[Solved] Unable to boot (startup job is running)

Simthadim · 2014-10-07 13:31:48

Hi there!

Today I went home and tried to boot my laptop there, but was unable to boot Arch.
Before I went home I did a system update using ' sudo pacman -Syu ' and shut the laptop off normally. Right now I get the following message whilst booting:

" A startup job is running for dev-disk...25EFDCE0.device"

It fails after 1 min. 30s and shows a time out error for dependency /mnt/6776F38425EFDCE0, and refuses to boot. I waited for 5 min. but the only thing working at that stage is the shut down button (which appears to enter a normal shutdown mode).

Grub 2 is functioning; Windows 8 boots up fine (same HDD); though all options to boot arch fail because of the 'startup job error message'.

Do any of you know how I can fix this, or how to boot/fix arch such that I can attempt to fix it? Based on a search trough this forum it might be an error in FSTAB, although all cases reported on this forum appear to boot normally after the 'a startup job is running 'error message'.

Many thanks.

Last edited by Simthadim (2014-10-11 09:43:36)

allonsy · 2014-10-07 19:10:13

what is the contents of your fstab file? I would suggest looking in your fstab and changing any UUIDs to /dev/sdxn designations and seeing if that fixes it. (make a backup of your fstab just in case you want to revert)

Simthadim · 2014-10-08 09:12:12

Thank you for your response.
Changing the UUID's to /dev/sdaX did not do it's magic, unfortunately. The ' a start job' message is gone, the boot however gets stuck at

/dev/sda2 clean .... (beginning of boot)

Unfortunately I did not properly save the back-up of my fstab file, so the initial set up is lost. Was able to acces arch using alt+f2 and have restored it manually with

 lsblk -f

It currently looks like this. I did have a line to automount my data partition (/dev/sda4, label: Data), but didn' t know how to restore that one as that line got deleted too. My gut says this automount was causing the initial error, but it should boot up normally with the current fstab file, right?

# 
# /etc/fstab: static file system information
#
# <file system>	<dir>	<type>	<options>	<dump>	<pass>
# /dev/sda2
UUID=47faa9c6-13d9-4d4f-8744-78766ea7c193	/         	ext4      	rw,relatime,data=ordered	0 1

# /dev/sda3
UUID=bd14a274-a365-4511-9a11-151e086a42db	none      	swap      	defaults  	0 0

UUID=509F9EA61178387E	/run/media/simon/Data	ntfs	auto	0 2

jv2112 · 2014-10-08 17:17:06

I woudl suggest mounting with defaults. Then if it boots work backwards on your options.

Simthadim · 2014-10-08 17:44:54

The listed ´fstab options´ were the ones that the automatic fstab generation determined during the instalation 6 months ago. Tried to change them to defaults , but no succes on boot. Neither when I use a /dev/sdaX notation instead of the UUID method.
The FSTAB should work, right?

EDIT: I cheched the pacman log (/var/log/pacman.log) and the files that were upgraded right before the system refused to boot were:
bash, ffmpeg, Nvidea-utils, Nvidea-libgl, Nvidea (from 340.32-2 --> 343.22-1) and xterm.

Normally right after the message '/dev/sda2 clean' my computer shows me a Nvidea spash screen. Could the new Nvidea driver be causing trouble?

Last edited by Simthadim (2014-10-08 19:18:43)

smirky · 2014-10-08 19:19:00

Simthadim wrote:

UUID=509F9EA61178387E	/run/media/simon/Data	ntfs	auto	0 2

Try changing ntfs to ntfs-3g and make sure you have ntfs-3g installed.

Simthadim · 2014-10-08 20:07:24

that shouldn't affect boot, if I'm not mistaken. I did try it, but the boot sequence got stuck at the same 'position'.
Also tried to downgrade the Nvidia drivers, as they were upgraded before the system broke, but no luck after a downgrade of the Nvidia drivers.

Strangely enough the non graphic system seems to be operational (i.e. alt+f2 once the boot sequence gets stuck). I can use my wifi, do a system upgrade (no luck in fixing the boot problem), check the file system using terminal commands etc. Xorg does not want to start, though. the command xinit yields no result. Would that be a piece of the puzzle? Not sure how to investigate this, though.

persio · 2014-10-09 17:08:01

I'm having a similar problem and I still haven't been able to solve it It looks like it has something to do with either the linux kernel or nvidia drivers, as they were the last updates I received

Last edited by persio (2014-10-09 17:08:40)

MoonSwan · 2014-10-09 19:13:12

To fix an errant fstab file you could try to boot up a live Arch usb/cd, mount all your partitions under /mnt and then use the genfstab script the same way you'd use it when you installed the system. That should help and if you need to do more maintenance you can then chroot into the installation and try to fix stuff.

Simthadim · 2014-10-10 14:39:26

MoonSwan wrote:

To fix an errant fstab file you could try to boot up a live Arch usb/cd, mount all your partitions under /mnt and then use the genfstab script the same way you'd use it when you installed the system.

I will try to do so to fix my fstab to the original state, thank you. Could you by any chance tell me how to mount them, and should I also include the swap partition? Something like this?

sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/1
sudo mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/2
...

I also noticed that more people are having the issue, and that it is related to the NVidia support, see this tread. My machine has a Nvidia Quaddro 770M, This report states that NVidia dropped support for some older GPU's, but I don' t see mine included. Guess I'll try to change to the nvidia340-xxx package and see if it works.

Last edited by Simthadim (2014-10-10 14:48:06)

sadza · 2014-10-11 01:58:27

Hi Simthadim! Did it work?

Exodus111 · 2014-10-11 02:35:08

Having the exact same issue here, it is NOT fstab, the issue lies with the new Nvidia drivers.

I'm gonna try to uninstall them and install the alternative drivers instead.

Here is the last part of my /var/log/Xorg.0.log file:

[ 97.836] (EE) NVIDIA: Failed to initialize the NVIDIA kernel module. Please see the
[ 97.836] (EE) NVIDIA: system's kernel log for additional error messages and
[ 97.836] (EE) NVIDIA: consult the NVIDIA README for details.
[ 97.836] (EE) No devices detected.
[ 97.836] (EE)
Fatal server error:
[ 97.836] (EE) no screens found(EE)
[ 97.836] (EE)
Please consult the The X.Org Foundation support
at http://wiki.x.org
for help.
[ 97.836] (EE) Please also check the log file at "/var/log/Xorg.0.log" for additional information.
[ 97.836] (EE)

sadza · 2014-10-11 02:59:36

Exodus111, do you refer to the Nouveau drivers?

Either way, how do you switch to the alternative drivers you speak of?

Exodus111 · 2014-10-11 03:12:01

sadza wrote:

Exodus111, do you refer to the Nouveau drivers?
Either way, how do you switch to the alternative drivers you speak of?

Yeah that was the idea at least.

I logged in to terminal, but now I don't have any internet.
ip link only shows lo, nothing else, not my wired connection.

Windows partition works fine, logged into a USB partition (puppy linux) works fine. Arch, no internet.

Not sure what is causing this, but something is up, lots of people unable to start Arch. Europe is getting up in a few hours, we are bound to see lots more of this.

I noticed a linux update in the latest -Syu, could that be it perhaps...

Simthadim · 2014-10-11 09:42:21

It worked!!! It was indeed al due to the recent nvidia package update as I suspected yesterday.
I checked the Nvidia website and my GPU was indeed one of the GPU's 'ditched' from recent driver updates.

What to do if you have similar problems:

1 check if the version number of your GPU driver using the NVIDIA website: http://www.nvidia.co.uk/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-uk
2. If the version number is 340.xxx than you are one of the unlucky few. NVIDIA dropped support, see: https://www.archlinux.org/news/nvidia-340xx-and-nvidia/
3. you have two options, either go to the alternative NVIDIA-340xxx driver or use the open source Nouveau driver.
For the first one:

 sudo pacman -Rs nvidia
sudo pacman -S nvidea-340xxx
sudo reboot

The second one is similar, though requires a different package to be installed in the 2nd line of the code black (don' t know it by heart).

Last edited by Simthadim (2014-10-11 09:42:46)

mrunion · 2014-10-11 15:42:40

That's not entirely true, is it. According to that website, my driver should be "340", but my GT 730M runs just fine with 343.22. 343.22 is just the beta driver of the next driver after 340, right?

Go here and you'll see that my same card supports both 340 and 343:
http://www.geforce.com/drivers

Simthadim · 2014-10-11 17:04:52

Hmm... was thinking about a step by step guide for other arch newbies like me, guess I was a bit off.
Nvidia published a list with GPUs for which support has been dropped (EOL), might be better to check that website indeed: https://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers … /a_id/3473

Is your GPU on that list, proceed with 'upgrading' to the nvidia-340xxx or the Nouveau package.

off-topic: hope Nivdia will support the Nouveau team with some code once they drop the nvidia-340xxx package in 2016 or so.

Arch Linux

#1 2014-10-07 13:31:48

[Solved] Unable to boot (startup job is running)

#2 2014-10-07 19:10:13

Re: [Solved] Unable to boot (startup job is running)

#3 2014-10-08 09:12:12

Re: [Solved] Unable to boot (startup job is running)

#4 2014-10-08 17:17:06

Re: [Solved] Unable to boot (startup job is running)

#5 2014-10-08 17:44:54

Re: [Solved] Unable to boot (startup job is running)

#6 2014-10-08 19:19:00

Re: [Solved] Unable to boot (startup job is running)

#7 2014-10-08 20:07:24

Re: [Solved] Unable to boot (startup job is running)

#8 2014-10-09 17:08:01

Re: [Solved] Unable to boot (startup job is running)

#9 2014-10-09 19:13:12

Re: [Solved] Unable to boot (startup job is running)

#10 2014-10-10 14:39:26

Re: [Solved] Unable to boot (startup job is running)

#11 2014-10-11 01:58:27

Re: [Solved] Unable to boot (startup job is running)

#12 2014-10-11 02:35:08

Re: [Solved] Unable to boot (startup job is running)

#13 2014-10-11 02:59:36

Re: [Solved] Unable to boot (startup job is running)

#14 2014-10-11 03:12:01

Re: [Solved] Unable to boot (startup job is running)

#15 2014-10-11 09:42:21

Re: [Solved] Unable to boot (startup job is running)

#16 2014-10-11 15:42:40

Re: [Solved] Unable to boot (startup job is running)

#17 2014-10-11 17:04:52

Re: [Solved] Unable to boot (startup job is running)

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