Fedora 38 fails to start "systemd-journald.service"
 

Hi Guys,
I did a fresh install of Fedora37, all ran ok, then 38 came along, and i foolishly decided to upgrade, I did this via the process, all worked ok, until last week, when i started seeing an error at bootup, which stopped the bootup processes at

[FAILED] failed to start "systemd-journald.service"
see .systemctl status systemd-journald.service' for details
[ OK ] stopped.....etc.ect.etc.

I can't find the status file, I can choose 37 from the bootup list still, if I upgrade DNF etc from konsole, it upgrades 38, I'm really stuck, anyone help please?

Simon

So the upgrade process itself appears to have worked as expected.It's not a file you're looking for (not yet anyway), but you need to run that command in the messages above. Not sure how useful it'll be though.

Hmmm
 

So, I ran that command, thanks for pointing me that way, didn't realise it was actually a command.
So i see basically system.journal corrupted or uncleanly shut down, renaming and replacing.
The times it states suggest to me this is what happened when I got it to start in Fed37, which is a puzzle, I always close down cleanly, either CLI or menu, mostly CLI, very strange.
Cheers in advance, thanks for taking the time to reply.

So if you select the old F37 kernel, everything works ok ?. Might indicate a kernel regression, that hopefully will be fixed as new F38 kernels are released. What do these commands return on the F37 kernel.

Returns
 

Yes, this is the annoying thing, it works as before on F37, it did run for close to a week on F38 until it failed.

So,
verify shows

fd0ff0 unused data (entry_offset==0)
fd0ff0 Invalid Hash ( 00... vs eb (line of code) )
fd0ff0 Invalid object contents: bad message
File corruption detected at /var/log/journal/ and then some file names.

I did the boot-list command, there is a list of what i presume are good boots, all green, if you need this, again, I'll screenshot it.

If you need an actual screenshot of the messages, I'll do that, I tend to use these forums on a second PC, so I can call for help while I'm struggling.
Thanks for your help, I do really appreciate this. Simon

I've not had that, but when the journal play up I simply delete the offender. If it's the latest (i.e. current) log, you might have to get creative, else just copy the name from the message, and use sodu to rm it.

From SAG47, thanks for the reply on the other post, don't know why my query was posted twice, very strange.

Try

Code:
rpm -q --whatprovides /usr/bin/systemctl

# or alternate
dnf provides /usr/bin/systemctl
Find the package that is supposed to have installed it and reinstall said package to restore binary.

Seems like a serious issue
__________________

SAG47, it says, System and Service Manager, not much more than that.

sygOO i am not confident enough to start deleting files, I think might be corrupt, i have been using Fedora for a long time, but i've never used it in anger, and honestly have become somewhat deskilled as, simply, i rarely have problems.
Until now.

Strange
 

So, nearly a month on, it's still the same, won't boot from F38, so I revert to F37, it boots fine, I do upgrades to F38, to all intents it's running F38.
I did note a message in the boot list, where it seems to flush this journal.
One odd thing of note, it generally will not boot from F38 in the morning, however, if I upgrade, sometimes I'll just type reboot, and it does straight in, I hate to give in, I even considered reloading it from fresh.

I don't think this was at all "foolish", but maybe you did not fully update your F37 before you upgraded to F38?

Fedora make it very clear that this is an important step:
https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US...a-new-release/

I would be unhappy relying on a system which isn't quite sure which release it is, which seems to be your situation. It might work, until it doesn't. Then you are going to be disappointed.

Fedora 39 is due any day now, and I'll upgrade all the computers I maintain, to it, when it is released, after I have fully updated the F38 (which I have been very happy with.)

Because I am a cautious person and hate losing data, I'll start with the least important PC and see how it goes.

I would suggest that you wait until F39 is released, then back up your home directory, and then do a fresh install of F39.

Restore your home directory (just the docs, files, pictures, emails (that you 'exported', please don't just copy the filesystem unless you understand exactly what you are doing,) but not the individual config files, because these are likely to be in a slightly different format due to the release number changing, and Fedora can't be guaranteed to make the upgrade cleanly if you are currently running an indeterminate mixture of F37 and F38.

I did fully update F37, and always use those documents to upgrade, I actually run it twice to ensure everything is updated, and clean packages.
I think a fresh build might be better next time, rather than follow the upgrade process.

Post F39 upgrade
 

So, I did the auto upgrade to F39, as normal it seems fine, until I do a cold boot, when it won't boot and I have ended up booting F37.
I'm going to flatten it totally, and do a complete fresh install. Very disappointing, just can't see what went wrong.
When I do an update, it is updating it's updating from F39, even though I apparently started from F37.

Once you upgraded, your system *is* F39. If you're selecting a kernel from F37 (my guess from "even though I apparently started from F37"), that's all you're using is that kernel. Everything else is still F39.