[SOLVED] Cannot boot if USB drive connected.

I am running Slackware64 14.2, kernel 4.4.75. I have a relatively new ASRock 970M Pro3 motherboard (bought 6 months ago, but not used until now).

If I have a USB drive connected, I cannot boot. I get the error

error: no such device: 83880a6f-3e10-4c41-b4a1-1e5fd5ef026a
Entering rescue mode...
grub rescue >

If I remove the USB drive and reset or CTL-ALT-DEL it boots fine. btw I don't find the UUID listed in the error message on any drive, including the USB drive.

In examining the Bios, I don't even see USB as a possible boot option (image). The BIOS shows boot option 1 as the DVD, option 2 as the Samsung hard drive and option 3 disabled.

This LQ thread mentioned there might be issues with ASROK http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...3/#post5639598

Does anyone have any ideas on fixing this? This seems like incredibly stupid behavior for a motherboard as people leave USB drives connected for all kinds of reasons -- in my case, for backups.

Sorry, no help... but that is bizarre!

edit:

OK, I'll throw something out there: do you have anything in your firmware preferences (BIOS or UEFI) that says to boot from USB first?

If you think you are having support issues for new chips, get onto a kernel that is somewhere near current. I've been on 4.12 rc kernels for awhile for example.
I see marvel mentioned in that other thread (I only skimmed over it) - years ago they caused me grief for weeks, and I was recompiling every time Linus tree got updated. Eventually support moves into mainline.

Originally Posted by Laserbeak OK, I'll throw something out there: do you have anything in your firmware preferences (BIOS or UEFI) that says to boot from USB first?

No, nothing the firmware (BIOS) that I can find. The boot order menu doesn't even list USB.

Originally Posted by syg00 If you think you are having support issues for new chips, get onto a kernel that is somewhere near current. I've been on 4.12 rc kernels for awhile for example. I see marvel mentioned in that other thread (I only skimmed over it) - years ago they caused me grief for weeks, and I was recompiling every time Linus tree got updated. Eventually support moves into mainline.

This isn't a kernel issue. I can't boot to any OS if the USB drive is plugged in.

I may have to get a different MB! Too bad because I've just now started to use it and it's been too long to return it to the store.

Any other ideas? Surely LQ users have run into this before with ASROCK MBs.

The fact that you can't boot to any OS suggests an issue with the BIOS/UEFI. I would suggest checking for a firmware update for the motherboard if you haven't already done so

Does it do this for any USB drive plugged in? Did you do a fresh install of Slackware? Did you just swap motherboards on a working system?

Seems USB drive messes a drives/partitions order.
If it's absolutely necessary to boot with USB drive attached, I'd boot into system with detached drive, then attached it and run grub-mkconfig. May be this case grub will take into account USB drive on next boot.

Look in bios under hard drives when you have usb installed.
Grub using hdx ??

Other info here. https://superuser.com/questions/3594...h-device-error

Perhaps something to do with the fact that some BIOSes don't recognise USB drives as USB drives at all? They see them, instead, as HDD's; e.g. 'HDD-01', or 'HDD-02', etc.

The Phoenix BIOS, for example, is well-known for this.


Mike.

Originally Posted by TheEzekielProject The fact that you can't boot to any OS suggests an issue with the BIOS/UEFI. I would suggest checking for a firmware update for the motherboard if you haven't already done so

I have the latest firmware update.

Originally Posted by aragorn2101 Does it do this for any USB drive plugged in? Did you do a fresh install of Slackware? Did you just swap motherboards on a working system?

Actually, no! I tested with another USB drive and it booted fine (more below). It is not related to Slackware as I've tried booting from DVD with other OSes and same problem.

Originally Posted by Teufel Seems USB drive messes a drives/partitions order. If it's absolutely necessary to boot with USB drive attached, I'd boot into system with detached drive, then attached it and run grub-mkconfig. May be this case grub will take into account USB drive on next boot.

Not sure where the grub message is coming from. My Slackware installation uses lilo not grub. I suspect the grub message is coming from the USB drive itself.

Originally Posted by Mike_Walsh Perhaps something to do with the fact that some BIOSes don't recognise USB drives as USB drives at all? They see them, instead, as HDD's; e.g. 'HDD-01', or 'HDD-02', etc. The Phoenix BIOS, for example, is well-known for this.

Yes, I think this is the heart of the matter. There is no BIOS selection for USB in the boot order at all, and I've heard that some motherboards assume USB drives as boot priority 1, regardless. I think this is what the ASROCK MB does.

I fixed the problem: The USB drive giving me the problems is a WD Elements. As I mentioned, I was able to boot normally with a different USB drive connected. That got me to thinking. So, I saved off all the files from the WD Elements USB and zeroed the boot sector `dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hdb bs=512 count=1`. I then re-formatted the drive to NTFS with Windows. I then plugged the drive back into the Linux box and rebooted. Behold! It booted successfully, no "grub" message. I then copied all the files back to the drive and tried the reboot again. It still booted OK.

So, there must be something on out-of-the-box WD Elements USB drives that appears boot-like. And perhaps, if this ASROCK MB is one of those that automatically attempts to boot from connected USB drives, then the MB could have very well thought this was a bootable USB and "automatically" booted from it. Perhaps the "grub" message was from something on the WD Elements.

If so, this is a VERY BAD IDEA. I can think of no good reason to automatically put USBs as first boot priority (you should always be able to manually set that if so desired in the BIOS), and I can think of lots of excellent reason to NEVER do such a thing, including this several-day waste of time, not to mention that just because one has an "apparently" bootable USB attached does not mean ipso facto that user must certainly want to boot from it.

I will avoid ASROCK motherboards in the future; and per Mike_Walsh, Phoenix BIOSes as well. I think I'll also avoid WD USB drives. I already avoid Seagate USB drives because of auto-spindown http://www.nslu2-linux.org/wiki/pmwi...agateFreeAgent.

Originally Posted by mfoley Actually, no! I tested with another USB drive and it booted fine (more below). It is not related to Slackware as I've tried booting from DVD with other OSes and same problem. Not sure where the grub message is coming from. My Slackware installation uses lilo not grub. I suspect the grub message is coming from the USB drive itself.

LOL, your USB drive has a bootloader (grub) installed at boot sector. And this bootloader tries to boot, but root partition (with uuid 83880a6f-3e10-4c41-b4a1-1e5fd5ef026a) is missing, so you getting a message

no such device: 83880a6f-3e10-4c41-b4a1-1e5fd5ef026a

You have to erase the grub boot code at the boot sector of your USB drive.

To erase boot sector from USB drive save your data from USB drive (if there is something important) and run

# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX bs=446 count=1

where sdX stands for your USB drive. It may be sdb or sdc (or something other, you can read it from "fdisk -l" command output).

Originally Posted by mfoley I will avoid ASROCK motherboards in the future; and per Mike_Walsh, Phoenix BIOSes as well. I think I'll also avoid WD USB drives. I already avoid Seagate USB drives because of auto-spindown http://www.nslu2-linux.org/wiki/pmwi...agateFreeAgent.

Sounds like a plan. This 'Puppy' box of mine started life as a Compaq Presario business-class PC (from just before the HP 'takeover' of 2004, thus of far superior build quality to the subsequent crap that HP churned out under the name.) It originally had a single-core Athlon64, with a 'built-under-contract' MSI motherboard.....and a bog-standard HP BIOS, which had a one-time boot menu, and would boot from a FAT-32 formatted USB drive, if necessary.

Where the fun began was when I uprated the CPU to an X2 dual-core Athlon64 (which fitted the same socket). The BIOS needed upgrading to support the dual-core CPU. HP didn't have one for it, so, along with an acquaintance from the Murga-Linux 'Puppy' forums, we tracked down a suitable BIOS from MSI themselves. They wouldn't even admit to having produced the MS-7184; as far as they were concerned, it was HP's 'problem', and they'd washed their hands of them the instant they went out the door. MSI did, however, produce an almost identical board (the MS-7093); same chipsets and everything.....just with the addition of two extra SATA ports.

The BIOS upgrade went very smoothly; we tracked down the 'flashROM' utility through the Arch Linux wiki, and the whole thing only took a couple of hours , back & forth through the forum. I'd never done one of these before, so my friend basically 'held my hand' through the procedure, since I was scared shi***ss of 'bricking it'. (He'd spent a few years as a repair technician in his home town of Des Moines, Illinois, and had done hundreds of BIOS upgrades.....so he did at least have some idea of what he was doing!)

The upshot of all this? The old girl now thinks she has an MS-7093 motherboard, instead of the MS-7184 (due to the BIOS upgrade).....and the Phoenix BIOS has introduced a few gremlins of its own. No one-time boot menu; USB drives are recognised as hard drives.....and it won't boot from a FAT 32 partition any more. Which annoyed the hell out of me; I've got a Kolibri USB drive that I used to spend quite a bit of time messing around with, which is now gathering dust in the back of a desk drawer.

KolibriOS will not run from anything other than a FAT32 partition.....

Go figure.


Mike.

Followup note: Out of necessity, I installed 3 Seagate ST5000LM000 5GB external USB drives on different computers. They appear to be working just fine. Apparently Seagate 'fixed' the auto-spindown "feature".

I have a system that only boots external USB "IF" it's plugged into a usb hub plugged into a usb port. Or "IF" the bootable usb drive is plugged into the FRONT usb port. There's a lot of quirky systems out there. I still have a 300GB seagate PATA drive that came in an enclosure that STILL clunks after relatively short use and needs a power cycle to work again. They've never fixed that smart chip issue. My $300 300GB brick that leaves me buying seagate as only a last resort.