Initramfs unpacking failed: invalid magic at start of compressed archive -> Kernel panic

I recently updated my ASUS X515M laptop from Ubuntu 20.04 to 22.04, and it made my magic invalid. I work hard on my magic. Why did Ubuntu invalidate it? :(

Picture of the output after trying to boot

What I think are the important bits:

Initramfs unpacking failed: invalid magic at start of compressed archive

. . .

End Kernel Panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0)

My BIOS is ~2 years old.

I found the same issue on the Manjaro forum, I just need help translating the steps to Ubuntu-speak:

1. Boot a live USB [Ubuntu] (download and “burn” that on any working computer)

2. start terminal

3. run sudo -s to be root

4. run manjaro-chroot -a *(Currently stuck here, chroot -a doesn't do anything in Ubuntu)

5. edit /etc/mkinitcpio.conf (uncomment COMPRESSION="lz4" | (same as Ubuntu?)

6. run mkinitcpio -P

7. exit chroot and reboot

I have a live USB of Ubuntu 22.04.

Thanks.

oopdit: I never solved this. Had to reinstall and replaced the stock realtek wifi chip with one that actually works and use Ubuntu 20.10 so I could automatically install drivers for it. I did eventually find and edit the .conf I needed in /etc/initramfs-toolsl/initramfs.conf by using nano in a live environment after mounting the filesystem to an temporary rescue file(?) using chroot, but that didn't work either (mkinitcpio.conf seems to be the Manjaro Version of that). One thing I failed to mention is that there was also a NVME on my laptop that I never use, but still had a system installed on it. I think the upgrade got borked because of that, and similarly all my attempts at fixing it failed because of it.

To the best of my memory, the steps I did that probably would've fixed it if it weren't for the forgotten NVME:

1. Boot to Live USB

2. Open terminal and create a temporary rescue file system/mounting point (I forget the exact commands for this rn)

3. Use chroot to mount the broken filesystem to rescue

4. Use nano to navigate to, and edit the files you need. Follow instructions in nano to save the changes.

5. Exit 'chroot' and restart

6. Pray to the Small Gods that it worked.

For me it did something, but it still wouldn't boot properly. So I just reinstalled.

I think* this may be an issue with the 5.4.0-89-generic kernel. I got into the Grub menu, via the BIOS on my computer - holding down SHIFT wasn't doing anything, and booted an older kernel to try editing mkinitcpio.conf. While Ubuntu was running I got notification about updates which I installed. Among those was an update that installed the 5.15.0 kernel and another that removed the 5.4.0-89 kernel. My system now boots successfully with this latest kernel.

• But a lot of weird things happened during the upgrade. One of these may have caused the initramfs problem and the kernel update simply overwrote whatever was bad.