 48 83 f8 01 0f 86 cd 00 00 00 4c 89 64 24 10 48 83 e0 fe 4c 8b 66 08 eb 0c 48 8b 00 48 85 c0 0f 84 86 00 00 00 <44> 8b 58 fc 4c 39 50 10 75 ea 48 39 58 18 75 e4 49 89 d9 48 8b 70 [ 932.322425] RSP: 0018:ffffceca80257a08 EFLAGS: 00010206 [ 932.322429] RAX: 0000000200240000 RBX: 0000000577045c71 RCX: 0000000077045c71 [ 932.322431] RDX: ffff8d978ee00000 RSI: ffffceca80257aa0 RDI: ffff8d95794b1240 [ 932.322434] RBP: ffffceca80257ad4 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 00000000000000a8 [ 932.322436] R10: ffff8d95794b1240 R11: 00000000ffff8d96 R12: ffff8d950a628a98 [ 932.322438] R13: ffff8d9536630000 R14: ffffceca80257bd0 R15: ffff8d950a628a80 [ 932.322441] FS: 0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff8d9806fea000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [ 932.322443] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [ 932.322446] CR2: 00007fc9a4c3b8e0 CR3: 00000001bd8cf000 CR4: 0000000000350ef0 [ 932.322449] Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal exception in interrupt [ 932.322546] Kernel Offset: 0x4a00000 from 0xffffffff81000000 (relocation range: 0xffffffff80000000-0xffffffffbfffffff)

Edit : Solved the problem was caused by resizing my Linux partition which caused some broken some time shift hardlinks to break which caused a kernel panic every time any service tried to access them . I booted into a live usb an mounted my Linux partition and ran e2fsck and deleted time shift snapshots and that fixed it

Linux Bluetooth audio is still an absolute nightmare with meetings

update: i have solved it. here is the script for terminal geeks and a kde widget for users who prefer UI. enjoy. :)
https://github.com/manojpgoswamigit/xm-mic-audio-fix

Whenever I join a Teams, Zoom, or basically any meeting that uses the microphone, my Bluetooth headphones suddenly stop working properly.

The headphones themselves work perfectly fine. The OS sound settings can test both input and output without any issues. But the moment a meeting app starts using the microphone, everything falls apart.

After a ridiculous amount of reading, I learned that part of the problem is how Bluetooth profiles and codecs are handled on Linux. My headphones support high-quality codecs like LDAC, but when an application needs both the microphone and speakers, the system has to switch to a different profile/codec that supports bidirectional audio.

Apparently, this transition is where things get messy.

What's especially frustrating is that Linux still shows my headphones in the sound panel. I can select them as both input and output, and everything looks correct in the UI. But the audio still doesn't f*cking work.

I've tried restarting PipeWire/WirePlumber, changing profiles with PulseAudio-pulse, manually selecting input/output devices, tweaking Bluetooth settings, and following various tutorials for resetting the audio services. Some work temporarily, but nothing has been reliable.

I've also tried preventing applications from taking control of the audio stream and letting the OS manage it, but that hasn't consistently solved the problem either.

At this point, I've given up on using my good Bluetooth headphones for meetings and switched to cheap wired headphones like the HyperX Cloud II and Plantronics. Ironically, they just work.

It's pretty ridiculous that in 2026, Linux can handle high-quality Bluetooth music playback just fine, but joining a Zoom or Teams call can completely break the audio.

And to be clear, this isn't an attack on Linux or the developers. I'm raising the issue because I'd like to see it fixed. Sometimes legitimate feedback gets met with people defending the platform instead of actually addressing the problem.

If someone has found a reliable solution, please share it. I'd genuinely like to fix this rather than keep using wired headphones.

And if there's a project or developer has fixed it and they need funding, I'd happily contribute.

I just want my Bluetooth headphones to work when I join a meeting and I do not want to go back to windows.

I made a very dumb mistake. After typing su at some point, I created a directory and some files in it. After that, I wanted to delete all of those files.

Then, I made a very big mistake. I thought, if I cd in that directory and run "rm -f /*", I only will delete all files inside of that directory. After reading the output, I was sure, that my system did not only delete all of these files. As you can think, my system is now destroyed. I couldn't even do a ls or reboot, cd worked somehow.

By writing this lines, I realised how dumb it sounds, than I thought before writing this post and Iam very sure, that I will have to install a new OS, but did someone have any tips, how I can recover my system?

today when i want to make update of the system if got this error which is showing me that files are already in the system:

linux-firmware-nvidia: /usr/lib/firmware/nvidia/ad103

linux-firmware-nvidia: /usr/lib/firmware/nvidia/ad104

linux-firmware-nvidia: /usr/lib/firmware/nvidia/ad106

linux-firmware-nvidia: /usr/lib/firmware/nvidia/ad107

what i should to do? remove these files and update linux-firmware-nvidia? im gues it was installed before with linux-firmware package but now it is splited in parts and that cause an issue?

I ran into a problem with screen sharing from Arch Linux / Hyprland to a Samsung TV. Back when I was using Windows 10 this was literally two clicks. So I started digging.

I installed gnome-network-displays and xdg-desktop-portal-hyprland. It didn't even see the TV. Struggled for a while, tried everything - turns out it at least starts finding the TV after you install and start the avahi daemon. But still couldn't connect.

Kept pushing - explicitly specifying portals, setting environment variables, verifying all the codecs were actually working. Finally got a picture! One frame... Then everything froze.

At that point I gave up on gnome-network-displays and just for fun decided to write my own cli implementation in Python. Minimal system dependencies!!! ffmpeg for capture, pychromecast and the rest is just stdlib including http.server like.

Progress so far: video streaming works! With a ~20 second delay... and no audio..., but hey, it works. I`ll try to fixing both of it tomorrow.

If anyone has actually solved this properly and is casting their screen to a TV on Hyprland/Wayland please let me know how. I really don't want to use an HDMI cable just to watch movies xD

I had dual booted arch linux and linux mint on my PC. A few weeks ago I had to do a job which required windows and that could be done through windows only. With no option being left, I decided to put windows on my PC. With my arch linux open, I partitioned the arch linux root directory to create some space for windows, which was really stupid decision which ruined my arch. Now whenever I try to open arch linux, I get the following error:

[FAILED] Failed to start File System Check .1ad768-....
[DEPEND] Dependency failed for /sysroot.
[DEPEND] Dependency failed for Initrd Root File System.
[DEPEND] Dependency failed for Mountpoints Configured in the Real Root.
You are in emergency mode. After logging in, type "journalctl -xb" to view system logs, "systemctl reboot" to reboot, or "exit" to continue bootup. 

Cannot open access to console, the root account is locked.
See sulogin(8) man page for more details.

Press Enter to continue.

I decided to live boot USB and tried to chroot. When I tried to mount the root partition, I got the following message.

mount: /mnt: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sda3, missing codepage or helper program, or other error. 
dmesg(1) may have more information after failed mount system call. 

I typed dmesg | grep 'sda3' and got the following output

[86.090736] EXT4-fs (sda3): bad geometry: block count 143546504 exceeds size of device (78643200 blocks) 

I do not know what should I do from here. I know what I did was very stupid. Is there any way I can recover my system or at least recover files from home directory? Please help me.

Apart from trying out Ubuntu a decade back and wasted hours and hours to make it look like Windows, I haven't had used Linux till now and always a full time Windows user.

I didn't chose Arch because some youtubers put 'Hardest thing they ever did' thumb nail but from the sane comments I saw here, I felt, it's most suitable for me. Because I decide to install Linux to learn more about Linux and it's structure, not because I need Linux Desktop to run any specific program.

Surprisingly it was not that difficult to install Arch. In fact, I spent majority of my time to fight with my old HP laptop to pick my GRUB correctly. Now that I installed Arch, I have no clue what I need to do next. I am using Plasma and I don't think I am ready to jump into a WM directly.

So first of all, can you all suggest some resources where I can learn more about the components (init, WM, Display manager and things I don't know) of the distro in a systematic way (not the sites I can refer if I know what I am looking for, like wiki) and how they interact with each other.
Also the different options to choose from for each of these these components and which one will be suitable for what scenario.

Also Is there something I can only use in Arch (or Linux) which Windows user not even aware it exists.

Hi everyone,

I've been troubleshooting a very frustrating full-system freeze on my Arch Linux laptop for hours, and I'm running out of ideas. I'd appreciate help interpreting the evidence rather than just trying random tweaks.

Hardware / setup:

• Dell G15 5511
• Intel i7-11800H (8C/16T)
• 16 GB RAM
• Intel TigerLake-H iGPU (i915) driving the internal display
• NVIDIA RTX 3050 Laptop GPU 4 GB
• nvidia-open-dkms 615.71.09
• KDE Plasma / KWin 6.7.5
• Wayland
• Arch kernel: 7.2.6-arch2-1
• Also tested Linux LTS 6.18.52-1-lts
• 12 GB ZRAM, zstd
• zswap disabled
• No disk-backed swap

What happens

During a heavy workload (Chrome/Brave, Android Studio + emulator/QEMU, VS Code/Electron apps, sometimes gaming), the desktop can become extremely sluggish and eventually appear completely frozen. Mouse/keyboard/window switching can stop responding.

Sometimes it briefly recovers, then freezes again when I try switching between applications.

What I've established so far

I originally thought this was simply RAM exhaustion. I have logs from some freezes showing:

• ZRAM becoming heavily occupied
• high memory PSI
• very large direct reclaim / kswapd activity
• thousands of compaction stalls
• no kernel OOM kill
• QEMU growing rapidly in memory

During those events NVIDIA also logged repeated:

NV_ERR_NO_MEMORY

including failures involving system memory, GSP allocations, context buffer pools, and rmMemPoolReserve.

Vulkan device creation also failed under pressure with:

VK_ERROR_INITIALIZATION_FAILED

Importantly, NVIDIA VRAM was not necessarily full when this happened.

I reproduced essentially the same behavior on the LTS kernel, so this does not currently look like a simple regression specific to kernel 7.2.x.

systemd-oomd

I tested systemd-oomd as well.

At its default 90% swap threshold it eventually killed entire Android Studio/app scopes. I tried 80%, which simply made applications get killed earlier.

Since losing applications is exactly what I'm trying to avoid, I disabled systemd-oomd temporarily for diagnosis.

The machine still froze, so oomd was not the root cause of the freezes.

The weird part: not every freeze appears to be memory pressure

During the latest incident my monitoring showed shortly before the UI became problematic:

• ~5.8 GB MemAvailable
• 0 swap in use
• ZRAM essentially empty
• memory PSI = 0
• no direct reclaim / kswapd activity
• no OOM
• NVIDIA at ~52 MB VRAM and 0% GPU utilization

The journal continued recording messages while the graphical desktop was behaving as if it was freezing, which makes me suspect the kernel itself may still have been alive.

I also found these KWin errors exactly around window switching:

kwin_wayland: file:///usr/share/kwin/tabbox/coverswitch/contents/ui/main.qml:
Unable to assign [undefined] to KWin::VirtualDesktop*

kwin_wayland: ReferenceError: currentItem is not defined

I'm currently testing without the Cover Switch task switcher to see whether that explains this second type of freeze.

During this particular incident there were no NVIDIA Xid errors, no i915 GPU hang/reset messages, and no NVIDIA OOM errors in the relevant journal window.

Things already tested / changed

• Tested normal Arch kernel and Linux LTS
• Increased ZRAM from 8 GB to 12 GB
• ZRAM uses zstd
• zswap disabled
• THP set to madvise
• Intel Vulkan (vulkan-intel) installed/working
• Intel VA-API (intel-media-driver) installed/working
• Checked NVMe SMART / filesystem errors
• No obvious NVMe hardware errors
• systemd-oomd tested and then disabled for diagnosis
• Continuous memory/PSI/reclaim/NVIDIA logging

One thing I have not tested yet is replacing nvidia-open-dkms with the closed nvidia-dkms module. I also haven't added disk-backed swap because I want to understand the actual failure first rather than hide it by throwing more swap at the system.

My main question

Does this look like two separate failure modes?

1. severe memory reclaim/compaction causing desktop starvation under heavy memory pressure, with NVIDIA allocation failures occurring during that pressure; and
2. a separate KWin/Wayland/task-switching/compositor issue that can happen even when memory pressure is basically zero?

I'm especially interested in what I should capture during the next freeze to distinguish KWin/i915/NVIDIA/userspace compositor problems from memory-reclaim stalls.

If anyone has seen similar behavior on Intel+i915 display + NVIDIA Ampere Optimus laptops under KDE Wayland, I'd really appreciate hearing what fixed it or what diagnostics revealed the cause.

After updating Arch today, my RX 9060 XT started getting these weird static-looking artifacts. They don’t cover the whole screen, just random parts of it.

I mostly notice it when watching YouTube and moving my mouse, scrolling Reddit while a video is playing, and sometimes on KDE’s shutdown screen.

I thought my Arch install was screwed up, so I completely reinstalled Arch and it still happened. I installed Fedora afterward and it’s been completely fine so far.

It’s happening on both of my LG monitors. I haven’t tested my Acer monitor yet, but I doubt both LG monitors suddenly developed the same problem at the exact same time.

Has anyone else started seeing this after a recent Arch update? I’m trying to figure out if this is some weird Mesa/kernel/AMDGPU update or something else.

My GPU is a power color reaper and it’s less than a year old.

Hey r/archlinux,

​I need some serious help or at least a discussion. I'm a beginner and I'm at my wit's end. I'm about to have a mental breakdown over this.

​I've been trying to get a stable Arch install on my laptop for months. I've reinstalled this thing 10-12 times. Whenever I use ext4, it's pretty stable. But I wanted to do things the "right" way with Btrfs and Snapper for snapshots.

​Every. Fucking. Time. I use Btrfs, I get random hard system freezes. The screen just locks, audio stops, and I have to hard reboot. The logs (journalctl -b -1) show nothing. They just stop at the time of the freeze.

​I've been working day and night trying to fix this. I feel like I'm losing my mind. The time and stress I've put into this is uncountable.

​Here is my hardware: ​Laptop: ASUS ROG STRIX G513RC

​CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 6800H with Radeon Graphics

​GPU: NVIDIA RTX 3050 Mobile

​RAM: 16GB DDR5

​Disk: Micron NVMe SSD

​Here is EVERYTHING I have done to try and fix this.

​Suspected the Kernel: Thought the standard linux kernel was the problem.

​Action: Switched to linux-lts and nvidia-lts. ​Result: Still froze.

​Suspected Drivers/Config: ​Action: Fixed my GRUB config to actually boot the LTS kernel (it wasn't). Set it as the default (GRUB_DEFAULT=0).

​Action: Updated /etc/mkinitcpio.conf to load all graphics drivers (amdgpu, nvidia, nvidia_drm) in the initramfs for early KMS. ​Result: It looked cleaner, but it still fucking froze.

​Suspected the Btrfs Swap File: This seemed like the "smoking gun." ​Action: I checked /etc/fstab and my Btrfs swap subvolume was missing nodatacow. I added it, turned swap off, remounted, and turned it back on. I verified with mount | grep /swap that nodatacow was active.

​Result: I was so happy. I thought it was solved. IT STILL FUCKING FROZE.

​Suspected the Hardware (Disk): ​Action: Installed smartmontools and ran sudo smartctl -a on my NVMe.

​Result: PASSED. The drive is 100% healthy. 0 errors, 100% available spare.

​Suspected the BIOS/Firmware: I saw some ACPI BIOS Error (bug) messages on boot. ​Action: Went to the ASUS support site for my G513RC.

​Result: My BIOS is already on the latest version.

​Suspected the Hardware (RAM): This was the final boss. I was told Btrfs is heavy on RAM and could be hitting a bad cell that ext4 never touched. I was sure this was it.

​Action: Made a bootable Memtest86+ USB. I let it run.

​Result: Pass: 1, Errors: 0. My RAM is perfectly, 100% fine.

​So now what?

​I'm just tired, dude. I've proven it's not the kernel. It's not the drivers. It's not the swap file config. It's not the disk. It's not the BIOS. And it's not the RAM.

​The only goddamn variable left is Btrfs itself. ​I'm a beginner, but I did all the "professional" steps. I'm just trying to have a stable system with snapshots. Is that too much to ask? ​Is Btrfs just cursed on some hardware? Is this a known issue with my ASUS laptop or this Ryzen CPU? Am I missing anything?

​I'm 100% ready to just say "fuck Btrfs" and go back to my stable ext4 install. Please, any suggestions from you pros? I'm desperate.

​Arch on Btrfs hard-freezes. Already fixed nodatacow swap, on LTS kernel, smartctl passed, BIOS is updated, and Memtest86+ passed with 0 errors. I'm out of ideas. Is ext4 my only hope?

EDIT / SOLVED:

System is finally stable now — no more random freezes or shutdowns.

The issue was caused by having a swap file on the same Btrfs partition that used compression (compress=zstd:3). When RAM filled up, the kernel tried to compress swap data, which caused instant system freezes with no logs or errors.

Fix:

Booted into GParted

Shrunk main Btrfs partition

Created a new 16 GB dedicated Linux-swap partition

Added its UUID to /etc/fstab

Also switched to the LTS kernel and replaced discard=async with fstrim.timer.

Tip for others: If you face random freezes on Btrfs, don’t use a swap file on a compressed partition. Create a proper swap partition instead — it fixes the problem completely.

I've been using arch alongside windows for more than a year now and this happened to me s few days ago, never happened before.

Reinstalling grub fixes it, but every time I boot windows it deletes it from my UEFI/BIOS and (for some reason) it shows me OS entries that no longer exist (ubuntu and fedora if that's relevant).

I've tried doing the "bcdedit.exe" fix, tried putting a shim on my grub, updating the BIOS and tried to uninstall the newer versions of windows (for some reason, I can't uninstall KB5124008 nor KB5126052 and after rebooting windows it shows me that it is being updated).

I also thought of my BIOS battery running out but since the internal clock/date is OK and i have my desktop plugged in all the time I discarded that option.

Does anyone know what is happening to it? I know that if im present I can reinstall grub at any time but since I use a VNC server (on both OS) with a wakeup on LAN I could not go back to linux after going into windows.

I plan to switch from Windows to Arch (Dual Booting for now due to genshin and wuwa), I have tried other distros before deciding on Arch

I doubt it matters but... 16gb ddr5, 256 ssd, ryzen 7 170 H

I have been suggested to modify Arch Installation from scratch rathwr than use a desktop environment due to reasons for switching

Few doubts:

- Arch Wiki is good I can see based on the basics I know but its too concise on various (if not all) topics I have seen for absolute newbies so I am kinda stuck on its installation guide... If someone has a decent alternative or something like a tutorial on basic stuff please do provide..

- I dont really know how much of from scratch are we talking when we mean modifying from scratch.. I want to know how many different things I should learn to install before starting... like drivers, the basic environments, Keyboard, wifi, gpu drivers etc

- If there is a good walkthrough which I can go through on YouTube for a arch installation fully manual pls share (If possible one in which there is not much disparity from how we install other stuff cuz yk like I may install another alternative than what they used)

- I have not started any test and trial with Arch terminal yet, cuz im not aure which VM to use... I am a bit familiar with VMWare but not sure if thats a good idea, any suggestion?

- Also if comfortable, please drop down a few things u suggest I can use be it subeddits, YouTuber, Your setup, etc

- I would love to know if there's a Megathread or something for similar doubts

Just updated to 262 and now I am seeing systemd-pcrproduct and systemd-tpm2-setup-early error out on boot. Seems to be this systemd bug, but I am not exactly sure. Anyone else seeing the same? Is there something I need to do to get these to not barf with the new systemd update or is it just a regression?

My system boots fine otherwise. Just a bit concerned whether these errors are important or not.

[user@arch-desktop ~]$ systemctl --failed
  UNIT                             LOAD   ACTIVE SUB    DESCRIPTION                                      
● systemd-pcrlogin@1000.service    loaded failed failed TPM NvPCR Measurement of User Record for UID 1000
● systemd-pcrlogin@945.service     loaded failed failed TPM NvPCR Measurement of User Record for UID 945
● systemd-pcrproduct.service       loaded failed failed TPM NvPCR Product ID Measurement
● systemd-tpm2-setup-early.service loaded failed failed Early TPM SRK Setup

Legend: LOAD   → Reflects whether the unit definition was properly loaded.
        ACTIVE → The high-level unit activation state, i.e. generalization of SUB.
        SUB    → The low-level unit activation state, values depend on unit type.

4 loaded units listed.
[user@arch-desktop ~]$ journalctl -b --no-pager \
  -u systemd-tpm2-setup-early.service \
  -u systemd-pcrproduct.service \
  -u 'systemd-pcrlogin@*.service'
Sep 24 20:23:40 arch-desktop systemd-tpm2-setup[439]: SRK already stored in the TPM.
Sep 24 20:23:40 arch-desktop systemd-tpm2-setup[439]: SRK fingerprint is <hidden>.
Sep 24 20:23:40 arch-desktop systemd-tpm2-setup[439]: SRK public key saved to '/run/systemd/tpm2-srk-public-key.pem' in PEM format.
Sep 24 20:23:40 arch-desktop systemd-tpm2-setup[439]: SRK public key saved to '/run/systemd/tpm2-srk-public-key.tpm2b_public' in TPM2B_PUBLIC format.
Sep 24 20:23:40 arch-desktop systemd-tpm2-setup[439]: Failed to initialize NvPCR index: No such file or directory
Sep 24 20:23:40 arch-desktop systemd-tpm2-setup[439]: Failed to initialize NvPCR index: No such file or directory
Sep 24 20:23:40 arch-desktop systemd-tpm2-setup[439]: Failed to initialize NvPCR index: No such file or directory
Sep 24 20:23:40 arch-desktop systemd-tpm2-setup[439]: Failed to initialize NvPCR index: No such file or directory
Sep 24 20:23:40 arch-desktop systemd-tpm2-setup[439]: 4 NvPCRs failed to initialize, proceeding anyway.
Sep 24 20:23:40 arch-desktop systemd[1]: systemd-tpm2-setup-early.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Sep 24 20:23:40 arch-desktop systemd[1]: systemd-tpm2-setup-early.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Sep 24 20:23:40 arch-desktop systemd[1]: Failed to start Early TPM SRK Setup.
Sep 24 20:23:40 arch-desktop systemd[1]: Starting TPM NvPCR Product ID Measurement...
Sep 24 20:23:40 arch-desktop systemd-pcrextend[474]: Could not extend NvPCR: No such file or directory
Sep 24 20:23:40 arch-desktop systemd[1]: systemd-pcrproduct.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Sep 24 20:23:40 arch-desktop systemd[1]: systemd-pcrproduct.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Sep 24 20:23:40 arch-desktop systemd[1]: Failed to start TPM NvPCR Product ID Measurement.
Sep 24 20:23:40 arch-desktop systemd[1]: Early TPM SRK Setup skipped, unmet condition check ConditionPathExists=!/run/systemd/tpm2-srk-public-key.pem
Sep 24 20:23:40 arch-desktop systemd[1]: Starting TPM NvPCR Product ID Measurement...
Sep 24 20:23:40 arch-desktop systemd-pcrextend[616]: Could not extend NvPCR: No such file or directory
Sep 24 20:23:40 arch-desktop systemd[1]: systemd-pcrproduct.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Sep 24 20:23:40 arch-desktop systemd[1]: systemd-pcrproduct.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Sep 24 20:23:40 arch-desktop systemd[1]: Failed to start TPM NvPCR Product ID Measurement.
Sep 24 20:23:42 arch-desktop systemd[1]: Early TPM SRK Setup skipped, unmet condition check ConditionPathExists=!/run/systemd/tpm2-srk-public-key.pem
Sep 24 20:23:42 arch-desktop systemd[1]: Starting TPM NvPCR Product ID Measurement...
Sep 24 20:23:42 arch-desktop systemd[1]: systemd-pcrproduct.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Sep 24 20:23:42 arch-desktop systemd[1]: systemd-pcrproduct.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Sep 24 20:23:42 arch-desktop systemd[1]: Failed to start TPM NvPCR Product ID Measurement.
Sep 24 20:23:43 arch-desktop systemd[1]: Starting TPM NvPCR Measurement of User Record for UID 945...
Sep 24 20:23:43 arch-desktop systemd-pcrextend[835]: Could not extend NvPCR: No such file or directory
Sep 24 20:23:43 arch-desktop systemd[1]: systemd-pcrlogin@945.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Sep 24 20:23:43 arch-desktop systemd[1]: systemd-pcrlogin@945.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Sep 24 20:23:43 arch-desktop systemd[1]: Failed to start TPM NvPCR Measurement of User Record for UID 945.
Sep 24 20:23:48 arch-desktop systemd[1]: Starting TPM NvPCR Measurement of User Record for UID 1000...
Sep 24 20:23:48 arch-desktop systemd-pcrextend[1038]: Could not extend NvPCR: No such file or directory
Sep 24 20:23:48 arch-desktop systemd[1]: systemd-pcrlogin@1000.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Sep 24 20:23:48 arch-desktop systemd[1]: systemd-pcrlogin@1000.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Sep 24 20:23:48 arch-desktop systemd[1]: Failed to start TPM NvPCR Measurement of User Record for UID 1000.

for some ungodly reason, archinstall decided to split my hard drive into two partitions; one 46gb partition where the system files and a couple other things all get put, and one 418gb partition for everything else. needless to say, this is nothing short of nerve-burstingly infuriating.

can someone guide me on what the easiest, idiot-proof way would be to get my disk back to being one disk, preferably without strictly needing to backup all my shit or go through the entire install process again?

Hi there I have been trying for a while now to speed up my system boot time. Currently I average around 35 seconds to boot my system. I am wondering if there is anything more I can do to speed up the boot process or have I hit a limit?

What I have done:
Enabling quiet mode in the kernel command command line (this actually saved me about 4 seconds on average),

remove unnecessary file system mounts from my fstab file (seemingly no effect on boot time),

mess around with kernel command line options and removed unused mkinitcpio modules stated by the arch wiki on boot time optimization (seemingly no effect on boot time).

Enable fast boot and in my uefi firmware settings (this did speed up the firmware stage but it slowed down the loader stage instead meaning it had very little if no impact on overall boot time).

Disabling / masking unused services, I think this has saved me a total of 1 second or so, not much effect but it did do something.

System setup:
I am using a UKI together with secure boot and TPM disc encryption. My bootloader of choice is limine and for my boot performance tests I have set it to timeout instantly and boot the first option as fast as possible (meaning the loader time is not from waiting for the timeout). It is slightly customised but nothing that I have done gave noticeable slowdowns.

I have also noticed that when I enabled fast boot in my eufi it was stuck a lot longer on the UKI boot splash which might be where the extra loader time is spent? But I am not sure.

Here are some outputs of the boot (all are from the same boot)

systemd-analyze blame: https://pastebin.com/CZzyX325
systemd-analuze plot: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EeMqMATWSIw1w7-KOeYgi_wqLbcX20Pl/view?usp=sharing
systemd-analyze critical-chain: https://pastebin.com/av8UMMFt

systemd-analyze: Startup finished in 6.239s (firmware) + 11.456s (loader) + 3.109s (kernel) + 5.983s (initrd) + 9.931s (userspace) = 36.720s

graphical.target reached after 9.931s in userspace.

[IMPORTANT EDIT!!]
Thanks to the help of everyone here and some research I have made a few discoveries that might be usefull to know.

So first of all I did manage to reduce the boot times a tiny bit by changing from ultra fast boot to just fast boot (thanks gigabyte..).

Secondly. I think its kinda hopeless to optimise or try and speed up the firmware and loader times. They likely come from my motherboard being not to great. I have looked it up and other people have reported my mother board model having less than desirable boot times so its likely a hardware issue. I have also dig through my firmware settings A TON and found no setting that can help me (my motherboard is kinda limiting compared to the stuff I have heard some of you be able to do). For those wondering my exact motherboard model is X570 I AORUS PRO WIFI.

Thirdly. I did find a way to drastically improve boot times. If I unplug all usb devices except my keyboard boot the firmware times decrease. But strangely my initrd time also goes down drastically. It seems my firmware naively loads all usb devices which for some reason bloats up the initrd load time (that explains the near 100 device calls in the graph). This together has a big impact on my boot times. The ideal solution would be to prevent it from loading at boot and load it once the graphical target is reached, kinda like unplugging it and then plugging it back in at the login screen but on a software level. But idk how possible that is. And my firmware seems to lack settings to control usb ports and other devices, meaning its forced to load everything. I might see if I can replace my firmware with something but right now its just an idea and I got no idea if it will work. Time to research I guess.

And finally. Despite my long time in firmware I also wanna ask specifically about the user space time. I have seen some get a userspace load time of 3 seconds (which is about 3 times faster than me). I wonder if there is anything I can do to specifically speed that up as that might be worth putting effort into as the firmware and loader side of things appear to be capped by my hardware.

Wow this became super long. Sorry about the INSANE read.

I ran: ssh [aur@aur.archlinux.org](mailto:aur@aur.archlinux.org) help

and got: The AUR is down due to maintenance. We will be back soon.

Can anyone confirm if the AUR is currently under maintenance, and if yes then when will it be back online? I was trying to push an update via GitHub Actions.

Yesterday I was just browsing the internet, and out of nowhere my top bar(where the calendar and the weather display), hung but my keybindings and everything was working. I rebooted my system, only to find out that arch linux was not in the option of systemd-boot. There was only the option of Windows 11 and Firmware Interface of my HP laptop. I tried some fixes like installing linux kernel again but it didn't work and somehow when it was back as an option of systemd-boot, I am at the Kernel Panic screen, can someone please help? Is my data all corrupted?

OS: Arch btw

And I am using Caelestia Dots shell /w Hyprland.

Edit 1: I forgot to mention I am using dual boot Windows with having Secure Boot turned on cause I play multiplayer games on Windows.

Edit 2: I am using a laptop Ryzen 7 8840 HS, /w Radeon 780M.

Somehow, I have no nmcli and I have not been able to get a functioning network connection so I can finish installing everything. I have a good interface ip address and routing table and can ping myself and one other machine on my LAN. No name resolution or internet, however.

Getting this far with only the ip and route commands has been a chore. Is it worth messing with this, or just reload the install media and chroot into the system?

so a while ago, my friend helped me create an Arch Linux system running off of a 256 gb sandisk ultra flare usb. recently, i found it to be really slow, and i wanted to duplicate it entirely onto a new Transcend ESD310 256 gb usb drive. I've been searching lately and was wondering what the best option to do it is. i want to know the best and easiest way to just duplicate everything. i don't particularly want to have to use a third usb to set up a new environment just to do it. i have seen some different options, like clonezilla, rsync, and dd, but I wanted input from others and perhaps a step by step guide if anyone has one handy. thanks!

I have a install script that wipes the disk and creates a fresh GPT partition table every run. The problem is since the partition table is recreated, the ESP gets a new partition GUID, but grub-install doesn't update the existing boot entry. It prints:

grub-install: info: EFI already registered: path = `\EFI\GRUB\grubx64.efi'.
grub-install: warning: GRUB already registered with EFI a `\EFI\GRUB\grubx64.efi', not modifying configuration.
Use efibootmgr to check your boot configuration.

So Boot0000 still points at the old partition:

# efibootmgr output
Boot0000* GRUB HD(1,GPT,79645a6f-da86-46d4-b0f6-376696ea7d95,0x800,0x200000)/\EFI\GRUB\grubx64.efi

# blkid -s PARTUUID -o value /dev/nvme0n1p1 output 
1e6a0ea3-669b-4849-80a4-a1970f2d71bb

as you can see they are different.

Is there a supported way to make grub-install replace the existing entry, or is deleting it first with efibootmgr -b XXXX -B the expected approach now? Is this intended in 2.16, or worth reporting upstream.

Or is there an alternative bootloader that I can use.

Just to be clear I tried looking at the output of rfkill
ID TYPE DEVICE SOFT HARD

0 wlan ideapad_wlan unblocked unblocked

1 bluetooth ideapad_bluetooth unblocked unblocked

2 bluetooth hci0 unblocked unblocked

3 wlan phy0 unblocked unblocked

So it's very much being recognized and not blocked but going into bluetoothctl and it doesn't register it. I've tried reinstalling all the bluez packages, I've tried rebooting the system. Turning bluetooth.service on and off again, and going into bluetoothctl just says "No default controller available." I think I might have to downgrade a package for the first time since using arch linux for over a year...

I hope someone smarter than me has some insight on this issue since that I can be fully up to date.

Edit: This was specifically a bug with the 7.07 kernel, now that the 7.08 kernel is out I can now say it is fixed and working completely fine. (Turn-around time was crazy, basically like 2 days. I salute your work linux devs)

I was trying to experiment and i tried to copy something in Github and i think i ruined it help plzz i tried everything like using Grok and Chatgpt plzz help

Okay okay im really really sorry for the lack of details this is what i did

saw something i want to copy and i went to my terminal deleted the things from Neovim like starting from scratch like no more

then i did a horrible job to transfer/copy it not sure if thats the right term

but when i look at my Neovim i saw absolutely nothing i dont know how to fix this

some apps do work like fire fox and just the terminal

im using Arch Linux Hyperland

https://github.com/Horizon0427/Arch-Config.git

this is the Github i was trying to copy, the widgets, wallpaper changer all of the things inside this github, i have no backup (i forgot)

and now some of my text are chinese

i also did something on Walker and elephant in my terminal