Messed it up/Copied 2 new flash/Fixed Grub--Won't Boot!!!

frankeG · August 13, 2013, 12:02am

My tale of woe is such:
I had 12.3 installed on a flash drive, and had many updates.
Somehow, I trashed the drive, managed to make dd copies of both
the / and the /home. Partitioned another flash, PNY 16gb, and
dd copied the / partition, but had to cp copy the other, /home, partition.
The / partition actually appears as the mount point in any and every
partiton manager. But there is no way I can get it to recognize the
/home partition. I can mount the /dev/sdc1 and /dev/sdc2 on separate
mount points, and read them. In fact, using the very nice instructions
provided by jdmcdaniel3 I have made the PNY drive bootable, but
still no /home unless I mount it from terminal, and it still does not appear
in any listings, for example on Dolphin.

Question: Can I do anything to correct this so the second
partition will mount as home?


*Extracted from fdisk -l*
Disk /dev/sdc: 16.0 GB, 16001269760 bytes
64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 15260 cylinders, total 31252480 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00006061

   Device Boot      Start         End                Blocks     Id  System
/dev/sdc1   *        2048       15222783     7610368   83  Linux
/dev/sdc2        17690624    31252479     6780928   83  Linux
/dev/sdc3        15222784    17690623     1233920   82  Linux swap / Solaris

Partition table entries are not in disk order

This is the CAT display of the PNY /etc/fstab:
/dev/disk/by-id/usb-_Patriot_Memory_070F3155CC043137-0:0-part1 / ext4 acl,user_xattr 1 1
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-TOSHIBA_MK6465GSXN_Z0PCS1U0S-part5 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/disk/by-id/usb-_Patriot_Memory_070F3155CC043137-0:0-part2 /home ext4 acl,user_xattr,nofail 1 2
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs noauto 0 0
debugfs /sys/kernel/debug debugfs noauto 0 0
usbfs /proc/bus/usb usbfs noauto 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts mode=0620,gid=5 0 0
/dev/disk/by-id/usb-_USB_Flash_Memory_001372982FA1BA7175BD0AD6-0:0-part2 /home ext4 nofail 1 2

wolfi323 · August 13, 2013, 12:10am

frankeG:

This is the CAT display of the PNY /etc/fstab:
/dev/disk/by-id/usb-_Patriot_Memory_070F3155CC043137-0:0-part1 / ext4 acl,user_xattr 1 1
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-TOSHIBA_MK6465GSXN_Z0PCS1U0S-part5 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/disk/by-id/usb-_Patriot_Memory_070F3155CC043137-0:0-part2 /home ext4 acl,user_xattr,nofail 1 2
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs noauto 0 0
debugfs /sys/kernel/debug debugfs noauto 0 0
usbfs /proc/bus/usb usbfs noauto 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts mode=0620,gid=5 0 0
/dev/disk/by-id/usb-_USB_Flash_Memory_001372982FA1BA7175BD0AD6-0:0-part2 /home ext4 nofail 1 2

You have two different /home in there. Try to remove the 2nd one.

hcvv · August 13, 2013, 10:06am

Please use thye default font as we all do heere. Most of us have normal eyesight and when not can increase font size through their browser.

Also, you know how to create CODE tags. You fstab should have been also between CODE tags. Makes it much easier for people to detect such errors as above.

I suggest you give wolfi323 at least two kudos, one for reading your terrible layout and the second for pointing to the error.

frankeG · August 19, 2013, 3:37am

Thanks to Wofli323 for his suggestion which I tried, still will not show /home unless I go to a terminal
and specifically mount it.

Sincerely
Frank G

robin_listas · August 19, 2013, 11:33am

On 2013-08-19 03:46, frankeG wrote:
>
> Thanks to Wofli323 for his suggestion which I tried, still will not show
> /home unless I go to a terminal
> and specifically mount it.

Post your current fstab inside code tags, please.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 12.3 x86_64 “Dartmouth” at Telcontar)

wolfi323 · August 19, 2013, 3:25pm

And if your fstab is correct now, this might reveal infos as to why /home couldn’t be mounted (before you mounted it manually, of course):

systemctl status /home

Although actually I would think if the only /home in your fstab couldn’t be mounted, systemd should enter maintenance mode.
So please explain more what you experience. (Hint: “Won’t Boot!!!” and “/home still doesn’t show” isn’t enough information to debug this )

frankeG · August 30, 2013, 8:55pm

Tis the continuation of the voyage of starship PNY FRANKeG …

Today’s mission is to answer particular questions posed, mainly
“Tell us what happens when you boot”, and the requested
system information, both valuable learning experiences for a “newby”

Boot Setup is such that USB, HDD are listed as first and second choices.

Insert the USB(PNY) and turn on the machine, 12.3 Suse is on the
USB stick.

A message appears

“Logging in fgadmin cannot enter home directory using /.”
<enter>
another message in a box


"Call to Inusertemp failed (temporary directories full?) Check your
installation."

Click on “close” button,

Then, all appears normal until the Login screen is shown.
The only choice in that box is ROOT; supply ROOT password,
all proceeds normally and the desktop appears.

Open a terminal (keep in mind following is done from location /root)


( > pwd returns /root ) ):
#--------------------------------------------
Listing of PNY using command:
**> ls / | column**

.alias      boot     lib         proc     sys
.bashrc     dev      lib64       root     tmp
.config     etc      lost+found  run      usr
.readahead  fixBoot  media       sbin     var
.vimrc      fixPNY   mnt         selinux
bin         home     opt         srv
#--------------------------------------------

Note: home is listed,
but, issue ‘> ls /home’:
nothing except the command line prompt is returned:


linux-0r78:~ # ls /home
linux-0r78:~ #

issue the command > ls /dev/sd* (sda* removed for brevity)


/dev/sdb
/dev/sdb1
/dev/sdb2
/dev/sdb3

create a directory sdm2, and mount sdb2, then issue > ls /sdm2:


fgadmin  *(so, the directory is here, just not recognized?)*
lost+found

create a directory sdm1, and mount sdb1, then issue > ls /sdm1:


.alias      boot     lib         proc     sys
.bashrc     dev      lib64       root     tmp
.config     etc      lost+found  run      usr
.readahead  fixBoot  media       sbin     var
.vimrc      fixPNY   mnt         selinux
bin         home     opt         srv

*** At this point, I can not understand why, if /home exists,
and under /home appears fgadmin (/home/fgadmin) why it
is not being recognized? ***

When I boot from the PNY device, the following are the mounts
that are visible( sda7 is the swap device ):


List of all SDB devices:
/dev/sdb /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdb2 /dev/sdb3

Line  Device     Mount Point                      Type
  5: /dev/sdb1      /                                  ext4
 27: /dev/sda7      /run/media/root/d84156cf-33aa-4c45-914b-f5fe0b1a2afc   ext4
 28: /dev/sda7      /var/run/media/root/d84156cf-33aa-4c45-914b-f5fe0b1a2afc ext4

Listing of /etc/fstab
/dev/disk/by-id/usb-_Patriot_Memory_070F3155CC043137-0:0-part1 /                    ext4       acl,user_xattr        1 1
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-TOSHIBA_MK6465GSXN_Z0PCS1U0S-part5 swap                 swap       defaults              0 0
/dev/disk/by-id/usb-_Patriot_Memory_070F3155CC043137-0:0-part2 /home                ext4       acl,user_xattr,nofail 1 2
proc                 /proc                proc       defaults              0 0
sysfs                /sys                 sysfs      noauto                0 0
debugfs              /sys/kernel/debug    debugfs    noauto                0 0
usbfs                /proc/bus/usb        usbfs      noauto                0 0
devpts               /dev/pts             devpts     mode=0620,gid=5       0 0

And, the requested “systemctl status /home” (highlight added)


home.mount - /home
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/fstab)
     Active: inactive (dead)   
    Where: /home
     What: /dev/disk/by-id/usb-_Patriot_Memory_070F3155CC043137-0:0-part2
   CGroup: name=systemd:/system/home.mount

Aug 29 23:56:02 linux-0r78.site systemd[1]: Dependency failed for /home.
Aug 30 00:10:56 linux-0r78.site systemd[1]: Dependency failed for /home.

**By Contrast**
-.mount - /
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/fstab)
   Active: active (mounted) since Thu, 2013-08-29 23:54:32 CDT; 1h 19min ago
    Where: /
     What: /dev/sdb1
   CGroup: name=systemd:/system/-.mount

Warning: Journal has been rotated since unit was started. Log output is incomplete or unavailable.

And, that information being provided, I can also answer wolfi323,

Although actually I would think if the only /home in your fstab couldn’t be mounted, systemd should enter maintenance mode.
So please explain more what you experience. (Hint: “Won’t Boot!!!” and “/home still doesn’t show” isn’t enough information to debug this )

it does not enter any maintenance mode!
:\

** … and the voyage continues … **

robin_listas · August 30, 2013, 9:13pm

On 2013-08-30 20:56, frankeG wrote:


>   Listing of /etc/fstab
>   /dev/disk/by-id/usb-_Patriot_Memory_070F3155CC043137-0:0-part1   /      ext4   acl,user_xattr        1 1
>   /dev/disk/by-id/ata-TOSHIBA_MK6465GSXN_Z0PCS1U0S-part5           swap   swap   defaults              0 0
>   /dev/disk/by-id/usb-_Patriot_Memory_070F3155CC043137-0:0-part2   /home  ext4   acl,user_xattr,nofail 1 2

>> Although actually I would think if the only /home in your fstab couldn’t
>> be mounted, systemd should enter maintenance mode.
>> So please explain more what you experience. (Hint: “Won’t Boot!!!” and
>> “/home still doesn’t show” isn’t enough information to debug this )
> it does not enter any maintenance mode!
> :\

It doesn’t, because the partition is set “nofail” in fstab.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 12.3 x86_64 “Dartmouth” at Telcontar)

lorenzo3000 · August 31, 2013, 9:39pm

Let’s try something simple to be absolutely sure that the fstab is correct. As root, please execute

mount /home

and tell us if /home is then correctly mounted.

robin_listas · September 1, 2013, 10:43pm

On 2013-08-31 21:46, lorenzo3000 wrote:
>
> Let’s try something simple to be absolutely sure that the fstab is
> correct. As root, please execute
>
> Code:
> --------------------
> mount /home
> --------------------
>
> and tell us if /home is then correctly mounted.

Yes, but due to the use of the option “nofail”, you have to also do:


ls /home

to verify if it mounted. Or:


mount | grep "/home"

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 12.3 x86_64 “Dartmouth” at Telcontar)

wolfi323 · September 2, 2013, 10:59am

So the correct /home is on /dev/sdb2 (is this usb-_Patriot_Memory_070F3155CC043137-0:0-part2 now, or rather usb-_USB_Flash_Memory_001372982FA1BA7175BD0AD6-0:0-part2 ?:sarcastic:), but it fails to mount on boot.

And, the requested “systemctl status /home” (highlight added)

home.mount - /home
Loaded: loaded (/etc/fstab)
Active: inactive (dead)
Where: /home
What: /dev/disk/by-id/usb-_Patriot_Memory_070F3155CC043137-0:0-part2
CGroup: name=systemd:/system/home.mount

Aug 29 23:56:02 linux-0r78.site systemd[1]: Dependency failed for /home.
Aug 30 00:10:56 linux-0r78.site systemd[1]: Dependency failed for /home.

Your system tried to mount the usb-_Patriot_Memory_070F3155CC043137-0:0-part2 as home, but failed.

Listing of /etc/fstab
/dev/disk/by-id/usb-_Patriot_Memory_070F3155CC043137-0:0-part1 / ext4 acl,user_xattr 1 1
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-TOSHIBA_MK6465GSXN_Z0PCS1U0S-part5 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/disk/by-id/usb-_Patriot_Memory_070F3155CC043137-0:0-part2 /home ext4 acl,user_xattr,nofail 1 2
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs noauto 0 0
debugfs /sys/kernel/debug debugfs noauto 0 0
usbfs /proc/bus/usb usbfs noauto 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts mode=0620,gid=5 0 0

So usb-_Patriot_Memory_070F3155CC043137-0:0-part1 is mounted as / and this works.

But usb-_Patriot_Memory_070F3155CC043137-0:0-part2 cannot be mounted as /home because of a dependency error.

You said you booted from the PNY stick. This is not the same as that usb-_Patriot_Memory_070F3155CC043137, right?
Why are you mounting / then from usb-_Patriot_Memory_070F3155CC043137?
Maybe this causes that dependency error…

Try to change the first line in /etc/fstab (on PNY) to:

/dev/disk/by-id/usb-_USB_Flash_Memory_001372982FA1BA7175BD0AD6-0:0-part1 /                    ext4       acl,user_xattr        1 1

Does /home get mounted then?

it does not enter any maintenance mode!
:\

Right, I forgot about that “nofail” in your /etc/fstab, that prevents the boot from failing.

And to be honest, I somehow got lost now in which USB drive is what… (PNY, Patriot, USB_Flash_Memory, sdb ?)
Please post the output of:

ls -l /dev/disk/by-id/

frankeG · September 11, 2013, 10:29am

First, to clarify questions from wolfi323:

And to be honest, I somehow got lost now in which USB drive is what… (PNY, Patriot, USB_Flash_Memory, sdb ?)

The information on the previous posting, mine, is from the PNY stick, which appears in the /dev listing as /dev/sdb,

and in the /etc/fstab on that device by the ungainly designation of: usb-_Patriot_Memory_070F3155CC043137-0:0-part
which is the problem USB. The PNY designation is mine derive from the name on the outside of the physical device itself.
The reference which you previously observed as a duplicate entry, to the Patriot, is another flash, and why it is
there is frankly confusing to me. I did play around with that stick in one USB slot, and may have mounted it at the
time; but all the current information is from the PNY stick itself.
Sorry for the confusion, and thank you ALL for your persistence in trying to solve this problem.

**Based on feedback requests since my last postings:
**
issue command *“> mount /dev/sdb2 /home”

then “> mount | grep -Pn ‘^/dev’”* produces:

5:/dev/sdb1 on / type ext4 (rw,relatime,data=ordered)
26:/dev/sdb2 on /home type ext4 (rw,relatime,data=ordered)

and, an ls of /home (> ls /home) produces:
fgadmin
lost+found

Then, remove nofail from the mount statement in fstab for /home based on wolfi323’s expectation,
which proves to be true:
#-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reboot, which throws you into “recovery” mode as root, and
allows recovery of the following lines via “journalctl -b”
**NOTE: **search on part2, and /home, which are significant words.
( Numbers added via a sed script )
#-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

820:  Sep 10 23:10:06 linux-0r78.site systemd[1]: Listening on udev Control Socket.
821:  Sep 10 23:10:06 linux-0r78.site systemd[1]: Starting Encrypted Volumes.
822:  Sep 10 23:10:06 linux-0r78.site systemd[1]: Reached target Encrypted Volumes.
823:  Sep 10 23:10:06 linux-0r78.site systemd[1]: Expecting device dev-disk-by\x2did-ata\x2dTOSHIBA_MK6465GSXN_Z0PCS1U0S\x2dpart5.device...
824:  Sep 10 23:10:06 linux-0r78.site systemd[1]: Expecting device dev-disk-by\x2did-usb\x2d_Patriot_Memory_070F3155CC043137\x2d0:0\x2dpart2.device...
825:  Sep 10 23:10:06 linux-0r78.site systemd[1]: Starting Journal Socket.
#---------------- Removed 174 un-related lines -----------------------------------
1000:  Sep 10 23:10:08 linux-0r78.site kernel: input: HDA Digital PCBeep as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/input/input9
1001:  Sep 10 23:10:08 linux-0r78.site kernel: input: HDA Intel MID HDMI/DP,pcm=3 as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/sound/card0/input10
1002:  Sep 10 23:10:08 linux-0r78.site kernel: input: HDA Intel MID Mic as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/sound/card0/input11
1003:  Sep 10 23:10:08 linux-0r78.site kernel: input: HDA Intel MID Headphone as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/sound/card0/input12
1004:  Sep 10 23:10:08 linux-0r78.site systemd[1]: Starting Sound Card.
1005:  Sep 10 23:10:08 linux-0r78.site systemd[1]: Reached target Sound Card.
1006:  Sep 10 23:11:35 linux-0r78.site systemd[1]: Job dev-disk-by\x2did-usb\x2d_Patriot_Memory_070F3155CC043137\x2d0:0\x2dpart2.device/start timed out.
1007:  Sep 10 23:11:35 linux-0r78.site systemd[1]: Timed out waiting for device dev-disk-by\x2did-usb\x2d_Patriot_Memory_070F3155CC043137\x2d0:0\x2dpart2.device.
1008:  Sep 10 23:11:35 linux-0r78.site systemd[1]: Dependency failed for /home.
1009:  Sep 10 23:11:35 linux-0r78.site systemd[1]: Dependency failed for Local File Systems.
1010:  Sep 10 23:11:35 linux-0r78.site systemd[1]: Dependency failed for Remote File Systems (Pre).
1011:  Sep 10 23:11:35 linux-0r78.site systemd[1]: Job remote-fs-pre.target/start failed with result 'dependency'.
1012:  Sep 10 23:11:35 linux-0r78.site systemd[1]: Job local-fs.target/start failed with result 'dependency'.
1013:  Sep 10 23:11:35 linux-0r78.site systemd[1]: Triggering OnFailure= dependencies of local-fs.target.
1014:  Sep 10 23:11:35 linux-0r78.site systemd[1]: Job home.mount/start failed with result 'dependency'.
1015:  Sep 10 23:11:35 linux-0r78.site systemd[1]: Dependency failed for File System Check on /dev/disk/by-id/usb-_Patriot_Memory_070F3155CC043137-0:0-part2.
1016:  Sep 10 23:11:35 linux-0r78.site systemd[1]: Job systemd-fsck@dev-disk-by\x2did-usb\x2d_Patriot_Memory_070F3155CC043137\x2d0:0\x2dpart2.service/start failed with result 'dependency'.
1017:  Sep 10 23:11:35 linux-0r78.site systemd[1]: Job dev-disk-by\x2did-usb\x2d_Patriot_Memory_070F3155CC043137\x2d0:0\x2dpart2.device/start failed with result 'timeout'.
1018:  Sep 10 23:11:35 linux-0r78.site systemd[1]: Stopped Getty on tty1.
1019:  Sep 10 23:11:35 linux-0r78.site systemd[1]: Starting Login Prompts.
1020:  Sep 10 23:11:35 linux-0r78.site systemd[1]: Stopped YaST2 Firstboot.
1021:  Sep 10 23:11:35 linux-0r78.site systemd[1]: Starting Recreate Volatile Files and Directories...
1022:  Sep 10 23:11:35 linux-0r78.site systemd[1]: Starting Tell Plymouth To Write Out Runtime Data...
1023:  Sep 10 23:11:35 linux-0r78.site systemd[1]: Started Emergency Shell.

***So, the critical issue appears to be how to solve the “dependency” problem; and, what is a dependency problem when
it occurs in this situation?

robin_listas · September 11, 2013, 1:03pm

On 2013-09-11 10:36, frankeG wrote:

> *Based on feedback requests since my last postings:
> *
> issue command -“> mount /dev/sdb2 /home”
>
> -then- “> mount | grep -Pn ‘^/dev’”- produces:
>
> 5:/dev/sdb1 on / type ext4 (rw,relatime,data=ordered)
> 26:/dev/sdb2 on /home type ext4 (rw,relatime,data=ordered)

Please, when posting about a command, show the command and the output
together and inside a code tags block - use the ‘#’ button in the
editor. Don’t say “the output of ls is” - no, instead do show it complete:


cer@Telcontar:~> md temporary
cer@Telcontar:~> cd temporary
cer@Telcontar:~/temporary> ls
cer@Telcontar:~/temporary> touch pepe
cer@Telcontar:~/temporary> l
total 64
drwxr-xr-x   2 cer users    17 Sep 11 12:54 ./
drwxr-xr-x 244 cer users 32768 Sep 11 12:53 ../
-rw-r--r--   1 cer users     0 Sep 11 12:54 pepe
cer@Telcontar:~/temporary>

If it is too big and absolutely sure that it is not interesting, use
ellipsis (…) to skip a section.

-*So, the critical issue appears to be how to solve the “dependency”
problem; and, what is a dependency problem when
it occurs in this situation?
*-

It depends on the previous job that timed out:


>>   1007:  Sep 10 23:11:35 linux-0r78.site systemd[1]: Timed out waiting for device dev-disk-by\x2did-usb\x2d_Patriot_Memory_070F3155CC043137\x2d0:0\x2dpart2.device.

for which I have no explanation.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 12.3 x86_64 “Dartmouth” at Telcontar)