Mint 19.1 boot fails - "cannot load moddep file"

METROIDHunter_ · 01-15-2019, 11:07 AM

(Cross-post with Linux Mint forum: https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=285791)

Hello from a Linux newbie, LQ.org! Yesterday the Mint 19.1 system on my Windows 10 / Mint 19.1 dual-boot laptop went haywire.

My system boots into emergency mode whenever I start it up. I can't get into recovery mode, either, because the UI is partially overwritten with "You are in emergency mode" text lines, the graphics flicker, and the keyboard input doesn't register correctly. (See this image: https://prnt.sc/m78ozb I tried to enter a simple "echo" command to demonstrate what it looks like)

This happened after being absent from the Mint system for some time, until I came back to it yesterday. At first the laptop's touchpad wasn't working, and I didn't know how to turn it back on. I knew I had disabled it on the Windows system, so I booted into Windows, re-enabled the touchpad, and booted back into Linux Mint. I was greeted by emergency mode.

I ran "journalctl -xb"and found a few lines that may possibly relate to my issues:

Code:

could not open moddep file '/lib/modules/4.15.0.20-generic/modules.dep.bin    (I saw 5 occurrences of this)
...
mount[715]: mount: /boot/efi: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sda2, missing codepage or helper program, or other error.
kernel: FAT-fs (sda2): IO charset iso8859-1 not found
systemd[1]: boot-efi.mount: Mount process exited, code=exited status=32
systemd[1]: boot-efi.mount: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
systemd[1]: Failed to mount /boot/efi.

I confirmed the presence of "modules.dep.bin" through "ls /lib/modules/4.15.0.20-generic/"
/dev/sda2 is the location of my Windows EFI boot partition, NOT Linux Mint's (which is /dev/sda6)
It may also be noteworthy that when booting into recovery mode, I see "[FAILED] Failed to start Load Kernel Modules." and "[FAILED] Failed to mount /boot/efi" as it boots up.

If I had to guess, looks like the cause of the problem is the system failing to load kernel modules, which is perhaps why it also fails to mount the Windows EFI partition. I don't know what to do. What really is wrong? How did it happen? How can I fix this?

Rickkkk · 01-15-2019, 04:37 PM

Hey METROIDHunter_,

Welcome to LQ.

Definitely seems to be some kind of issue / corruption on sda2. I would try a file system check using fsck and then maybe Boot Repair, depending on the results. This will require booting something from an external drive - the Mint installation media you originally used probably has both programs.

Let us the results or get back to us if you need guidance on how to do this.

Cheers.

colorpurple21859 · 01-15-2019, 05:06 PM

at the grub prompt do you have any other boot options for mint that you can try?
what is in your /etc/fstab?

METROIDHunter_ · 01-15-2019, 11:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rickkkk

Hey METROIDHunter_,
I would try a file system check using fsck and then maybe Boot Repair, depending on the results.

I ran "sudo fsck /dev/sda2" and got this output:

Code:

fsck from util-linux 2.31.1
fsck.fat 4.1 (2017-01-24)
/dev/sda2: 200 files, 31018/98304 clusters

I didn't see anything glaringly, obviously wrong there.

I followed through with boot-repair. I found a bootable medium which came with boot-repair installed (https://sourceforge.net/projects/boot-repair-cd/). Booted into this from a flash drive on my laptop and ran the recommended repair. After running "fsck" and "boot-repair", booting into mint still brings me to emergency mode.

Quote:

Originally Posted by colorpurple21859

at the grub prompt do you have any other boot
options for mint that you can try?

Until running boot-repair, only the options for Linux Mint Mate 19.1 with 4.15.0.20-generic, the same thing (but in recovery mode), and Windows Boot Manager on /dev/sda2. After running boot-repair, five new options were added, and for some reason "Linux Mint 19.1 MATE" was renamed to "Ubuntu" in my grub menu. These are the options I see:

Code:

Ubuntu
Advanced options for Ubuntu
Windows UEFI bootmgfw.efi
Windows Boot UEFI loader
Windows Boot UEFI fbx64.efi
EFI/ubuntu/fwupx64.efi
EFI/ubuntu/mmx64.efi
Windows Boot Manager (on /dev/sda2)
System setup

I tried all of these 5 new boot options, and none of them get me anywhere.
"Windows Boot UEFI loader" complains about "system_image() not found" and returns to grub
"Windows Boot UEFI fbx64.efi" says "System bootloader not found" and returns to grub
"EFI/ubuntu/fwupx64.efi" prints a quick message on the screen about an update, for such a brief period of time that I can't read it, then returns to grub.
"EFI/ubuntu/mmx64.efi" brings up a blue screen asking about MOK management. Continuing with boot simply leaves me in a black screen indefinitely.
"Windows UEFI bootmgfw.efi" actually booted into Windows 10 as normal.

Quote:

Originally Posted by colorpurple21859

what is in your /etc/fstab?

Booted into emergency mode and ran "vim /etc/fstab", this is what I see: https://prnt.sc/m7rtbi

colorpurple21859 · 01-16-2019, 12:21 PM

at the grub prompt hit e for edit, add nomodeset to the line that starts with linux

yancek · 01-16-2019, 12:25 PM

Boot repair should have an option to Create BootInfo Summary which is the best to select and run as it will output detailed, useful info on your system so do that. If the version you have doesn't have that option, you can boot with any Ubuntu/Mint usb/DVD and download it from the link below using the 2nd option on that page to use the ppa.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair

METROIDHunter_ · 01-16-2019, 01:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by colorpurple21859

at the grub prompt hit e for edit, add nomodeset to the line that starts with linux

I did just as you said, editing the grub entry that would normally start Linux Mint, and appending "nomodeset" to the line starting with "linux". It still started in emergency mode, although I did see this output appear before the Mint splash screen appeared:

Code:

do_IRQ: 1.55 no irq handler for vector
do_IRQ: 2.55 no irq handler for vector
do_IRQ: 3.55 no irq handler for vector
Couldn't get size: 0x800000000000000e
[drm:radeon_init [radeon]] *ERROR* No UMS support in radeon module!
[drm:radeon_init [radeon]] *ERROR* VGACON disables amdgpu kernel modesetting

I noticed the lines pertaining to "radeon" and "amdgpu" - if it makes a difference, my laptop (Toshiba C75D-A) runs on an AMD A6-5200 with Radeon HD 8400 integrated graphics.

I ran boot-repair again from the same live USB I used last time, but this time I had it upload to a pastebin. Here are the results: https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/pQvmKzxB8m/