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We have been using Ubuntu 22.04 LTS on a custom build PC. It had two hdd, one is primary where OS and other packages are installed and the second is for taking backup and storing big data files. Yesterday, we removed the secondary hdd to install it on another system. In the process we somehow damaged the connector (physical), so now it is sitting on the desk, waiting for a repair. But the problem we are concerned about came when we started out system (with primary disk still there). I booted into Emergency Mode directly.

Even rebooting the system into Advanced Options and selecting one of the recovery options, didn't give us the desired result i.e. a normal boot. We searched on the forum and fount this and we also think that we have fstab related problem. Here are the screenshots of the output that we get for sudo blkid and cat /etc/fstab/:

output of sudo blkid output of cat /etc/fstab/

Can anybody please point out what the problem is with our system?

OR

At least what to do in order to find out the cause of this problem?

Levente
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Manish Kumar Bisht
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1 Answers1

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I am not an expert on options used in fstab, I also have to touch this file on very rare occassions, so the following is just an idea.

In /etc/fstab there is a disk listed with an UUID starting with "a31e3388", also signified by its mount point: /DATA1.

In the output of blkid I don't see that UUID, so I would assume that may be the disk that you had removed.

Accordingly, in the most primitive fashion, I would try to "comment out" (to deactivate) the corresponding line in fstab, by prepending a # character at the start of that line.

Perhaps make a backup copy of /etc/fstab before editing it.

Editing can be done e.g. with the "nano" text editor, the command will look:

nano /etc/fstab

Apparently you won't need sudo, as you already appear to be on the root prompt.

As "nano" — even while perhaps the easiest choice for the task — is not an entirely straightforward text editor, so maybe look into some short introductory video on the essentials of its usage before you attempt to use it.

Afer a successful edit, I would attempt to run the command:

reboot now

Levente
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  • Thank you so much for the reply. We will try it and let you know. – Manish Kumar Bisht Jan 13 '24 at 07:16
  • Thanks to your answer we were able to solve our issue. – Manish Kumar Bisht Jan 14 '24 at 08:17
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    @ManishKumarBisht glad to be of help. Now that it's verified what the problem was, if you want, you can research the options used / usable in fstab. Maybe there are options that could be useful for you. man fstab tells me that it may be the nofail option. Seemingly this might enable you to reactivate the line —while equipping it with this option— and then temporarily remove additional external disks at ease, without having to edit fstab each time. – Levente Jan 15 '24 at 00:41