Cfxtrjtrk

I have Xubuntu installed with sda configured in LVM setup. Previously, I have used older, standard partitioning with a root, /boot, and swap all on separate sda1,2,3. I have always seemed to have problems with failing to boot after power loss, and I have learned to boot into a recovery mode and fsck, and this has fixed things reliably (side topic: Why in the hell isn't filesystem recovery more self-guided, perhaps prompted for when the system sees problems on boot?).

However, two days ago was my first power loss since switching to LVM (old drive was reporting imminent failure via SMART, so purchased a new HD).

If it tries a normal boot, the screen goes black, and it stays that way.

I boot into recovery, and can get to a Busybox/initramfs limited prompt. It reports "Waiting for root filesystem", then "Gave up waiting for root filesystem". It offers a few hints that boot arguments may be incorrect (these worked for many months on this install), but also states "ALERT! /dev/mapper/xubuntu--vg-root does not exist. Dropping to a shell!"

I have followed suggestions I have found elsewhere here on askubuntu, including to ls dev at the initramfs shell, and if I don't see the filesystem to wait 10 seconds and try again. There were suggestions that RAID setup could be a problem, or setups installed dual-boot with wubi. None of these applied.

Booting off a LiveCD, I can mount and read the contents of my hard drive. I have read suggestions to use lvm tools to get information and will post the following. I suspect that I need to fix an error in the LVM-configured filesystems.

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo lvm pvscan

  PV /dev/sda1   VG xubuntu-vg      lvm2 [<465.76 GiB / 4.00 MiB free]

  Total: 1 [<465.76 GiB] / in use: 1 [<465.76 GiB] / in no VG: 0 [0   ]



ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo lvm vgscan

  Reading volume groups from cache.

  Found volume group "xubuntu-vg" using metadata type lvm2



ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo lvm lvscan

  ACTIVE            '/dev/xubuntu-vg/root' [464.80 GiB] inherit

  ACTIVE            '/dev/xubuntu-vg/swap_1' [976.00 MiB] inherit

I'm not entirely sure what to do from here, so it seems reasonable to try to fsck the xubuntu-vg root.

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fsck /dev/xubuntu-vg/root

fsck from util-linux 2.32

e2fsck 1.44.4 (18-Aug-2018)

/dev/mapper/xubuntu--vg-root: clean, 538363/30466048 files, 48101510/121844736 blocks

it doesn't seem that either there is a problem there. Or that I am not doing things correctly.

Any suggestions as to what I am missing? Thanks!

[Updated Info]

Back in town from work travel, and a little sad to see no suggestions. But I spent some time digging back into this after my morning coffee.

I looked over the steps I took earlier, and see that when I did my fsck /dev/xubuntu-vg/root, I was looking at the live session's mount. NOT my hard drive. So that explains a lot. Figure I would spell out what I am doing here, should anyone else find this thread and it might be useful to them...

When I mount the hard drive (clicked on it in the GUI file browser), it appears when I do the mount command: /dev/mapper/xubuntu--vg-root on /media/ubuntu/1d3ca2dc-c59a-4582-a538-8c529926b276 type ext4 (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,uhelper=udisks2) So, when I try to fdisk that, I get:

sudo fdisk /dev/mapper/xubuntu--vg-root

Welcome to fdisk (util-linux 2.32).

Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them.

Be careful before using the write command.



The old ext4 signature will be removed by a write command.



Device does not contain a recognized partition table. Created a new DOS disklabel with disk identifier 0x5490643a.



Command (m for help):

I am VERY apprehensive about the warning that I will remove the old ext4 signature!

[Another Update]

Went ahead and did a

sudo fsck -f /dev/mapper/xubuntu--vg-root 

fsck from util-linux 2.32

e2fsck 1.44.4 (18-Aug-2018)

Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes

Pass 2: Checking directory structure

Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity

Pass 4: Checking reference counts

Pass 5: Checking group summary information

/dev/mapper/xubuntu--vg-root: 538364/30466048 files (0.3% non-contiguous), 48101511/121844736 blocks

It did not report any errors with this lvm filesystem. Yet, it still won't boot.

I also suspect I am talking to myself. This has to be repairable, as I can read the hard drive filesystem when booting from my LiveCD. Have also tried a few lvm tools, sudo vgchange --ignorelockingfailure -ay, then sudo lvscan --ignorelockingfailure, then re-tried the sudo fsck -f /dev/mapper/xubuntu--vg-root that the webpage recommended.

No success.