How to solve the error of "Gave up waiting for root device" at boot?

Question

I am using Lubuntu 13.10 which has been working fine for about a month, but suddenly my desktop froze and since then I get the following error at boot which doesn't allow me to use it:

Gave up waiting for root device. Common problems:
  — Boot args (cat /proc/cmdline)
    — Check rootdelay= (did the system wait long enough?)
    — Check root= (did the system wait for the right device?)
  — Missing modules (cat /proc/modules; ls /dev)
ALERT! /dev/disk/by-uuid/17d1276b-5f5d-4ca9-8999-efd0c73f5177 does not exist.   
Dropping to a shell! 

BusyBox v.1.20.2 (Ubuntu 1:1.20.0-8.1ubuntu1) built-in shell (ash)   
Enter 'help' for list of built-in commands.  

(initramfs)

I am getting the following error also:

error: unknown filesystem`
Entering rescue mode`
grub rescue>

In the right sidebar of this page you would find a section called Related which contains questions with similar issues. I would suggest you to follow those questions and try to apply the answers given therein. Thereafter [edit] this question with the results of those answers. — Aditya, Feb 10 '14 at 10:09
This one: http://askubuntu.com/questions/109500/boot-issues-long-delay-then-gave-up-waiting-for-root-device?rq=1 see the accepted answer. — Rinzwind, Feb 10 '14 at 10:11
@Rinzwind instead of that i am getting another error, see my edit — user246599, Feb 10 '14 at 10:12
This one then http://askubuntu.com/questions/142300/fixing-grub-error-error-unknown-filesystem ? ;) — Rinzwind, Feb 10 '14 at 10:13
@Rinzwind both of them not working, sometime i see that error and sometimes the grub one! help! — user246599, Feb 10 '14 at 11:01
oh god! now i am seeing error: attempt to readdor write outside of disk "hd0" — user246599, Feb 10 '14 at 11:02

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 14 '14 at 15:43

1

It is trying to mount a device. If 'when booting/during GRUB action' you press "s" this will skip the mount process, and no errors will appear. You will need to edit the fstab file referencing the UUID number.

Example:

sudo gedit /etc/fstab
UUID=sda2

Remove the line completely, Save and close. Then reboot.

edited Feb 14 '14 at 15:43

blade19899

26,704

answered Feb 11 '14 at 10:28

How to solve the error of "Gave up waiting for root device" at boot?

1 Answers1