EDIT 2024-02-18: Solved! JohnnyMac was right, I have no clue why, but the boot priority changed and the reboot after the update caused the issue to manifest. I have excluded the device from the bootable devices in the BIOS and it boots again.

I figured out that it was an issue with my external USB dual bay HDD enclosure. It doesn’t boot when it’s plugged in, even after removing it from /etc/fstab. It doesn’t even reach the GRUB menu when plugged in. It only displays a blinking cursor, doesn’t allow switching the terminal with CTRL + ALT + FX but does restart with CTRL + ALT + DELETE. It’s able to reach emergency mode when the device isn’t plugged in and is able to boot fine if it’s removed /etc/fstab. Does anyone know what could be causing this issue? Everything works fine when it’s plugged in after booting up the system.

These were the packages updated:

  • base-files
  • bind9-dnsutils
  • bind9-host
  • bind9-libs
  • fish
  • fish-common
  • gnutls-bin
  • libcpupower1
  • libcryptsetup12
  • libgnutls-dane0
  • libgnutls30
  • libisl23
  • libnss-mymachines
  • libnss-systemd
  • libpam-systemd
  • libsystemd-shared
  • libsystemd0
  • libudev1
  • libunbound8
  • libxencall1
  • libxendevicemodel1
  • libxenevtchn1
  • libxenforeignmemory1
  • libxengnttab1
  • libxenhypfs1
  • libxenmisc4.17
  • libxenstore4
  • libxentoolcore1
  • libxentoollog1
  • linux-cpupower
  • linux-image-6.1.0-18-amd64
  • linux-image-amd64
  • ovmf
  • qemu-block-extra
  • qemu-system-common
  • qemu-system-data
  • qemu-system-gui
  • qemu-system-x86
  • qemu-utils
  • systemd
  • systemd-container
  • systemd-sysv
  • systemd-timesyncd
  • tailscale
  • tar
  • tzdata
  • udev
  • usb.ids
  • usbutils
  • usr-is-merged

EDIT: Quickly plugging it in after GRUB has loaded seems to work.

  • JohnnyMac@lemmy.worldEnglish
    141·
    9 months ago

    Are you sure it’s not trying to boot to the USB device, seeing grub is not showing up? Check your bios boot priority when the USB is plugged in.

    • qaz@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      2·
      9 months ago

      Thanks. I didn’t think this was the solution because I haven’t touched the BIOS, but I tried anyway and it worked. I have no clue how or why, but the external drive somehow got priority over the internal SSD, even though I didn’t even touch the BIOS for at least a month. I have excluded the device from booting in the BIOS and hope it won’t change again.

  • henfredemars@infosec.pubEnglish
    6·
    9 months ago

    I’ve seen this issue before caused by buggy BIOS/UEFI implementations interacting with some USB devices where they seem to get stuck initializing. It’s not clear to me how those packages could affect a problem that stops your bootloader from reaching the menu.