0

I recently tried to install Ubuntu on my desktop and suprisingly I failed. I was trying Ubuntu and Ubuntu GNOME, both versions 16.04.2 and also the newest stable Linux Mint (LTS version). Bootable USB were made using Universal USB Installer.

All bootable USBs started Live systems without problems. I chose secondary HDD /dev/sdb and I created three partitions, assigning:

  • 16GB for root
  • 8GB for swap (I've got 32GB RAM)
  • the rest of free space (about 100GB) for home.

The problems started after installation on local HDD.

Mint is separate story, because I didn't even see GRUB, it just booted to grub rescue mode, scaring me as hell, because I couldn't boot Windows. Anyway, booting Mint Live USB and running Boot-Repair finally allowed me to boot Mint from HDD. But I wanted to try with Ubuntu (yeah, I know Mint comes more or less from Ubuntu).
Ubuntus are more interesting.

After setup, first run showed grub and when Ubuntu was chosen, system ended up like this CLICK (photo made after starting Ubuntu recovery mode, or something like that, I don't remember the exact name)

For Google indexing purposes I'll quote:

Gave up waiting for root device
(...)
ALERT! UUID=<correct uuid here> does not exist. Dropping to a shell!

And the BusyBox (initramfs) prompt shows up, but keyboard is not responding (USB keyboard with wire).

I am not a Linux guru, so I started googling and trying thing one by one. I found this problem quite common, but I failed to fix it using common solutions. Things I've tried:

  • Boot Repair
  • adding rootdelay to grub commandline
  • mounting root from Live USB and then grub-install and update-grub
  • e2fsck

Nothing. Literally no change. What should I try now?

k328590
  • 9

1 Answers1

0

Incorrect UUID's in your /etc/fstab is probably your problem. With your configuration it's difficult to say how they got to be wrong.

Boot into recovery mode...

  • boot to the GRUB menu
  • choose Advanced Options
  • choose Recovery mode
  • choose Root access

  • at the # prompt, type:

    sudo blkid # to obtain the UUID's

    cat /etc/fstab # to view the fstab file

  • compare the UUID's and you'll find one that doesn't match

    sudo mount -o rw,remount / # to remount as r/w

    sudo pico /etc/fstab # use any editor you like

  • correct the invalid UUID aba346db-*

    reboot

heynnema
  • 70,711
  • OK, so first of all, trying to run recovery mode gets me the screen I attached, so nothing changed here. I ran LiveUSB, mounted root (mounts perfectly) and chrooted, then I checked UUIDS and I can't see anything wrong there. blkid: https://pastebin.com/9dNXd5dA fstab: https://pastebin.com/dxfFWFb2 – k328590 Aug 08 '17 at 20:56
  • This makes no sense at all. You're correct, blkid and fstab look fine. I just can't figure out where it's getting UUID aba346db*. I'm stumped. Look at /etc/initramfs-tools/conf.d/resume and see if you find that UUID in there. – heynnema Aug 08 '17 at 21:25
  • This is a new installation, UUID is different now, the photo was from previous installations, that's why I wrote "correct uuid here" :) Now it shows the UUID from blkid. Anyway, UUID is correct and it still can't find the root partition. Any ideas? – k328590 Aug 09 '17 at 11:18
  • There's some important piece of information that I'm not getting. This is a BRAND NEW installation, yes? It NEVER booted into Ubuntu, yes? There's no Windows to boot, yes? How is this disk connected? SATA, USB? Tell me about the rest of your disk configuration. SDA, SDB, SDC? – heynnema Aug 09 '17 at 13:36
  • ps: what make/model computer? Have you checked for a BIOS update? – heynnema Aug 09 '17 at 14:38
  • ps2: show me the correct image of the onscreen error message for this installation. – heynnema Aug 09 '17 at 14:44
  • OK, I'm explaining. PC doesn't have a brand, it's assembled by me. BIOS is up-to-date. There are three disks, all on SATA I think, Windows is (always was) on /dev/sda. I shrunk /dev/sdb NTFS partition and used that free space to install Ubuntu. Currently boot screen displays the same message, just UUID is different than previous, but it's correct, according to blkid (blkid ran from LiveUSB): http://i.imgur.com/knNxpgu.jpg – k328590 Aug 09 '17 at 23:59
  • PS: I made a new clean install using newer Ubuntu GNOME 16.04.3, but that didn't help, just UUID changed, as you see. – k328590 Aug 10 '17 at 00:06
  • At least this time the UUIDs make sense! Tell me how you "adding rootdelay to grub commandline". – heynnema Aug 10 '17 at 00:24