boot fails very early with a systemd-service message about failing to load kernel variables

[gary]

I get the message right after the boot sequence declares the / drive 
clean. The subject message repeats 3 times then the system boot stops. 
It still responds to the keyboard but there is no system to log into.

When I go into the system in a chroot after booting with systemrescue, I 
find that journalctl simply reports the systemrescue messages. Do I have 
to do something special to get the chroot system's messages?

Maybe I need another cup of coffee to jumpstart my brain, but I'm at a 
bit of a loss as to how to get my system back up.  :(

Any advice?

Thanks.