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Wrong extlinux.conf file causes Librem 5 to not boot anymore

  • Device: Librem 5
  • Installed Mobian (trixie) Version: mobian-librem5-phosh-20240324.img.xz

I don't know when this happens (probably after some updates) but after using Mobian for some days and installing stuff with apt it happend three times that Mobian was not booting anymore. As far as I understand this happens after u-boot-update is triggered.

Error:

  • Press power button
  • The green light of the L5 turns on and stays like this for about three seconds.
  • The green light turns off and nothing happens anymore.

Solution: I am not really sure what causes this and how to solve it because I don't understand the problem enough. However, the "boot" partition has the file /extlinux/extlinux.conf which looks like this in the "mobian-librem5-phosh-20240324.img.xz " version of the image:

Original Config File 
## /boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf
##
## IMPORTANT WARNING
##
## The configuration of this file is generated automatically.
## Do not edit this file manually, use: u-boot-update

default l0
menu title U-Boot menu
prompt 1
timeout 10


label l0
	menu label Mobian GNU/Linux 6.6-librem5
	linux /vmlinuz-6.6-librem5
	initrd /initrd.img-6.6-librem5
	fdtdir /dtb-6.6-librem5/
	
	append root=UUID=46a0113c-2ba2-4218-970d-c6572878789d consoleblank=0 loglevel=7 ro quiet splash plymouth.ignore-serial-consoles vt.global_cursor_default=0

The file looked like this when booting was not possible anymore:

Corrupted Config File 
## /boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf
##
## IMPORTANT WARNING
##
## The configuration of this file is generated automatically.
## Do not edit this file manually, use: u-boot-update

default l0
menu title U-Boot menu
prompt 1
timeout 50


label l0
	menu label Debian GNU/Linux trixie/sid 6.6-librem5
	linux /vmlinuz-6.6-librem5
	initrd /initrd.img-6.6-librem5
	
	
	append root=UUID=46a0113c-2ba2-4218-970d-c6572878789d ro quiet

label l0r
	menu label Debian GNU/Linux trixie/sid 6.6-librem5 (rescue target)
	linux /vmlinuz-6.6-librem5
	initrd /initrd.img-6.6-librem5
	
	append root=UUID=46a0113c-2ba2-4218-970d-c6572878789d ro single

After changing the file back to the original version the Librem 5 booted as usual.