Gentoo Forums
Gentoo Forums
Gentoo Forums
Quick Search: in
System will no longer boot
View unanswered posts
View posts from last 24 hours
View posts from last 7 days

 
Reply to topic    Gentoo Forums Forum Index Desktop Environments
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
Tefrem34
Guru
Guru


Joined: 14 Sep 2014
Posts: 400
Location: USA, California

PostPosted: Sat Nov 15, 2014 11:43 pm    Post subject: System will no longer boot Reply with quote

Hello to the forum :)

Well, I did it, I broke my system.

I was trying to fix an issue that I was having, and caused a much worse one. After grub would load it would scan through my 2 TiB storage drive, which was very anoying, it took almost 4 min to boot into my system (load the KDM). What I had done to make the system auto load my storage drive was added it to my /etc/fstab file so it would auto load so that I could access my files on it in my desktop. It wasn't until I updated my grub after changing the fstab file that it started to take forever to boot. So I figured that I could comment out the storage device update the grub again, then uncomment the drive in fstab again. Well, it failed to work. I was trying to mount my boot partition, and I did it wrong. I was tierd and mounted it in /mnt/home and did
Quote:
grub2mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
. As I was trying to update grub I kept getting no aus(?) device found (I can't remember what it said) I tried to mount it other ways, but kept getting errors. After what I thought was a successful grub update, I rebooted my system, and now I can't boot into Gentoo. It starts running in the terminal and gets an error "no root device found" and now It doesn't even get that far any more it, just tries to boot into my other distro.

Is there a way for me to save my system without reinstalling Gentoo, or did I completely destroy my system?

I would greatly appreciate the help.
Thanks!
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
ManDay
Apprentice
Apprentice


Joined: 22 Jan 2008
Posts: 246

PostPosted: Sun Nov 16, 2014 10:33 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hello, I hope you're desperate enough to accept an advice from a grub noob (using EFI stub) :)

I don't really follow through what exactly happend when you did what you did. I think, however, that from the things you did, nothing broke permanenty. Also, the "no root device found" sounds much like a kernel issue, so the kernel may load but not be passted the correct arguments to find the root.

I suggest you do either of the following:

* Boot into something operational (either one of your other distros or a live disk) and follow the steps from the handbook, starting with chrooting into your Gentoo paritition and through the point where it instructs you to install the bootloader. In the worst of all scenarios, you may unmerge grub and delete all its remains in /etc/ prior to doing that, so that you eventually start over with a completely clean grub.

* Regardless of what you did, try to describe the current problem a bit more detailed (consider capping your preboot screen or photographing it, if needs be). What exactly does Grub do, how far do you get without errors and what does all the output say.

Clearly, I think the 1st option is your best and safest bet.

Best of luck :P

Oh, also, I think this is the wrong forum.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
NeddySeagoon
Administrator
Administrator


Joined: 05 Jul 2003
Posts: 54097
Location: 56N 3W

PostPosted: Sun Nov 16, 2014 10:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Tefrem34,

A few things, grub doesn't scan anything, it loads your kernel and initrd, then exits.
If your storage drive is being scanned every boot. either you have asked for that (unlikely) or the storage was not cleanly unmounted last time it was used.
Whaf filesystem is it?

There is no need to update grub because you have added storage to /etc/fstab unless you intend to boot from the new space. Even then, grub does nat use /etc/fstab during booting.

mounting /boot over /home then runniing
Code:
grub2mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
will have written the output to the /boot directory in your root partition, which should have no effect whatsoever, unless grub2 updated the MBR, in which case, grub can no longer find bits of itself. That would account for the flashing cursor.

No matter, the fix is to got into your chroot and do
Code:
grub2mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
properly.

That should get you booting again. Scanning storage is a separate issue.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Tefrem34
Guru
Guru


Joined: 14 Sep 2014
Posts: 400
Location: USA, California

PostPosted: Sun Nov 16, 2014 10:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thank you for the responses. :)

@ManDay
Doing a chroot, purging grub2, and properly reinstalling it sounds like a good plan to me.
I do not know what I did, I just know that what I did made my system unusable. But I will try to boot into it again and see what I can get from it. Is there a way to pause the process in order to get what the error is, or is there a config file that I can reference to, to show the errors? Because the messages go way to fast for me to write them down. Plus I do not have the greatest memory.

@NeddySeagoon
"grub does not use /etc/fstab during boot" That is good to know. It was a shot in the dark at trying to fix it. So once I get my system back, then I will make a new post regarding the loading of the storage at boot. Do you have any suggestions to some resources that would pertain to it? I could not find any, that is why I tried what I did.

Thanks again!
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
NeddySeagoon
Administrator
Administrator


Joined: 05 Jul 2003
Posts: 54097
Location: 56N 3W

PostPosted: Sun Nov 16, 2014 11:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Tefrem34,

I suspect the filesysem is not cleanly unmounted, so a check is forced, but lets see what happens when you get back to that stage.
How long a check takes varies with filesystem type and in some cases the options too.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic    Gentoo Forums Forum Index Desktop Environments All times are GMT
Page 1 of 1

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum