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I've been trying to install Ubuntu 16.04 from a USB drive for the last few days and running into the following issue on boot:

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! UUID=<drive-uuid> does not exist.   
Dropping to a shell! 

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

(initramfs)

One thing to note from above: I can't use the shell (no response) after (initramfs) above in comparison to some solutions I've seen

For some context, I'm installing it on hard drive on a computer that has two other hard drives: one with a Windows 7 install and the other that's just NTFS storage. The Ubuntu installation is on /dev/sdc1 and the boot loader the same.

Here are the things that I've tried to fix this, using a Live Ubuntu and chroot:

  1. Validated that the UUID that appears after blkid is the same as that in /etc/fstab
  2. Replaced the path in /etc/fstab with /dev/sdc1. I get the same error of "Gave up waiting for root device" except the UUID is replaced with /dev/sdc1
  3. After doing 2, uncommenting GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_UUID=true in /etc/default/grub. Running update-grub afterwards.
  4. Adding rootdelay=40 and, separately, rootwait to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX in /etc/default/grub. Running update-grub afterwards.

I just don't understand how it's asying the device does not exist, since I have to go through the boot loader (on the same drive) to even start Ubuntu.

If it's an additional hint, when I try to run the Ubuntu recovery mode, it ends up looping on the line Begin: Running /scripts/local=block ... done. before giving me the original "Gave up" error.

There are quite a few other posts about this, they've been helpful in debugging, but they don't seem to specifically apply to my situation:

Community
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pmbaumgartner
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  • grub should have been installed on /dev/sdc, not /dev/sdc1. Are you sure there are no other grubs on other disks which are preferentially booting over the one on sdc? – ubfan1 Feb 12 '17 at 16:20
  • Sorry -- to clarify, grub is on /dev/sdc and not /dev/sdc1. There are no other grub installations anywhere else. – pmbaumgartner Feb 12 '17 at 16:54

1 Answers1

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I fixed this issue by burning the Ubuntu install ISO to a DVD and installing from that.

I still don't know what caused my original issue, but something about trying to install from a USB causes the issue above.

pmbaumgartner
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