[Solved] Arch won't boot, failed to mount many things

jofagettis · 2018-12-16 18:13:28

Hey everyone!
I've got arch installed on my dell laptop for months now, and haven't got any issues, until yesterday when I shut down my machine and booted back up. During the shutdown I saw lots of failed to umount stuff errors. When powering back on I was greeted to some kind of rescue mode.

This came from the bushes, because I think I didn't modify any configuration files or install/upgrade any packages prior the shutdown. And arch wasn't doing anything like installing/upgrading packages or anything like that at the time of shutdown, it was an ordinary shutdown process.

On boot I can see that arch couldn't mount like anything. I have no idea whats wrong, so googling for help isnät easy, because I have no idea what keywords should I use other than "Arch wont boot" or "Arch failed to mount many things"

Here is a short list of what I've tried so far:
Booted to my archiso and deleted my BIOS boot parition and created a new one.
Created a new fstab file.
Reinstalled grub and created a new configuration file for it.

I have five partitions: BIOS boot, boot, root, home, swap.

Here's my boot log.

Last edited by jofagettis (2018-12-17 10:56:20)

loqs · 2018-12-16 18:27:34

That log is for a successful boot so it would appear to be from the last boot that completed and does not show the current issue.
When you are placed in this rescue mode what does the text say? I would start by checking the S.M.A.R.T. status of the device and running a long test if the device supports it.
Do you have a backup of your data from the system? (Without one I would prioritize data recovery over system restoration)

jofagettis · 2018-12-16 18:45:38

loqs wrote:

That log is for a successful boot so it would appear to be from the last boot that completed and does not show the current issue.
When you are placed in this rescue mode what does the text say? I would start by checking the S.M.A.R.T. status of the device and running a long test if the device supports it.
Do you have a backup of your data from the system? (Without one I would prioritize data recovery over system restoration)

I might've used a wrong term there, I'm just not sure what I should use. But anyways the arch boots just fine and I can use it to some extent, for example I can change directory, but can't use some commands like fdisk or lsblk, it just gives out error saying that some required files are missing.
This is some kind of emergency mode, where I can only log in to as root. I could provide the log file of the boot process whats showing up on the monitor, but I don't know where is it stored, or what it is called.

Also this is my school laptop, and all the data I have is on a usb stick, so no valuable data would be lost if something bad would happen.

Last edited by jofagettis (2018-12-16 18:46:00)

loqs · 2018-12-16 19:30:05

Do you have internet access from the affected system? (If so you could use the instructions in the tip box from List_of_applications#Pastebin_clients)
If you are dropped to the rescue shell of initrd then there would be no where persistent to store logs without attempting to boot something
but it appears root has been mounted but you are placed in rescue.target but the exact output text from when you are placed in the rescue shell would help.
When you run a command that fails what file does it list as being unable to find?
Edit:
My mistake the journal log is the right one. Do you have the installation media? If so follow Pacman#Pacman_crashes_during_an_upgrade steps 1 and 3 then please run

pacman --sysroot /mnt -Qkk &> log.file

then post the contents of that file.

Last edited by loqs (2018-12-16 19:48:13)

jofagettis · 2018-12-16 19:48:21

loqs wrote:

Do you have internet access from the affected system? (If so you could use the insructions in the tip box from List_of_applications#Pastebin_clients)
If you are dropped to the rescue shell of initrd then there would be no where persistent to store logs without attempting to boot something
but it appears root has been mounted but you are placed in rescue.target but the exact output text from when you are placed in the rescue shell would help.
When you run a command that fails what file does it list as being unable to find?

Yes I do have internet access. I would provide the output text, but I don't know where it is stored.

lsblk command gives this message:

lsblk: /usr/lib/libsmartcols.so.1: version `SMARTCOLS_2.33' not found (required by lsblk)

loqs · 2018-12-16 19:50:05

Please see my edit to post #4 which should hopefully produce a log containing tracked files that are missing or altered.

jofagettis · 2018-12-16 20:30:58

loqs wrote:

Please see my edit to post #4 which should hopefully produce a log containing tracked files that are missing or altered.

Here

loqs · 2018-12-16 20:50:31

Dec 16 19:11:59 arch mount[364]: /usr/bin/mount: /usr/lib/libmount.so.1: version `MOUNT_2.33' not found (required by /usr/bin/mount)

missing /usr/lib/libmount.so.1

pacman -Qo /usr/lib/libmount.so.1
/usr/lib/libmount.so.1 is owned by libutil-linux 2.33-2

The file is supplied by libutil-linux

libutil-linux: 17 total files, 0 altered files

pacman found no issues with that package which leaves confused.

Following Pacman#Pacman_crashes_during_an_upgrade steps 1 - 3 then 6 to reinstall libutil-linux should resolve the issue.

seth · 2018-12-16 22:08:23

The library is there but doesn't export the required symbol version, ie. util-linux and libutil-linux are of different versions.
Smells like either partial update (inc. held packages), --force, bad mirror, mindless "-Syyuu" invocation…

Check your mirror status, https://www.archlinux.org/mirrors/status/ , run a full update ("-Syu") and in doubt post your full pacman log.

jofagettis · 2018-12-17 10:56:00

Okay, I got it fixed! Thank you!
I mounted the drives on my archiso and changed my root, then just reinstalled libutil-linux. Now it works!

Arch Linux

#1 2018-12-16 18:13:28

[Solved] Arch won't boot, failed to mount many things

#2 2018-12-16 18:27:34

Re: [Solved] Arch won't boot, failed to mount many things

#3 2018-12-16 18:45:38

Re: [Solved] Arch won't boot, failed to mount many things

#4 2018-12-16 19:30:05

Re: [Solved] Arch won't boot, failed to mount many things

#5 2018-12-16 19:48:21

Re: [Solved] Arch won't boot, failed to mount many things

#6 2018-12-16 19:50:05

Re: [Solved] Arch won't boot, failed to mount many things

#7 2018-12-16 20:30:58

Re: [Solved] Arch won't boot, failed to mount many things

#8 2018-12-16 20:50:31

Re: [Solved] Arch won't boot, failed to mount many things

#9 2018-12-16 22:08:23

Re: [Solved] Arch won't boot, failed to mount many things

#10 2018-12-17 10:56:00

Re: [Solved] Arch won't boot, failed to mount many things

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