Mkinitcpio switching from udev to systemd?

Issues & Assistance
1

There are related posts here but I didn’t see my question answered - when updating today I noticed this warning:

/etc/mkinitcpio.conf installed as /etc/mkinitcpio.conf.pacnew

old mkinitcpio.conf:

MODULES=(crc32c)

HOOKS=(base udev autodetect microcode kms modconf block keyboard keymap consolefont plymouth filesystems)

mkinitcpio.conf.pacnew:

MODULES=()

HOOKS=(base systemd autodetect microcode modconf kms keyboard sd-vconsole block filesystems fsck)

  • MODULES(crc32c) is now just MODULES().
  • The primary hook has changed from udev to systemd (I’ve never changed this and my install is around 6 months old)
  • kemap consolefont is now sd-vconsole.
  • plymouth is now removed

I assume this is all upstream but what is recommended or will be defaults for CachyOS going forward? I want to stay as close to what the cachy team commits so should I except these?

Also, I am using secure boot and limine. Should I just run: sudo limine-mkinitcpio afterward or do I risk a limine panic?

2

The systemd hook comprises udev plus usr and resume. Have a look at the following link. If usr and resume is nothing you need, you can stay with your current HOOKS.

3

Thank you. So if I do accept the changes, I am using limine and secureboot do I do the following and will I still be able to boot without limine panics?:

sudo limine-mkinitcpio

sudo limine-update

4

To my understanding limine-mkinitcpio, still calls the regular mkinitcpio and reads its config with the difference that it generate the appropriate boot entries for Limine.

So basically, if you want to change from udev to systemd, that shouldn’t be an issue unless you have btrfs-overlayfs among your hooks. In that case it should change to sd-btrfs-overlayfs.

See here

Could you post your /etc/mkinitcpio.conf so we can have a look?

Also about secure boot, I’m afraid I can’t tell you much. I can’t even remember when I used it last time on a Linux box.

5

Thanks. Here is my entire /etc/mkinitcpio.conf without comments:

MODULES=(crc32c)  <-- do I need this?  The .pacnew doesn't include it "crc32c"
BINARIES=()
FILES=()
HOOKS=(base udev autodetect microcode kms modconf block keyboard keymap consolefont plymouth filesystems)
6

If your system is on Btrfs I would keep it. As I gather, it provides algorithm that is used for for data integrity verification and metadata checksumming etc.

For the rest, I am still using udev and my system runs just fine.

Not always does one need to implement all the changes in a .pacnew config.

Perhaps others could shed more light on the pros and cons of each approach.

7

thank you for your help. After reading the Arch page based on your direction I committed the changes and all seems well. Limine and Secureboot didn’t complain!

My final mkinitcpio.conf - I do use BTRFS, no encryption.

MODULES=(crc32c)

HOOKS=(base systemd autodetect microcode modconf kms keyboard sd-vconsole block plymouth filesystems fsck)

I then ran limine-mkinitcpio. I ran limine-update after that but I’m not sure that is necessary?

8

If I understand it correctly, when you make changes to /etc/mkinitcpio.conf then you would need to rebuild your initramfs running limine-mkinitcpio. The new initramfs will be then reflected automatically in Limine’s entries.

When you make changes to /etc/default/limine (which typically holds Limine-specific settings like kernel command lines, fallback options, or entry parameters) then you need to run limine-update to regenerate the Limine configuration files and boot entries with those new settings.