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markuzo

Member

Registered: 2015-09-17

Posts: 10

[SOLVED] mount: unknown filesystem type 'vfat' on boot with GPT/UEFI

Hi,

I am doing a fresh install using GPT/UEFI and am having problems after installing. vfat doesn't seem to be detected and I am being dropped into an emergency shell. Trying to mount the boot partition fails as vfat is unknown.

I have verified that I have UEFI as 'efivar -l' lists many variables.

The hard drive is partitioned as follows:
sda1 - fat32 esp
sda2 - swap
sda3 - ext4 main partition

I first thought it would be an issue with my fstab, and so I changed all the UUIDs to PARTUUID - thinking that GPT required these - retrieved from blkid, but this didn't fix anything.
Here is my fstab (typed):

#/dev/sda3
PARTUUID=blabla    /    ext4    rw,relatime,data=ordered    0  1

#/dev/sda1
PARTUUID=blabla    /boot    vfat    rw,relatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,errors=remount-ro    0  2

#/dev/sda2
PARTUUID=blabla    none    swat    default     0  0

And here is the boot error message:

[    0.02660] Ignoring BGRT: invalid status 0 (expected 1)
:: runing early hook [udev]
starting version 226
:: running hook [udev]
:: Triggering uevents...
:: performing fsck on '/dev/sda1'
:: mounting '/dev/sda1' on real root
mount: unknown filesystem type 'vfat'
You are now being dropped into an emergency shell.
sh: can't access tty; job control turned off

Any ideas what the issue could be?

Last edited by markuzo (2015-09-21 21:51:28)

olive

Member

From: Belgium

Registered: 2008-06-22

Posts: 1,490

Re: [SOLVED] mount: unknown filesystem type 'vfat' on boot with GPT/UEFI

Are you able to boot if you comment out the vfat entry in the fstab? What if you try manually from the emergency shell?

markuzo

Member

Registered: 2015-09-17

Posts: 10

Re: [SOLVED] mount: unknown filesystem type 'vfat' on boot with GPT/UEFI

I commented out the line which includes the vfat entry, which resulted in the same problem on boot. A small question: doesn't the fstab need to know where the /boot is? I don't follow your second question: what should I try manually from the emergency shell? Mounting the /dev/sda2 on the /mnt/boot? I have the same issue with the unrecognized vfat filesytem.

Last edited by markuzo (2015-09-21 21:13:03)

Raynman

Member

Registered: 2011-10-22

Posts: 1,539

Re: [SOLVED] mount: unknown filesystem type 'vfat' on boot with GPT/UEFI

Mounting the /dev/sda2 on the /mnt/boot?

According to your previous post, /dev/sda1 is your boot partition/ESP, not /dev/sda2. And you said /dev/sda3 is your root partition, but if I understand that error message correctly, it is trying to mount /dev/sda1 (the ESP) as the root. So double-check all references to partitions, including the root= parameter on the kernel commandline.

markuzo

Member

Registered: 2015-09-17

Posts: 10

Re: [SOLVED] mount: unknown filesystem type 'vfat' on boot with GPT/UEFI

Yes you are right. the /dev/sda1 is the boot partition. And now that you say it is trying to mount /dev/sda1 as the root, I remember that I did set the boot partition as the root in the bootloader. Getting confused between those two is somewhat unforgivable

markuzo

Member

Registered: 2015-09-17

Posts: 10

Re: [SOLVED] mount: unknown filesystem type 'vfat' on boot with GPT/UEFI

In summary:

In the systemd boot loader, the root= variable was set to the boot partition instead of the root partition.