Missing files in /home directory after boot crash during software update

Question

I'm using Ubuntu 14.04; during a routine software update the PC crash for some reason. Here is the situation now:

Looping during desktop log-in: each time I try to log-in via the desktop it loops back to the same screen.
ctrl + alt + F1 and SSH log-ins work and I can browse the file directory.
Problem -> /home directory is missing all the files and folders! There are indications that files are still on the hard drive (i.e. disk usage ~17GB data on it etc.)
Used "TestDisk" to make an image and PhotoRec to extract whatever I can. There are snippets of my files here and there but all scattered.

Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated.

Update: This message shows up too: "No directory logging in with home=/"

Update: Running "lsblk" outputs

NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda      8:0    0 931.5G  0 disk 
sda1   8:1    0   100M  0 part 
sda2   8:2    0   600G  0 part 
sda3   8:3    0     1K  0 part 
sda5   8:5    0   3.7G  0 part [SWAP]
sda6   8:6    0 327.7G  0 part /
sdb      8:16   0 238.5G  0 disk 
sdb1   8:17   0   128M  0 part 
sdb2   8:18   0 238.4G  0 part

Running df -h outputs

Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda6       323G   17G  290G   6% /
none            4.0K     0  4.0K   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
udev             16G  4.0K   16G   1% /dev
tmpfs           3.2G  1.3M  3.2G   1% /run
none            5.0M     0  5.0M   0% /run/lock
none             16G  144K   16G   1% /run/shm
none            100M   40K  100M   1% /run/user

Update: Running ls -la outputs:

total 116

drwxr-xr-x  26 root root  4096 Sep 17 21:37 .
drwxr-xr-x  26 root root  4096 Sep 17 21:37 ..
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root  4096 Sep 14 15:53 bin
drwxr-xr-x   3 root root  4096 Sep 14 16:14 boot
drwx------   3 root root  4096 Sep 14 15:33 .cache
drwxrwxr-x   2 root root  4096 May 23 17:50 cdrom
drwxr-xr-x  15 root root  4180 Sep 18 11:52 dev
drwxr-xr-x 135 root root 12288 Sep 18 11:52 etc
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root  4096 Sep 14 15:20 home
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root root    33 Sep 14 14:59 initrd.img -> boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-35-generic
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root root    33 Aug 27 10:33 initrd.img.old -> boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-34-generic
drwxr-xr-x  24 root root  4096 Sep 14 16:14 lib
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root  4096 Sep 14 14:56 lib32
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root  4096 Sep 14 14:56 lib64
drwx------   2 root root 16384 May 23 17:48 lost+found
drwxr-xr-x   3 root root  4096 May 23 18:02 media
drwxr-xr-x   4 root root  4096 May 23 19:45 mnt
drwxr-xr-x   3 root root  4096 May 24 18:31 opt
dr-xr-xr-x 166 root root     0 Sep 18 04:52 proc
drwx------  10 root root  4096 Sep 14 17:02 root
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root  4096 Jul  6 08:41 .rpmdb
drwxr-xr-x  22 root root   760 Sep 18 11:54 run
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root 12288 Sep 14 16:14 sbin
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root  4096 Apr 16 18:21 srv
dr-xr-xr-x  13 root root     0 Sep 18 04:52 sys
drwxrwxrwt   4 root root  4096 Sep 18 11:54 tmp
drwxr-xr-x  11 root root  4096 May 24 18:15 usr
drwxr-xr-x  13 root root  4096 Apr 16 18:29 var
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root root    30 Sep 14 14:59 vmlinuz -> boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-35-generic
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root root    30 Aug 27 10:33 vmlinuz.old -> boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-34-generic

ls -la /home output:

total 8
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 4096 Sep 14 15:20 .
drwxr-xr-x 26 root root 4096 Sep 17 21:37 ..

Thanks! I haven't tried this yet. The bigger problem is why the /home directory is empty! Any suggestions? — Rakbar, Sep 17 '14 at 15:33
/home was a folder or a mount point? If /home was a mount point, try to mount this partition — Sprite8bit, Sep 17 '14 at 16:36
@Sprite8bit: /home was a folder. see update in post for command outputs — Rakbar, Sep 18 '14 at 04:22
Where was your HOME directory before the crash, on sda6 or sda2 (which seems to be a large (data?) partition? — Jacob Vlijm, Sep 18 '14 at 06:27
AHA, could you run ls -la /? What is your main goal: saving the files or reparing the system? — Jacob Vlijm, Sep 18 '14 at 18:48
ls -la / outputs a whole bunch of stuff. Is there something specific I can post? Goal is to recover and saved files which appear to be on the system, but not showing up — Rakbar, Sep 18 '14 at 18:54
I assume it still is, but it is either renamed, invisible, moved etc. The ls -la could/should give us a hunch of where to look. BTW, could you use @(myname) to ping me, else I would have to keep the window open all the time :) — Jacob Vlijm, Sep 18 '14 at 18:57
@JacobVlijm, thanks for the note. Ls -la output has been added the original post. — Rakbar, Sep 18 '14 at 19:00
There appears to be a /home directory. If you run ls la /home is there a subdirectory that could be a renamed version of your original home folder? (and if so, ls -la again in that folder to see if you recognize anything) — Jacob Vlijm, Sep 18 '14 at 19:07
@JacobVlijm: right /home exists, but it appears to be empty and that is where all the files were stored. See post. — Rakbar, Sep 18 '14 at 19:09
silly question, I am a bit lost, but are you sure your /home was not on sda2? There seems no sign of a previous HOME folder. I will look around, I remember something that could be realated. — Jacob Vlijm, Sep 18 '14 at 19:22
@JacobVlijm, no it is on sda6. Thanks, any help is appreciated! I know, it is an odd situation. — Rakbar, Sep 18 '14 at 19:26
One more: could you run sudo ls -la /home? does that make a difference? — Jacob Vlijm, Sep 18 '14 at 19:39
@JacobVlijm, I'm logged in as root. The output is still the same. — Rakbar, Sep 18 '14 at 19:42
Ah, should have read your post better, you already mentioned /home was empty :( — Jacob Vlijm, Sep 18 '14 at 20:22

score -1 · Answer 1 · edited Oct 03 '14 at 21:41

-1

Try to use sudo ecryptfs-mount-private.

edited Oct 03 '14 at 21:41

Eliah Kagan

117,780

answered Oct 03 '14 at 21:16

Edward

1

Missing files in /home directory after boot crash during software update

1 Answers1