Linux Mint 17 "No Volume Groups Found" at boot (Grub2 / Luks / LVM)

anon209 · 06-02-2015, 03:22 PM

Seldom do I turn to forums for help. However, I have to make an exception this time.

I'm running Linux Mint 17, and I believe an update occured over the weekend that may have corrupted the startup process.

I have only one OS installed, Linux Mint 17. Grub is installed to the /dev/sda and my root and swap are inside a luks encrypted volume group. I'm not entirely fluent with Grub2 or the initramfs.

In the past, immediately after I selected the appropriate kernel from the Grub menu I would be prompted for the luks password, but now I have had a range of different errors during the startup process. I've copied over a "known good" initrd.img and kernel, but to no avail. Currently, with the "known good" initrd and kernel, I receive the error "No Volume Groups Found."

From what I can gather, the "root=/dev/<root device>" paramter isn't finding the Volume Group because the luks container hasn't been decrypted yet. Which then causes the boot process to stall out with the error.

I've looked another computer [where i copied the "known good" initrd and kernel] with the same distrubution and luks/lvm/grub setup, and no where in that particular PC do I see where the grub.cfg or crypttab is recognizing the luks container and whether to ask for a password or not at boot.

I want to believe the issue lies in Grub, but I'm not sure. I've attached a copy of the BootInfo Script if it's of any help.

Code:

                  
Boot Info Script 0.61      [1 April 2012]


============================= Boot Info Summary: ===============================

 => No boot loader is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda.

sda1: __________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       vfat
    Boot sector type:  FAT32
    Boot sector info:  No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
    Mounting failed:   mount: /dev/sda1 already mounted or sda1 busy

sda2: __________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ext2
    Boot sector type:  -
    Boot sector info: 
    Mounting failed:   mount: /dev/sda1 already mounted or sda1 busy
mount: /dev/sda2 already mounted or sda2 busy

sda3: __________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       crypto_LUKS
    Boot sector type:  Unknown
    Boot sector info: 

mint-vg-root': _________________________________________________________________

    File system:       
    Boot sector type:  Unknown
    Boot sector info: 
    Mounting failed:   mount: /dev/sda1 already mounted or sda1 busy
mount: /dev/sda2 already mounted or sda2 busy
mount: unknown filesystem type ''

mint-vg-swap_1': _______________________________________________________________

    File system:       
    Boot sector type:  Unknown
    Boot sector info: 
    Mounting failed:   mount: /dev/sda1 already mounted or sda1 busy
mount: /dev/sda2 already mounted or sda2 busy
mount: unknown filesystem type ''
mount: unknown filesystem type ''

============================ Drive/Partition Info: =============================

Drive: sda _____________________________________________________________________

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes

Partition  Boot  Start Sector    End Sector  # of Sectors  Id System

/dev/sda1                   1   976,773,167   976,773,167  ee GPT


GUID Partition Table detected.

Partition    Start Sector    End Sector  # of Sectors System
/dev/sda1           2,048     1,050,623     1,048,576 EFI System partition
/dev/sda2       1,050,624     1,550,335       499,712 Data partition (Linux)
/dev/sda3       1,550,336   976,771,071   975,220,736 Data partition (Linux)

"blkid" output: ________________________________________________________________

Device           UUID                                   TYPE       LABEL

/dev/loop0                                              squashfs   
/dev/mapper/luks-fab8eaaf-8701-426e-b903-e454ddda4bd6 sDqaA9-cM9g-jLPG-pGqK-Iu5U-S7oL-SpnP5P LVM2_member 
/dev/mapper/mint--vg-root e5e107c1-7c72-496a-89dd-0c8052acf3c8   ext4       
/dev/sda1        C39E-4ABE                              vfat       
/dev/sda2        ea55458c-cee4-4b02-9e3c-872a6f4aa553   ext2       
/dev/sda3        fab8eaaf-8701-426e-b903-e454ddda4bd6   crypto_LUKS 
/dev/sr0                                                iso9660    Linux Mint 17 Cinnamon 64-bit

========================= "ls -R /dev/mapper/" output: =========================

/dev/mapper:
control
luks-fab8eaaf-8701-426e-b903-e454ddda4bd6
mint--vg-root
mint--vg-swap_1

================================ Mount points: =================================

Device           Mount_Point              Type       Options

/dev/disk/by-uuid/fab8eaaf-8701-426e-b903-e454ddda4bd6 ext4                     rw,errors=remount-ro (0)


======================== Unknown MBRs/Boot Sectors/etc: ========================

Unknown BootLoader on sda3

00000000  4c 55 4b 53 ba be 00 01  61 65 73 00 00 00 00 00  |LUKS....aes.....|
00000010  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00000020  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  78 74 73 2d 70 6c 61 69  |........xts-plai|
00000030  6e 36 34 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |n64.............|
00000040  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  73 68 61 31 00 00 00 00  |........sha1....|
00000050  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00000060  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 10 00 00 00 00 40  |...............@|
00000070  92 04 6a 31 55 ab 77 84  7e 12 7b a2 d8 bc b4 18  |..j1U.w.~.{.....|
00000080  b8 d7 f3 90 d9 fc 14 12  70 fc 39 30 3a 2b 60 a8  |........p.90:+`.|
00000090  54 8d 9b 5e 5f 57 87 2b  c4 ee 8a 5c 8c c1 60 15  |T..^_W.+...\..`.|
000000a0  98 53 11 c3 00 00 f6 18  66 61 62 38 65 61 61 66  |.S......fab8eaaf|
000000b0  2d 38 37 30 31 2d 34 32  36 65 2d 62 39 30 33 2d  |-8701-426e-b903-|
000000c0  65 34 35 34 64 64 64 61  34 62 64 36 00 00 00 00  |e454ddda4bd6....|
000000d0  00 ac 71 f3 00 03 e4 03  0a 4a 32 b1 2f 87 b6 ae  |..q......J2./...|
000000e0  5f a1 09 1f 75 e8 bc aa  d2 c5 6d 06 9d 05 db 7d  |_...u.....m....}|
000000f0  61 cc df c0 c2 9a cc c1  00 00 00 08 00 00 0f a0  |a...............|
00000100  00 00 de ad 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00000110  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00000120  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 02 00 00 00 0f a0  |................|
00000130  00 00 de ad 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00000140  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00000150  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 03 f8 00 00 0f a0  |................|
00000160  00 00 de ad 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00000170  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00000180  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 05 f0 00 00 0f a0  |................|
00000190  00 00 de ad 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
000001a0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
000001b0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 07 e8 00 00 0f a0  |................|
000001c0  00 00 de ad 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
000001d0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
000001e0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 09 e0 00 00 0f a0  |................|
000001f0  00 00 de ad 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00000200

Unknown BootLoader on mint-vg-root'


Unknown BootLoader on mint-vg-swap_1'



=============================== StdErr Messages: ===============================

  skip_dev_dir: Couldn't split up device name mint-vg-root'
  Volume group name mint-vg-root' has invalid characters
  Skipping volume group mint-vg-root'
  skip_dev_dir: Couldn't split up device name mint-vg-root'
  Volume group name mint-vg-root' has invalid characters
  Skipping volume group mint-vg-root'
  skip_dev_dir: Couldn't split up device name mint-vg-root'
  Volume group name mint-vg-root' has invalid characters
  Skipping volume group mint-vg-root'
hexdump: /dev/mapper/mint-vg-root': No such file or directory
hexdump: /dev/mapper/mint-vg-root': No such file or directory
  skip_dev_dir: Couldn't split up device name mint-vg-swap_1'
  Volume group name mint-vg-swap_1' has invalid characters
  Skipping volume group mint-vg-swap_1'
  skip_dev_dir: Couldn't split up device name mint-vg-swap_1'
  Volume group name mint-vg-swap_1' has invalid characters
  Skipping volume group mint-vg-swap_1'
  skip_dev_dir: Couldn't split up device name mint-vg-swap_1'
  Volume group name mint-vg-swap_1' has invalid characters
  Skipping volume group mint-vg-swap_1'
hexdump: /dev/mapper/mint-vg-swap_1': No such file or directory
hexdump: /dev/mapper/mint-vg-swap_1': No such file or directory