"dev/sda1: clean, ..." This message appears after I startup my laptop, then it won't continue booting

Question

dev/sda1: clean, 552599/6111232 files, 7119295/24414464 blocks

After I turn on my laptop this message appears. The system never boots, the message just stays there.

This is a normal startup message. It lets you know that there are no filesystem errors. — heynnema, Feb 11 '17 at 20:49
Oh, I see http://askubuntu.com/questions/162075/my-computer-boots-to-a-black-screen-what-options-do-i-have-to-fix-it — Pilot6, Feb 12 '17 at 17:30
@YahiaEl-Dow please see my answer... it's incomplete right now, but let me know the results, and I'll finish the answer. — heynnema, Feb 13 '17 at 21:32
thanks a lot @heynnema I can't try ur solution now because I re-install ubuntu again — El-Dow, Feb 14 '17 at 16:57
Possible duplicate of Boot message about disk clean: Can it indicate bad disk? — Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy, Dec 17 '17 at 07:45
I get a message like this and ubuntu boots to the desktop. But it seems display driver is not working. Wifi is also not working. What should I do? — Nuwan Thisara, Aug 17 '19 at 04:18
For those folks who tried installing lightgdm and didn't work, you might see a message /dev/nvme3/: clean and you waited for a long time.
Try these commands. (Alt + F2 to login, if you are still stuck). sudo service gdm3 status (in you case it might be gdm)

If its not already running try: sudo service gdm3 start — primegxy, Apr 18 '20 at 07:46
Does this answer your question? My computer boots to a black screen, what options do I have to fix it? — Elder Geek, Jun 01 '20 at 21:08
Worked for me: sudo apt-get install --reinstall ubuntu-desktop — Ostap Brehin, Dec 19 '20 at 22:01
@heynnema this question was asked three times before without any comprehensive answer. (e.g. post) — Benyamin Jafari, Dec 12 '21 at 05:56
I bypassed this problem by disabling the discrete graphics card (Nvidia) in BIOS. — Benyamin Jafari, Dec 12 '21 at 06:10
@BenyaminJafari Then you either have Secure Boot enabled, or the wrong/old Nvidia driver installed. And yes. this question has been asked a 1000 times before, and although the fix may be similar, it still required that you start a new question, instead of hanging on an old question from 2017. — heynnema, Dec 12 '21 at 14:23
@heynnema according to the StackExchange policy it would not be appropriate to ask a duplicated question again. you will encounter with close the question in this case. Also from the highest score of the top answer which is half of the question score, indicates that this problem still remains and hasn't been solved properly since 2017! — Benyamin Jafari, Dec 13 '21 at 08:49
@BenyaminJafari Well, I've given you the probable solution in my last comment... you can try it if you wish... but I'm not here to argue SE Policy with you. — heynnema, Dec 13 '21 at 14:24
As the problem is related to the *graphics driver* failing to load the *boot splash screen*, you can consider my this answer on flickering screen. — Rawnak Yazdani, Jan 10 '22 at 16:42

score 97 · Answer 1 · edited May 08 '22 at 15:30

97

I have had this problem occur a few times, and every time it was ODDLY Nvidia's fault - yes COUNTER-INTUITIVELY

If in Ubuntu after a long painful reboot run:

sudo apt-get purge nvidia*

or if locked try Ubuntu's awesome way of troubleshooting and try: Ctrl+Alt+F1 through F7 to get to "TTY1-7" and run the same thing. Reboot for good measure, and re-install Nvidia's Proprietary Drivers.

edited May 08 '22 at 15:30

wjandrea

14,236
4
48
98

answered Nov 10 '17 at 02:33

markackerman8-gmail.com

2,587

20

Please note, that the /dev/sda1:clean message comes from fsck being run at boot time (see answer here). The fact that OP's system wouldn't boot has no relation to the message. Booting issue was likely due to improper graphics driver being used, which is why this answer worked for some people. – Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy Dec 17 '17 at 07:48
6

But what if we need NVIDIA, e.g. if we're using their GPU? – ComputerScientist Feb 18 '18 at 20:04
9

@mikewhatever how are you so sure?! This happened to me twice already and it's just after a kernel update. The nvidia module goes missing and the system never finishes booting. Removing the driver (to clean anything that reamined) and then installing it again (thus creating a module for the new kernel) solves the issue. I'd be glad if you can prove it has nothing to do with that and explain us why. This is not "nonsense". – Enrico Jul 02 '18 at 22:57
I'd be glad to prove it, if you can arrange access to your PC for evaluation. Without that, asking for something like that poses an impossible task. The nvidia module should get auto-rebuilt by dkms after a kernel update. It's been working for me for many years on multiple PCs with different Nvidia cards. I've never ever had to remove the driver and reinstall. – mikewhatever Jul 06 '18 at 17:57
3

Wow, it worked. I actually was thinking of removing Nvidia, but it was a little further down on my list, just under "Open computer case and jiggle some wires to see if anything was loose" and "apply hammer to motherboard with extreme force". Glad I found this post because I'd exhausted all attempts to fix/bypass fsck. – Wonko the Sane Jul 20 '18 at 12:51
1

To contradict @mikewhatever, this worked for me as well. Thank you! – bradtgmurray Jan 27 '19 at 14:47
@bradtgmurray Hi Brad, I am glad the answer worked for you, but I think you've had a different problem. Please note that my comment above is only related to this answer as a response to the original question. To reiterate, there is no mention of Nvidia by the OP, and the boot message is completely harmless. If you wish to "contradict" any of those statements, please give it a try. Good luck. – mikewhatever Jan 27 '19 at 21:21
Worked on Ubuntu 20.04, thinkpad t480 with mx150. I really hate nvidia drivers, they are super buggy and causing problems ever since. – Andrey Artemyev Jun 10 '20 at 16:11
This helped only when I properly reinstalled Nvidia drivers, as recommended at https://askubuntu.com/a/1218483/750140 – Digharatta Jul 10 '20 at 07:57
It's not working on my Thinkpad E450C Ubuntu 20.04. Any other solution? – Almett Jul 27 '20 at 13:24
This worked on Ubuntu 20.04 (Regolith) HP Pavilion X360 14-cd0017ns – kl0z May 23 '22 at 14:32
Well ladida, get this, I've been having the same issue in recent times couldn't for the life of me figure why, and to you point Nvidia is acting up, when I plugged my monitor into my onboard display It turns out the system booted fine in the background, but on my screen plugged into my Nvidia card, it displayed this message. Wut!?!?! – Illegal Operator Jul 01 '23 at 14:30
This worked for me as well. Thanks so much for this answer. – Appurist - Paul W Oct 13 '23 at 03:27

score 36 · Answer 2 · edited Jan 07 '20 at 08:53

36

I experienced the same problem; though Mark's (top answer) solution didn't immediately work (since ctrl+alt+F2 etc. brings up a flickering TTYL which is nearly impossible to use), his suggested cause was correct, as it was a problem with the nvidia driver.

Also for beginners like me, here's the fool-proof step-by-step solution:

Boot into safe mode (recovery mode). Enter this mode by holding the left shift key when the computer starts.
in terminal, type:

sudo apt-get purge nvidia*

sudo ubuntu-drivers autoinstall #Make sure you have internet connection

Other solutions suggested elsewhere didn't work (e.g. installing boot-repair or sudo apt-get update)

(This worked on my dual booted computer (Windows 10 and Ubuntu 18.04)

my error message was /dev/nvme0n1p5: clean, nnn/nnn files, nnn/nnn blocks

edited Jan 07 '20 at 08:53

Community

1

answered Jul 03 '19 at 10:00

Ocean Wong

493

3

I tried many things (including changing my display manager). sudo ubuntu-drivers autoinstall is what finally worked for me, thank you! – cyrusbehr Dec 31 '19 at 01:15
1

It worked for me in normal mode also, not necessarily in safe mode. – RecklessSergio May 26 '20 at 03:11
4

sudo ubuntu-drivers autoninstall gave me "No drivers found for installation" – Naveen Reddy Marthala Oct 07 '20 at 03:01
Watch out, I had the origin of my ubuntu software PPA pointed to my country and when I did sudo ubuntu-drivers autoinstall I lost ethernet and wifi drivers and probably others. The reason is supposed to be is that the repository of my country is outdated. The following answer helped me get them back:
https://askubuntu.com/questions/1286738/no-wi-fi-settings-or-connection-after-switching-to-nvidia-graphics-driver
– kl0z May 23 '22 at 17:14
1

I got stuck and waited for over half a hour so I tried this. It worked, saved my day! – Litchy Aug 11 '22 at 07:28

score 24 · Answer 3 · edited Apr 22 '22 at 07:31

I solved this by fixing the installation of my display manager (gdm3)

sudo apt install gdm3

Story behind this:

I was upgrading from Ubuntu 18 to 20. I have dual OS installed (Ubuntu 20 and Windows 10) on my Xiaomi laptop, no nvidia or AMD graphics card, Intel Core i5 8th gen.

Log in to your terminal

You can do this via reboot and choose recovery mode or press alt+f2 or ctrl+alt+f2 when the screen is stuck

Connect to a network
You can do this using

iwconfig <your-wifi-adapter> essid <network-name> key <network-password>

Do basic recovery steps

sudo apt update
sudo apt clean
sudo apt autoremove
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
sudo dpkg --configure -a
sudo apt install -f

This should do the trick, but just to make sure, continue to the next step.

Check display manager
```
$ cat /etc/X11/default-display-manager
/usr/sbin/gdm3
```
Then systemctl status display-manager or /etc/init.d/gdm3 status make sure your display manager's status is active then sudo dpkg-reconfigure gdm3.

If it shows
```
/usr/sbin/dpkg-reconfigure: gconf2 is broken or not fully installed
```
then there is your problem.
Fix the broken package
```
sudo apt install gdm3
```

This is the one that resolved the issue for me. Mine had been caused by removing python3-* packages, to upgrade from 3.8 to 3.9 on the system install. This unexpectedly uninstalled a bunch of other packages along with it, gdm3 among them. — LoganEtherton, May 18 '22 at 00:53

score 19 · Answer 4 · edited Aug 29 '20 at 07:05

19

ctrl+alt+f2 or f3

login with your account
type sudo apt-get update (enter password when prompted)
type sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-intel
reboot

edited Aug 29 '20 at 07:05

BeastOfCaerbannog

14,585

answered Sep 13 '17 at 12:31

or type journalctl and check what is going on there – swietyy Oct 16 '18 at 16:56
1

But why does Ctrl+Alt+F2 help login? – Rawnak Yazdani Jan 06 '22 at 11:29

score 5 · Answer 5 · edited Nov 17 '20 at 17:51

5

I had the same problem. Before shutting down, the system noted: "low disk space".

I solved it by using an Ubuntu live disk (USB). I deleted files on the HDD to free space, then Ubuntu restarted as usual.

edited Nov 17 '20 at 17:51

Zanna

70,465

answered Nov 16 '20 at 10:52

Raberg

89
1
2

Fixed it for me, I switched to a terminal with ctrl+alt+F1 and deleted some big files – Johannes Pertl Jun 30 '21 at 17:06
Same for me, I did the same as Johannes and ran some commands to remove cache, to remove packages with sudo apt-get clean sudo apt-get autoclean sudo journalctl --vacuum-time=2d sudo apt-get autoremove --purge – John Harris May 18 '22 at 02:55
Disk space was also the issue for me. I booted in recovery mode and used 'clean' to remove old installation files, which gave me enough to boot successfully. – jdnz Nov 10 '23 at 15:09

score 4 · Answer 6 · edited Nov 17 '20 at 17:49

4

I faced same problem on Ubuntu 20.04; it was also because Nvidia driver. I just re-installed the driver and it started working properly.

sudo apt install --reinstall nvidia-settings

edited Nov 17 '20 at 17:49

Zanna

70,465

answered Sep 22 '20 at 09:36

Qudor Eng

181

1

magically this helped me to get the UI back and I can login now. (20.04) – Rubanraj Ravichandran Apr 12 '21 at 14:03

Benyamin Jafari · Answer 7 · 2021-12-12T06:14:51.990

I had the same problem. Neither of the answers worked for me. I have an old laptop with an Atom processor without Nvidia graphics. Thus, I've adopted an alternative solution with nomodeset mode as follows:

In installation scene, press F6, use arrow keys to go down to nomodeset, and press Enter. An x will appear to its left. Then press Esc, and press Enter to "Try Ubuntu without installing" or "Install it".

[UPDATE]

I got into trouble with another laptop (ThinkPad T430) and I fixed that by disabling the discrete graphic card (Nvidia) in BIOS.

karel · Answer 8 · 2022-05-27T04:36:46.977

2

A mechanical issue with the hard drive can trigger an fsck execution on boot and that could be the cause of an error message of the following type:

dev/sdaX: clean, ******/******* files, *******/******** blocks

If the other solutions to this question don't work try swapping the hard drive with another replacement hard drive. It should also be noted that even low-priced budget SSDs have better performance than HDDs.

edited May 27 '22 at 04:36

answered Apr 23 '22 at 00:46

karel

114,770

1

This message don't means a mechanical issue of any type. Please see: https://askubuntu.com/questions/987024/boot-message-about-disk-clean-can-it-indicate-bad-disk – lestcape May 25 '22 at 21:01
@lestcape Your comment is a false claim. From the accepted answer to your linked question (2nd to last paragraph): "there are other potential causes of fsck appearing on boot ( unclean unmount of the filesystem, cable or failing HDD sectors ,etc. )". – karel May 25 '22 at 23:57
Well, i think you original answer is certainly right, because you said the opposite i said. I said: "This message don't means a mechanical issue of any type", and is true, because it only means that fsck was executed. But certainly you said the opposite: "A mechanical issue with the hard drive can cause an error message" and this could be rigth, because a mechanical issue can trigger an fsck execution on boot and that could be the cause of the message. – lestcape May 27 '22 at 03:22
Sorry for misunderstood what you really said, you also get my upvote now. – lestcape May 27 '22 at 06:10

score 2 · Answer 9 · edited Nov 20 '20 at 05:18

Let's first check your file system for errors.

To check the file system on your Ubuntu partition...
- boot to the GRUB menu
- choose Advanced Options
- choose Recovery mode
- choose Root access
- at the # prompt, type sudo fsck -f /
- repeat the fsck command if there were errors
- type reboot
If for some reason you can't do the above...
- boot to a Ubuntu Live DVD/USB
- start gparted and determine which /dev/sdaX is your Ubuntu partition
- quit gparted
- open a terminal window
- type sudo fsck -f /dev/sdaX # replacing X with the number you found earlier
- repeat the fsck command if there were errors
- type reboot
If step 1. doesn't fix your problem, then do this.
- boot to the GRUB menu
- choose Advanced Options
- choose Recovery mode
- choose Root access
- at the # prompt, type:
- sudo blkid
- sudo cat /etc/fstab
- edit your question to include the output from the two previous commands
- type reboot
pending fix here...
If you dual boot with Windows, then do this in Windows.
- open the Power control panel
- click on change what the power buttons do
- click on change options that are unavailable
- uncheck fast start
- close the Power control panel
- open an administrative command prompt window
- type powercfg /h off (turns off hibernation)
- type chkdsk /f c:
- approve that chkdsk runs at next boot time
- reboot Windows

Run these steps and tell me the result, and I'll finish the answer with the final fix. — heynnema, Feb 13 '17 at 21:32
I have the same problem, it shows me the same /dev/sda1: clean..... message when I run the sudo fsck command. I type fsck and then reboot, however the problem still persists. I am not dual booting, I intend to have one OS that is Lubuntu on my 8 yr old netbook. Can you suggest what to do next — Transistor Overlord, Dec 01 '17 at 16:03
@TransistorOverlord please start a new question. Provide as much detail as possible. Describe exactly what you've tried to fix the problem. — heynnema, Dec 01 '17 at 16:29

score 1 · Answer 10 · answered Jul 30 '18 at 10:11

1

I am not sure if this will work for everyone but I managed to fix this by removing every occurrence of nomodeset from /etc/default/grub file and then by executing sudo update-grub.

This was because nomodeset disables the use of any graphic driver. I disabled my nouveau drivers before installing nvidia ones.

Though this might not be the case with everyone.

answered Jul 30 '18 at 10:11

markroxor

132
6

Thanks, yes that make sense too. I have alienware 13 R-3, To install ubuntu I added nomodeset to enable ubuntu os to load. Once I installed nvidia driver, I was getting the above error. So on grub I pressed e for edit and removed the nomodeset and ctrl+x to rebboot. After that I got desktop all fine. – drmaa Mar 11 '19 at 13:31

score 1 · Answer 11 · edited Apr 22 '22 at 07:33

1

I reinstalled Nvidia drivers and the PC started working:

ctrl+alt+f2 or f3

Log in with your account

Run these commands:

 sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa
 sudo apt update 
 sudo apt install nvidia-settings

Reboot

(thanks to @Shahad and his solution at https://askubuntu.com/a/1218483/750140)

edited Apr 22 '22 at 07:33

Zanna

70,465

answered Jul 10 '20 at 07:54

Digharatta

76

how do i connect my ubuntu 20.04 to internet in recovery mode ?? – vatsalay Dec 03 '20 at 08:15
But why does Ctrl+Alt+F2 help login? If it helps login, then isn't it the solution without requiring install or uninstall anything (yes, I understand I have to press the keys every time I boot, but it isn't much hurdle)? – Rawnak Yazdani Jan 06 '22 at 11:35

score 1 · Answer 12 · edited Apr 22 '22 at 07:35

1

For AMD users:

Press ctrl+alt+f2
Log in to your account
Uninstall your AMD drivers by using either of these commands, depending on your drivers.
```
amdgpu-pro-uninstall
```
or
```
amdgpu-uninstall
```
Do a reboot
After successfully logging in, reinstall your drivers.

edited Apr 22 '22 at 07:35

Zanna

70,465

answered Oct 02 '20 at 13:14

ganezdragon

274
1
3
13

score 1 · Answer 13 · edited Jun 02 '21 at 12:34

The closest answer I found helpful to solve my problem was this one and I hope it will help you too

I just had a similar problem and I found problem was that the UUID for the EFI partition in /etc/fstab is not correct. I fixed it using the following:

Boot using live system USB/CD, open terminal, and check UUIDs for partitions root and EFI

lsblk -f

Use fdisk to know which is the EFI partition and make sure it's in the correct format (EFI system partition)

fdisk -l /dev/sdX

Mount the root partition /dev/sdXX into /mnt

mount /dev/sdXX /mnt

then check the fstab file

cat /mnt/etc/fstab

If the UUID values are different, edit the value in the fstab file to match the correct UUID

use nano, gedit, vi, or whatever you want to edit and save fstab and reboot

that worked for me.

I believe the values changed because I installed Windows after installing Linux in my case.

Jaydin · Answer 14 · 2022-01-11T01:29:59.623

If you have these symptoms:

Booting stops at "dev/sda1: clean..." or "/dev/nvme0n1p2: clean"
Not an Nvidia gpu (e.g. you have an AMD graphics card)
Default video driver installation (e.g. you did not install custom amd drivers yourself)
You are able to start a tty session using ctrl+alt+f2

Then there is a chance that GNOME Display Manager is not starting for some reason (eg due to a recent Ubuntu update).

To check:

Start a tty session: ctrl+alt+f2
Login to your account
Typing systemctl status display-manager gives an error or shows that the GNOME Display Manager is not both loaded and active.
As alternative to the previous step, you could also try looking in syslog file to see if gdm is starting up (eg cat /var/log/syslog | grep "Starting GNOME Display Manager")

If so, then type

sudo apt install --reinstall ubuntu-desktop to reinstall
reboot

If I am able to login via Ctrl+Alt+F2, then isn't it the solution? It is not too much hurdle to press those keys! — Rawnak Yazdani, Jan 11 '22 at 12:19
@RawnakYazdani - You are right if your goal was to open access a terminal/tty on boot. But if your goal was to start the Ubuntu GUI on boot, then accessing tty session is only the first part of the solution. — Jaydin, Jan 12 '22 at 01:20

score 1 · Answer 15 · answered Apr 07 '22 at 07:02

1

My issue was due to large size of Syslog file in /var/log/syslog. It has filled my HDD. So I have fixed it by the following steps.

boot with live USB
locate to /var/log/Syslog in your HDD
remove the file
reboot

For more info see this answer.

answered Apr 07 '22 at 07:02

Abdulwehab

131

score 0 · Answer 16 · answered Apr 20 '20 at 01:42

0

I had this problem with fresh install of 18.04.3 desktop on proxmox 6.1 Had to change to vmware compatible graphics for the VM before it would work..

answered Apr 20 '20 at 01:42

James Gardiner

121
3

score 0 · Answer 17 · answered Oct 07 '20 at 11:21

You can avoid running fsck by booting into recovery mode and editing the file /etc/fstab to temporarily change the final 1 to 0 for the affected partition:

sudo nano /etc/fstab

Then reboot. If that gives a blank screen instead, reboot again, and press 'e' at the Grub menu. This time, omit the kernel parameters 'quiet splash' before resuming boot. You might get more helpful information to see where it is getting stuck - probably at the next step to do with gdm (or other login manager being used), or the system logging service. If you fail to rescue the existing installation, do a fresh installation using a wired internet connection so that it installs, makes the right settings, and updates correctly.

score 0 · Answer 18 · answered Nov 23 '21 at 14:45

0

Very specific solution for me:

In recovery mode, disable automatic login for your user. I found it will make Ubuntu VM stuck at startup if you have Home folder encryption active and enable automatic login.

answered Nov 23 '21 at 14:45

Yuri Ghensev

151

score 0 · Answer 19 · answered Aug 07 '23 at 05:41

Hi for me the answer was totally different my issue was i was having a different kernel version so the grub was loading a different version of the kernel on changing the kernel to latest one fixed the issue to update the kernal i used mainline

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:cappelikan/ppa
sudo apt update
sudo apt install mainline

once kernel was installed i uninstalled the old kernel and switched to new one at the time it was 6.4.8 and when i checked after that the tool mainline updated the grub also to use the new kernal and the issue was fixed, this might not be the issue with all the case but this fixed for me if someone has the same issue you can also resolve this using this method

score 0 · Answer 20 · answered Oct 26 '23 at 22:36

I had a very similar problem, but in my case the problem was the hard drive being too full.

I solved it by:

starting ubuntu in console mode:

a) when the grub starts press the key "e" for edit. b) add a 3 after quiet splash. So that it reads quiet splash 3

Once you can log in console mode, delete a big useless file with rm big-useless-file
Restart the computer.

This solved the issue for me. I realized the disk was too full because I tried sudo apt-get update, which failed with an error telling me that the disk was full.

"dev/sda1: clean, ..." This message appears after I startup my laptop, then it won't continue booting

20 Answers20

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