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Something is preventing my dual-boot computer from booting in both Linux and Windows. I have some guesses as to at what level the issue(s) might lie but I am pretty much at a loss in terms of resolving them. When I attempt to boot into Windows, the computer just goes into recovery mode and can't enter Windows. When I attempt to boot into Ubuntu, I get the following message:

[2.326844] psmouse serio1 synaptics:
Unable to query device: -5
Gave up waiting for suspense/resume device.
Gave up waiting for root file system device.
Common problems:
- Boot args (cat /proc/cmdline)
- Check rootdelay= (did the system wait long enough?)
- Missing modules (cat /proc/modules; ls /dev)

ALERT! UUID=<myid> does not exist. Dropping to a shell!

BusyBox v1.30.1 (Ubuntu 1:1.30.1-4ubuntu6.3) built-in shell (ash) Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.

(initramfs) _

I've done some looking around and tried the following solutions (fair warning, I am an Ubuntu noob):

  1. This very similar problem showed up in another version of Ubuntu. I tried their solution, however, looking for the proper UUID didn't really work for me. This is the output of ls -ltr /dev/disk/by-uuid. As you can see, the only UUIDs are in the sda disk, which is the live USB I booted from, as shown in the output of df. Oddly df also shows that my root directory is mounted in /cow (and I have no idea why nor what that is).

  2. This probably related issue. I tried the mounting from live USB trick to update GRUB, but I can't mount my Ubuntu installation to /mnt because the computer has no idea what /cow is.

  3. Changing the blacklist.conf file to blacklist psmouse (blacklisting psmouse because it seems to be part of the issue, and according to some sources online, it's not completely necessary as a driver). When I tried adding the necessary line to the initramfs terminal, I found that the file didn't actually change upon rebooting. I don't know much about the blacklist.conf file or blacklisting in general, so this is as far as I got here.

I'm probably missing something here. I am a bit of a noob, trying my best here (I hope my above explanations make sense). Any help would be greatly appreciated! I would really love to see my computer working again lol.

Thanks,
Orbital.

  • What brand/model computer? Have you updated UEFI and if SSD, SSD firmware? Are drives changed from Intel RST to AHCI? But first install Windows AHCI drivers or Windows will not boot. https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/ubuntu-installation-on-computers-with-intel-r-rst-enabled/15347 /cow is copy on write or your ISO/flash drive/DVD. https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI Shows Windows screens https://askubuntu.com/questions/221835/installing-ubuntu-on-a-pre-installed-windows-10-with-uefi – oldfred Mar 23 '21 at 14:16
  • I have a Dell XPS 13. I think I've updated UEFI, though I'm not sure about SSD firmware. SATA drive controller is currently set to RAID On rather than AHCI, and per what you're saying about the AHCI drivers, this could be an issue. I think I'm going to backup my SSD before I lose anything and try to switch from Raid On to AHCI. If that doesn't work I'll just rollback Windows, repartition Ubuntu onto the drive, and restore my backed-up files. – OrbitalHybrid Mar 25 '21 at 06:25
  • AHCI: https://www.dell.com/community/Laptops-General-Read-Only/Dell-M-2-FAQ-regarding-AHCI-vs-RAID-ON-Storage-Drivers-M-2-Lanes/td-p/5072571 & https://askubuntu.com/questions/1233623/workaround-to-install-ubuntu-20-04-with-intel-rst-systems & But if you do a safe boot first, then boot to BIOS and change to AHCI and finally boot normally, it works https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/ubuntu-installation-on-computers-with-intel-r-rst-enabled/15347 – oldfred Mar 25 '21 at 12:03

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