-2

  1. Everything seemed to be working fine up until I decided to create my first snapshot with Timeshift: a dialog box popped up Unable to mount /dev/sda1/. Concerned, I went into GParted: there was a warning image next to /dev/sda1/ as in the following screenshot:

    Screenshot1

    Do you have any ideas what the problem could be?

  2. I've looked on the forums and elsewhere online and there doesn't seem to be any identical issue to mine, so I thought it best to post (first post here). Posts that are related in some sense are Warning image in GParted.

    I'm running single Linux Mint 19.3 Tricia Cinnamon 64-Bit. Prior to Linux Mint, I was running single-boot Windows 10.

  3. What I've tried so far:

    a) In GParted, right-clicked on /dev/sda1, clicked on Properties, and here is the output from within the Warning section:

    Screenshot2

    To my untrained eye, relevant lines (apart from UUID, etc.) from the Warning box are "Status" = Not mounted , "Filesystem state" = clean, "Errors behavior" = Continue and then further down it states that the contents of this file system are unreadable and that the cause could be a missing software package (i.e. e2fsprogs v1.41).

    From Synaptic package manager I went on to check that dumpe2fs [libext2fs2] and e2fsprogs are installed (which they are).

    b) I also tried to Check and repair /dev/sda1/ via GParted, with no luck: I've attached the output here.

    Screenshot3

    c) Also, here's output from running lsblk as root:

    #lsblk

    ~NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
    
sda      8:0    0   1,8T  0 disk
    

    ├─sda1   8:1    0    20M  0 part
    
├─sda2   8:2    0   300M  0 part /boot/efi
    
├─sda3   8:3    0     1G  0 part [SWAP]
    
├─sda4   8:4    0  48,8G  0 part /
    
└─sda5   8:5    0   1,8T  0 part /home
    
sdb      8:16   0 465,8G  0 disk
    
sr0     11:0    1  1024M  0 rom

Do you have any ideas on how to fix this? The Warning image had never previously been there.

karel
  • 114,770
98hfk89
  • 1

1 Answers1

0

The partition is flagged as 'bios_grub', which means that it is reserved for BIOS booting under GPT partition style. It is formatted as ext4 but must be unformatted.

See the answers in ''EFI boot partition'' and ''biosgrub'' partition.

EDIT: To make sda1 unformatted you can start gparted and:

  1. If sda1 is mounted then unmount it
  2. Delete sda1 (only newly created partitions may be created as unformatted) and choose "Apply"
  3. recreate it as unformatted and choose "Apply"
  4. set the bios_grub flag
  5. exit gparted
  6. Edit /etc/fstab och comment away sda1 if there is a rule to mount it.
  7. Run sudo update-grub.

Gparted will, after following the above recipe, not recognize the created, unformatted, partition. It will consider it to be "unknown".

Serafim
  • 495
  • Thank you for your reply! I'm a Linux newbie, a) which of the three bullet points does my parition fall under then? and b) out of the four "conditions" stated in the linked post, which is my partition style: BIOS, EFI, MBR or GPT ? – 98hfk89 Jul 15 '20 at 13:34
  • and c) I'm trying here (promise) - how exactly would I go on to unformat it then? I've read and re-read the linked post and I'm having trouble understanding in practical terms how to resolve my issue. Thanks again Serafim! – 98hfk89 Jul 15 '20 at 13:40
  • To unformat the bios_grub partition, would the steps in Yang's answer (https://askubuntu.com/questions/362689/gpt-detected-please-create-a-bios-boot-partition-while-using-boot-repair) be appropriate? (i.e. Gparted > 1. Delete the bios_grub partition (i.e. /dev/sda1/) 2. Create a new partition (do not format it to any file system, apply the settings 3. Flag the new partition as bios_grub using the Manage Flags option – 98hfk89 Jul 15 '20 at 14:05
  • My method should work (essentially the same as Yangs) – Serafim Jul 15 '20 at 14:37
  • Did as you stated (inc. running sudo update-grub from the shell). The Warning image is still there in GParted, but now 1) under File System in GParted for /dev/sda1 it is listed as "unknown" (instead of the previous ext4) & 2) still in GParted, right-clicking on /dev/sda1/ > Information gives me the following info -- Status: Not mounted ; Path: /dev/sda1 ; Flags: bios_grub and Warning: Unable to detect file system! Possible reasons are: The file system is damaged ; The file system is unknown to GParted ; There is no file system available (unformatted) ; The device entry /dev/sda1 is missing – 98hfk89 Jul 15 '20 at 14:57