Cannot Boot Ubuntu

Corvette · 10-06-2017, 09:23 PM

Greetings:

I was attempting to install some packages and update my Ubuntu system. I tried using both the terminal and Synaptic GUI, but received errors about processing some packages (I did not pay that close of attention because I did not think it was anything serious).

I decided to reboot my system to see if that would help. I was greeted with a message similar to "unable to mount fs on uknown block(0,0)" and unable to boot my system. I thought I might be able to repair it using the Boot Repair utility. I ran the terminal commands instructed by the program and was (apparently) able to remove GRUB. However, now when I try to run the commands to reinstall GRUB, I receive the following error:

Code:

lubuntu@lubuntu:~$ sudo chroot "/mnt/boot-sav/sda5" dpkg --configure -a
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of linux-image-extra-4.10.0-35-generic:
 linux-image-extra-4.10.0-35-generic depends on linux-image-4.10.0-35-generic; however:
  Package linux-image-4.10.0-35-generic is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package linux-image-extra-4.10.0-35-generic (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of linux-image-generic:
 linux-image-generic depends on linux-image-4.10.0-35-generic; however:
  Package linux-image-4.10.0-35-generic is not configured yet.
 linux-image-generic depends on linux-image-extra-4.10.0-35-generic; however:
  Package linux-image-extra-4.10.0-35-generic is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package linux-image-generic (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of linux-generic:
 linux-generic depends on linux-image-generic (= 4.10.0.35.35); however:
  Package linux-image-generic is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package linux-generic (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:
 linux-image-extra-4.10.0-35-generic
 linux-image-generic
 linux-generic

So I tried

Code:

  sudo chroot "/mnt/boot-sav/sda5" apt-get install linux-image-4.10.0-35-generic

The output from this seemed to indicate that I needed to install linux-headers-4.10.0-32-generic. However, when I tried that I received the following:

Code:

(Reading database ... 261942 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing linux-image-extra-4.10.0-30-generic (4.10.0-30.34) ...
depmod: FATAL: could not load /boot/System.map-4.10.0-30-generic: No such file or directory
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/apt-auto-removal 4.10.0-30-generic /boot/vmlinuz-4.10.0-30-generic
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/dkms 4.10.0-30-generic /boot/vmlinuz-4.10.0-30-generic
Error! Your kernel headers for kernel 4.10.0-30-generic cannot be found.
Please install the linux-headers-4.10.0-30-generic package,
or use the --kernelsourcedir option to tell DKMS where it's located
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/initramfs-tools 4.10.0-30-generic /boot/vmlinuz-4.10.0-30-generic
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.10.0-30-generic
cp: cannot stat '/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-dejavu/DejaVuSerif.ttf': No such file or directory
E: /usr/share/initramfs-tools/hooks/plymouth failed with return 1.
update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-4.10.0-30-generic with 1.
run-parts: /etc/kernel/postinst.d/initramfs-tools exited with return code 1
dpkg: error processing package linux-image-extra-4.10.0-30-generic (--remove):
 subprocess installed post-removal script returned error exit status 1
Removing linux-image-extra-4.10.0-32-generic (4.10.0-32.36) ...
depmod: FATAL: could not load /boot/System.map-4.10.0-32-generic: No such file or directory
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/apt-auto-removal 4.10.0-32-generic /boot/vmlinuz-4.10.0-32-generic
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/dkms 4.10.0-32-generic /boot/vmlinuz-4.10.0-32-generic
Error! Your kernel headers for kernel 4.10.0-32-generic cannot be found.
Please install the linux-headers-4.10.0-32-generic package,
or use the --kernelsourcedir option to tell DKMS where it's located
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/initramfs-tools 4.10.0-32-generic /boot/vmlinuz-4.10.0-32-generic
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.10.0-32-generic
cp: cannot stat '/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-dejavu/DejaVuSerif.ttf': No such file or directory
E: /usr/share/initramfs-tools/hooks/plymouth failed with return 1.
update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-4.10.0-32-generic with 1.
run-parts: /etc/kernel/postinst.d/initramfs-tools exited with return code 1
dpkg: error processing package linux-image-extra-4.10.0-32-generic (--remove):
 subprocess installed post-removal script returned error exit status 1
Removing linux-image-extra-4.4.0-89-generic (4.4.0-89.112) ...
depmod: FATAL: could not load /boot/System.map-4.4.0-89-generic: No such file or directory
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/apt-auto-removal 4.4.0-89-generic /boot/vmlinuz-4.4.0-89-generic
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/dkms 4.4.0-89-generic /boot/vmlinuz-4.4.0-89-generic
Error! Your kernel headers for kernel 4.4.0-89-generic cannot be found.
Please install the linux-headers-4.4.0-89-generic package,
or use the --kernelsourcedir option to tell DKMS where it's located
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/initramfs-tools 4.4.0-89-generic /boot/vmlinuz-4.4.0-89-generic
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.4.0-89-generic
cp: cannot stat '/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-dejavu/DejaVuSerif.ttf': No such file or directory
E: /usr/share/initramfs-tools/hooks/plymouth failed with return 1.
update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-4.4.0-89-generic with 1.
run-parts: /etc/kernel/postinst.d/initramfs-tools exited with return code 1
dpkg: error processing package linux-image-extra-4.4.0-89-generic (--remove):
 subprocess installed post-removal script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 linux-image-extra-4.10.0-30-generic
 linux-image-extra-4.10.0-32-generic
 linux-image-extra-4.4.0-89-generic
Error: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name org.freedesktop.PackageKit was not provided by any .service files
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Now I am not quite sure what to do. If it helps here the information provided by the Boot Repair utility: http://paste.ubuntu.com/25689624/

Thanks.

jsbjsb001 · 10-07-2017, 06:04 AM

One possible reason is that you have a incorrect listing in your /etc/fstab file. Which would explain the following message;

Code:

unable to mount fs on uknown block(0,0)

And/or in your GRUB configuration file.

Can you post the following (using CODE tags):

/etc/fstab
/boot/grub2/grub.cfg

Also, your partitioning?

Corvette · 10-07-2017, 08:01 AM

Thanks. I hope this is what you were looking for:

Code:

=============================== sda5/etc/fstab: ================================

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
# / was on /dev/sda5 during installation
UUID=7b8de9c1-9ebb-46b3-8b54-3751d4a230d6 /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
# swap was on /dev/sda6 during installation
UUID=7750636d-960d-47da-ad30-fa9f6688ec03 none            swap    sw              0       0
UUID=f16e73f9-3fff-4cb5-a8f2-c9a914104130   /home    ext4          defaults       0       2 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Code:

=================== sda5/etc/default/grub :

# If you change this file, run 'update-grub' afterwards to update
# /boot/grub/grub.cfg.
# For full documentation of the options in this file, see:
#   info -f grub -n 'Simple configuration'

GRUB_DEFAULT=0
#GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true
GRUB_TIMEOUT=10
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""

# Uncomment to enable BadRAM filtering, modify to suit your needs
# This works with Linux (no patch required) and with any kernel that obtains
# the memory map information from GRUB (GNU Mach, kernel of FreeBSD ...)
#GRUB_BADRAM="0x01234567,0xfefefefe,0x89abcdef,0xefefefef"

# Uncomment to disable graphical terminal (grub-pc only)
#GRUB_TERMINAL=console

# The resolution used on graphical terminal
# note that you can use only modes which your graphic card supports via VBE
# you can see them in real GRUB with the command `vbeinfo'
#GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480

# Uncomment if you don't want GRUB to pass "root=UUID=xxx" parameter to Linux
#GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_UUID=true

# Uncomment to disable generation of recovery mode menu entries
#GRUB_DISABLE_RECOVERY="true"

# Uncomment to get a beep at grub start
#GRUB_INIT_TUNE="480 440 1"

Code:

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

Drive: sda _____________________________________________________________________

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, total 312581808 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Partition  Boot  Start Sector    End Sector  # of Sectors  Id System

/dev/sda1    *          2,048       206,847       204,800   7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS
/dev/sda2             206,848   132,665,343   132,458,496   7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS
/dev/sda3         132,665,344   311,656,447   178,991,104   5 Extended
/dev/sda5         250,218,496   303,605,759    53,387,264  83 Linux
/dev/sda6         303,607,808   311,656,447     8,048,640  82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda7         132,667,392   250,218,495   117,551,104  83 Linux

Since I cannot boot into problem system (sda5), I am not sure how to access the files directly. This data comes from the Boot Repair utility. Please let me know if any other data might help.

Thanks.

plasmonics · 10-07-2017, 08:20 AM

As far as post #2 asking you to list /boot/grub/grub.cfg, one method is to boot Systemrescuecd and mount /dev/sda5 at /mnt. Then you can obtain a copy of grub.cfg.

Corvette · 10-07-2017, 08:32 AM

Thanks. I could not find the grub.cfg file (or even the grub directory for that matter). Running "ls" in /boot outputs the following:

Code:

abi-4.10.0-33-generic		       memtest86+.bin
abi-4.10.0-35-generic		       memtest86+.elf
config-4.10.0-33-generic	       memtest86+_multiboot.bin
config-4.10.0-35-generic	       System.map-4.10.0-33-generic
grub.bak			       System.map-4.10.0-35-generic
initrd.img-4.10.0-30-generic.old-dkms  vmlinuz-4.10.0-33-generic
initrd.img-4.10.0-32-generic.old-dkms  vmlinuz-4.10.0-35-generic
initrd.img-4.10.0-33-generic

I did run some commands instructed by the Boot Repair utility to remove grub (with the intent of reinstalling it I suppose). The removal succeeded apparently; the installation did not. So now it seems as if I do not have grub properly configured; I now receive an error message relating to grub rather than the initial mounting error when attempting to boot the problematic OS. Running the install commands:

Code:

udo chroot "/mnt/boot-sav/sda5" dpkg --configure -a
sudo chroot "/mnt/boot-sav/sda5" apt-get install -fy
sudo chroot "/mnt/boot-sav/sda5" apt-get install -y --force-yes grub-pc

Results in (in part) the errors noted above.

Thanks again.

plasmonics · 10-07-2017, 09:07 AM

This is a long shot. After booting systemrescuecd, try chrooting using the following:

Code:

mkdir -p /mnt/repair
mount /dev/sda5 /mnt/repair
mount -t proc none /mnt/repair/proc
mount -o bind /dev /mnt/repair/dev
mount -o bind /dev/pts /mnt/repair/dev/pts
mount -o bind /sys /mnt/repair/sys
chroot /mnt/repair /bin/bash
source /etc/profile

The idea is to try and restore the missing grub directory and modules from a chrooted environment.

Code:

apt-get install --reinstall grub
update-grub

If the MBR is hosed, you may have to reinstall the boot loader

Code:

grub-install /dev/sda

If this works, you can try booting ubuntu in single-user mode and continue your repair work. Looks like a lot of your kernel headers and dependencies are missing. There is a way to resolve a catch 22 in debian. Unfortunately, I don't remember!
If this doesn't work, then I am not sure what next.

jsbjsb001 · 10-08-2017, 12:54 PM

Assuming that it is only GRUB that is missing and your system is otherwise ok, another way you can reinstall GRUB is to;

First download the Super Grub Disk, burn it on to a CD/DVD (or install it onto a USB stick) and start your Ubuntu installation from it.

And then you can follow the instructions here, to re-install GRUB. (under "The terminal way")

Let us know how you go...