Kali wont boot after upgrade

[KnowHow]

I installed Kali Linux, reboot and logged in, worked a little bit, installed open-vm-tools, reboot and logged back in, no problem until now,
But when I did an apt upgrade, everything fell apart and it didn't boot anymore.

This is what I'm getting:
https://ibb.co/8KS6KwD

This one also may help to identify the problem:
https://ibb.co/GR7XZZf

I'm using VMWare Workstation Pro 15.0.2 build-10952284.
Any ideas?
Thanks,

P.S: I know about the prepared kali vms, but I don't want to use them, I prefer a clean install, and never had any problems with this until now.

[justgeo]

I'm in the same boat. 2 VMs upgraded since Friday have the same symptoms. I can select my Kali1 image and get back in. I have been focusing on initramfs, but now think there is a kernel image problem and the /dev/sda* partitions are not being recognized during initial boot processes. I am focusing on that this morning.

Another note, I thought it was a cryptsetup/luks thing since my first VM was fully encrypted, but the 2nd VM isn't which is why I'm now on the path with the initial kernel image. Maybe a module is no longer being loaded. We shall see.

I'll update with anything I find. Unless someone else nails this down before I do.

[justgeo]

Hmmm, my previous reply doesn't seem to have posted. Here's an update...

I found that there appears to be a problem with the version of vmw_pvscsi.ko
located in /lib/modules/4.18.0-kali3-amd64/kernel/drivers/scsi

I booted into my previous kernel 4.18.0-kali2-amd64

I was able to copy vmw_pvscsi.ko
from /lib/modules/4.18.0-kali2-amd64/kernel/drivers/scsi
to /lib/modules/4.18.0-kali3-amd64/kernel/drivers/scsi
after making a backup of the original one in /lib/modules/4.18.0-kali3-amd64/kernel/drivers/scsi

I then ran update-initramfs -u -k 4.18.0-kali3-amd64

reboot, and the kali3 system came up. This is a quick fix, but I don't know if that means VMWare Tools needs to be updated or if it is a Kali release related problem.

I just wanted to let you know what I did to get it working.
Good Luck!
Geo

[ac884b]

I did exactly the same think as you did but no luck. :/ I hope they will cope up with a fix soon

Tried on Vmware WS 15. My kali2 image works without any problem though.

[justgeo]

The only warning I have if additional poking is performed. When doing the update-initramfs command, be sure to specify the -k flag with the kali3 kernel name (4.18.0-kali3-amd64) otherwise all kernels will get updated and I lost access to my kali2 kernel as a result on one of my VMs which made it more difficult to continue troubleshooting.

I also hope they fix this soon, as we have VMs that need to be rebuilt because of this. It is an unfortunate situation.

[samir500]

Hello i have the same problem as Knowhow, i have a backup from my kali linux vmware. When i have fully upgraded everything , then i have the same problem, i googled a lot, but still no fix.

[dinklebrow]

Let me add a 'me too' to this. Three different fresh installs of Kali on VMWare Fusion. Every time I update and reboot I get the initramfs error that everyone here is getting.

[Mister_X]

it's a udev bug in debian.

Download the prebuilt VM, the issue only happens when you install and update from what I remember.

[pokeball]

Having same issue. Reinstall/update/downloading image and updating doesn't work

[000000]

Came here to report im also experiencing the same issue. Interestingly im also having the same issue with Parrot Security in vmware workstation pro 15.

[cosmotraumatika]

I've reproduced the same problem in VMware Workstation Pro 14.1.5 with both Kali Linux 64 bit ISO based installation and the KDE 64 bit. My KDE VM I've been running since 2018.4 came out is now unpatchable as dist-upgrade causes the issue reported in OP. Without snapshots and a version left unpatched, both versions are inoperable. Pretty serious, show-stopping bug.

I'm not aware of a KDE version of the VMware image so that's probably not a viable work-around for some of us, though I'm going to give that a shot in the interim and see if I can install KDE as I've successfully done on Ubuntu installations.

[cosmotraumatika]

Same issue here with both Kali 64 bit ISO and KDE 64 bit under VMWare Workstation 14 Pro (14.1.5).

[samir500]

Okay i don't have the problem anymore. First download the newest Kali-Linux.iso https://www.kali.org/downloads/12/ and i choose in vmware installation for Linux
Other Linux 3.x kernel. After installing kali linux i added the repos see https://docs.kali.org/general-use/ka...t-repositories
After that i did apt-get update and apt-get upgrade. Then the vmware tools i installed it not with mount cd, but recommended as here https://docs.kali.org/general-use/in...ols-kali-guest

and that's it.

[000000]

So what's the theory here?, a bad update repository?. Having the same issue with another debian based distro parrot im wondering if this process might fix it.

I might try virtual box and see if it does the same thing, it could be a vmware workstation issue.

[samir500]

In my case i had a custom kernel with Ralink drivers.

[ac884b]

Okay, so, I don't have that problem anymore too. The problem is that I have no idea what caused the fix since the updates I have done seemed to be only minor. But now running Linux kali 4.18.0-kali3-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.18.20-2kali2 without any issues.

I was running 4.18.0.-kali2-amd64 in order to power up kali for sometime but then after few times of upddating and rebooting realized that the problem seems to be solved somehow /
(running kali on VMware Workstation 15.0.2)

[D34dp00l_H4ckz]

Hi,

I have the same issue. Yesterday I upgraded to kali 4.19.0-kali1-amd64 and my system does not boot. It stops on loading initial ramdisk...

I am not running it in the VM.

Utill the update everything worked fine.

Also it is the same when I use Advanced from GRUB and try to boot previous kernels. I can only boot into recovery mode but I cannot seem to fix the issue.

BR.

[samir500]

Hi,

I have the same issue. Yesterday I upgraded to kali 4.19.0-kali1-amd64 and my system does not boot. It stops on loading initial ramdisk...

I am not running it in the VM.

Utill the update everything worked fine.

Also it is the same when I use Advanced from GRUB and try to boot previous kernels. I can only boot into recovery mode but I cannot seem to fix the issue.

BR.

is it maybe a kernel upgrade problem????

[pokeball]

I was able to install & update Kali Linux Xfce 64 Bit today. No issues after update. Tested in VMware Workstation 14.1.5.

[Mister_X]

No, it's a udev bug coming from Debian. Since Kali is based on Debian testing, it also affects people using Debian testing.

A workaround for those using a VM: download the prebuilt Kali VM and update, it works there.

[samir500]

No, it's a udev bug coming from Debian. Since Kali is based on Debian testing, it also affects people using Debian testing.

A workaround for those using a VM: download the prebuilt Kali VM and update, it works there.

But what i have written is also the solution, i have no problems with my kali setup right now.

[D34dp00l_H4ckz]

No, it's a udev bug coming from Debian. Since Kali is based on Debian testing, it also affects people using Debian testing.

A workaround for those using a VM: download the prebuilt Kali VM and update, it works there.

What about those not using VM? Any way to recover or do I have to simply reinstall?

[nunclud]

I have a similar case but with a twist. I was modifying some file in the /lib/modules dir and accidentally deleted my /lib/modules/4.19.0-kali1-amd64/ directory. Now I cannot boot into by latest kernel but was able to boot up into previous backed up kernel. How do i recover or regenerate the lost directory ( i deleted it from command line using rm -rf ---my bad)

[Mister_X]

nunclud, entirely different issue, and next time, you should start a new thread. In this case, I'd try to purge the current kernel (4.19), then reinstall it. I'm not sure if that will work.

[nunclud]

nunclud, entirely different issue, and next time, you should start a new thread. In this case, I'd try to purge the current kernel (4.19), then reinstall it. I'm not sure if that will work.

Thanks for the advise. I did purge the corrupt kernel and fallback to 4.18.0 but after all update and dist-upgrade and full upgrade, i can not get back to latest kernel (4.19.0) despite the fact that
# grep VERSION /etc/os-release
VERSION="2019.1"
VERSION_ID="2019.1"

# uname -sr
Linux 4.18.0-kali3-amd64

[kingbily]

I installed Kali Linux, reboot and logged in, worked a little bit, installed open-vm-tools, reboot and logged back in, no problem until now,
But when I did an apt upgrade, everything fell apart and it didn't boot anymore.

This is what I'm getting:

This one also may help to identify the problem:
Pnr Status TextNow VPN
I'm using VMWare Workstation Pro 15.0.2 build-10952284.
Any ideas?
Thanks,

P.S: I know about the prepared kali vms, but I don't want to use them, I prefer a clean install, and never had any problems with this until now.

Incredible, i have the same problem. I thought it was Wine32 because every time I try to install it, after the reboot i get stuck on boot. But now, thinking about it, i did the apt-get update too before the install of wine, so i think it's the same problem. I run the fsck, tried to recover the system but nothing works. Re-installing the system is the only way, but i cannot understand the cause.

[ayushpathak]

Hi,

I have the same issue. Yesterday I upgraded to kali 4.19.0-kali1-amd64 and my system does not boot. It stops on loading initial ramdisk...

I am not running it in the VM.

Utill the update everything worked fine.

Also it is the same when I use Advanced from GRUB and try to boot previous kernels. I can only boot into recovery mode but I cannot seem to fix the issue.

BR.

hey bro, im facing the same problem and didn't get any solutions yet. Have you solved it?