You are not logged in.

#1 2013-08-12 17:44:44

phunni
Member
From: Bristol, UK
Registered: 2003-08-13
Posts: 794

No longer able to boot - failure with /boot

I recently, due to a hard drive change, rebuilt my desktop.  Every now and again, since then, it hasn't booted.  I just logged into root and rebooted; figuring I'd sort it out at some point.

Only, now it won't boot at all.  When I go through journalctl -xb I get the following errors (the ellipsis, in case it isn't clear, indicate an number of lines with no error in between the error messages):

Job dev-sda2.device/start timed out.
Timed out waiting for device dev-sda2.device.
...
Dependency failed for /boot.
...
Dependency failed for Local File Systems.
...
Triggering OnFailure= dependencies of local-fs.target.
Dependency failed for File System Check on /dev/sda2

and also, much later in the logs:

Failed at step EXEC spawning /bin/plymouth: No such file or directory

My initial assumption would have been that the relevant drive is failing, but I only recently ran a check on the drives (a few days ago and since the rebuild) and all was fine and dandy - but I had already been seeing these errors on a periodic basis.  Only now, as I said, they happen at every boot and I never get as far as login.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Offline

#2 2013-08-12 22:29:53

cfr
Member
From: Cymru
Registered: 2011-11-27
Posts: 7,178

Re: No longer able to boot - failure with /boot

Well it definitely can't find the device. Have you checked the connections to the drive (assuming this is a desktop)? I guess you should probably check the drive again. How did you check it before? smartmontools can run tests on drives, for example.

The plymouth error can be safely ignored. Everyone gets that unless they mask it or install plymouth.


CLI Paste | How To Ask Questions

Arch Linux | x86_64 | GPT | EFI boot | refind | stub loader | systemd | LVM2 on LUKS
Lenovo x270 | Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-7200U CPU @ 2.50GHz | Intel Wireless 8265/8275 | US keyboard w/ Euro | 512G NVMe INTEL SSDPEKKF512G7L

Offline

#3 2013-08-13 13:04:09

phunni
Member
From: Bristol, UK
Registered: 2003-08-13
Posts: 794

Re: No longer able to boot - failure with /boot

Smartmontools is what I used to test the drives.  Bizarrely, today the machine booted, although I'm assuming that it's likely to fail again frequently until I figure this out.

It would seem the obvious answer that the drive is simply not being found.  The thing that confuses me, however, is the fact that by the time it's failed it's already located and loaded the kernel.  Which is in /boot.  Which is on sda2...

Surely it would be impossible to even get this far if the drive were simply unavailable?

Offline

#4 2013-08-13 16:31:41

phunni
Member
From: Bristol, UK
Registered: 2003-08-13
Posts: 794

Re: No longer able to boot - failure with /boot

I ran the extended smartmontools test on the disk today and it returned with no errors.  However, the error log for the disk did contain the following:

Complete error log:

SMART Error Log Version: 1
Warning: ATA error count 21 inconsistent with error log pointer 5
ATA Error Count: 21 (device log contains only the most recent five errors)
	CR = Command Register [HEX]
	FR = Features Register [HEX]
	SC = Sector Count Register [HEX]
	SN = Sector Number Register [HEX]
	CL = Cylinder Low Register [HEX]
	CH = Cylinder High Register [HEX]
	DH = Device/Head Register [HEX]
	DC = Device Command Register [HEX]
	ER = Error register [HEX]
	ST = Status register [HEX]
Powered_Up_Time is measured from power on, and printed as
DDd+hh:mm:SS.sss where DD=days, hh=hours, mm=minutes,
SS=sec, and sss=millisec. It "wraps" after 49.710 days.

Error 21 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 10341 hours (430 days + 21 hours)
  When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was in an unknown state.

  After command completion occurred, registers were:
  ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
  -- -- -- -- -- -- --
  84 51 00 00 00 00 e0  Error: ICRC, ABRT at LBA = 0x00000000 = 0

  Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
  CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC   Powered_Up_Time  Command/Feature_Name
  -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --  ----------------  --------------------
  c8 00 08 00 00 00 e0 08      01:12:12.224  READ DMA
  27 00 00 00 00 00 e0 08      01:12:12.224  READ NATIVE MAX ADDRESS EXT [OBS-ACS-3]
  ec 00 00 00 00 00 a0 0a      01:12:12.224  IDENTIFY DEVICE
  ef 03 45 00 00 00 a0 0a      01:12:12.224  SET FEATURES [Set transfer mode]
  27 00 00 00 00 00 e0 08      01:12:12.224  READ NATIVE MAX ADDRESS EXT [OBS-ACS-3]

Error 20 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 10341 hours (430 days + 21 hours)
  When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was in an unknown state.

  After command completion occurred, registers were:
  ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
  -- -- -- -- -- -- --
  84 51 00 00 00 00 e0  Error: ICRC, ABRT at LBA = 0x00000000 = 0

  Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
  CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC   Powered_Up_Time  Command/Feature_Name
  -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --  ----------------  --------------------
  c8 00 08 00 00 00 e0 08      01:11:26.048  READ DMA
  27 00 00 00 00 00 e0 08      01:11:26.048  READ NATIVE MAX ADDRESS EXT [OBS-ACS-3]
  ec 00 00 00 00 00 a0 0a      01:11:26.048  IDENTIFY DEVICE
  ef 03 46 00 00 00 a0 0a      01:11:26.048  SET FEATURES [Set transfer mode]
  27 00 00 00 00 00 e0 08      01:11:26.048  READ NATIVE MAX ADDRESS EXT [OBS-ACS-3]

Error 19 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 10341 hours (430 days + 21 hours)
  When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was in an unknown state.

  After command completion occurred, registers were:
  ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
  -- -- -- -- -- -- --
  84 51 00 00 00 00 e0  Error: ICRC, ABRT at LBA = 0x00000000 = 0

  Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
  CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC   Powered_Up_Time  Command/Feature_Name
  -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --  ----------------  --------------------
  c8 00 08 00 00 00 e0 08      01:10:16.816  READ DMA
  27 00 00 00 00 00 e0 08      01:08:51.584  READ NATIVE MAX ADDRESS EXT [OBS-ACS-3]
  ec 00 00 00 00 00 a0 0a      01:08:51.584  IDENTIFY DEVICE
  ef 03 46 00 00 00 a0 0a      01:08:51.584  SET FEATURES [Set transfer mode]
  27 00 00 00 00 00 e0 08      01:08:51.568  READ NATIVE MAX ADDRESS EXT [OBS-ACS-3]

Error 18 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 10340 hours (430 days + 20 hours)
  When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was in an unknown state.

  After command completion occurred, registers were:
  ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
  -- -- -- -- -- -- --
  84 51 00 00 00 00 e0  Error: ICRC, ABRT at LBA = 0x00000000 = 0

  Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
  CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC   Powered_Up_Time  Command/Feature_Name
  -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --  ----------------  --------------------
  25 00 01 00 00 00 e0 08      00:04:28.384  READ DMA EXT
  c6 00 10 00 00 00 e0 08      00:04:28.384  SET MULTIPLE MODE
  91 00 3f 00 00 00 a0 08      00:04:28.384  INITIALIZE DEVICE PARAMETERS [OBS-6]
  10 00 00 00 00 00 a0 08      00:04:28.352  RECALIBRATE [OBS-4]
  25 00 01 00 00 00 e0 04      00:04:28.352  READ DMA EXT

Error 17 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 10340 hours (430 days + 20 hours)
  When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was in an unknown state.

  After command completion occurred, registers were:
  ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
  -- -- -- -- -- -- --
  84 51 00 00 00 00 e0  Error: ICRC, ABRT at LBA = 0x00000000 = 0

  Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
  CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC   Powered_Up_Time  Command/Feature_Name
  -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --  ----------------  --------------------
  25 00 01 00 00 00 e0 08      00:04:28.288  READ DMA EXT
  c6 00 10 00 00 00 e0 08      00:04:28.288  SET MULTIPLE MODE
  91 00 3f 00 00 00 a0 08      00:04:28.288  INITIALIZE DEVICE PARAMETERS [OBS-6]
  10 00 00 00 00 00 a0 08      00:04:28.272  RECALIBRATE [OBS-4]
  25 00 01 00 00 00 e0 04      00:04:28.272  READ DMA EXT

Does this mean my disk is dying?  That would be very annoying after just rebuilding from another failed disk!

Offline

#5 2013-08-13 20:50:32

cfr
Member
From: Cymru
Registered: 2011-11-27
Posts: 7,178

Re: No longer able to boot - failure with /boot

I'm not sure. Hopefully somebody will be along who knows, though.

I used a disk showing errors in the log, but which passed all tests, just fine for quite a while in the past. (At least months, probably years.) However, my understanding is that it is not generally a good sign. I would check to see if the errors in the log change i.e. if new errors are being recorded or not.

I would definitely configure smartmontools to run whatever tests are available for your disk regularly. And obviously make sure everything is backed up but that goes whether you have a reason to doubt a disk or not. (Personally, I also run smart tests whether I have reason to doubt a disk or not - mostly because smart gave me a day or two's notice when the disk mentioned above finally failed. That notice depended on the tests - the overall health status remained "passed" but the test results and certain individual indicators told a different, and much more accurate, story.)


CLI Paste | How To Ask Questions

Arch Linux | x86_64 | GPT | EFI boot | refind | stub loader | systemd | LVM2 on LUKS
Lenovo x270 | Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-7200U CPU @ 2.50GHz | Intel Wireless 8265/8275 | US keyboard w/ Euro | 512G NVMe INTEL SSDPEKKF512G7L

Offline

Board footer

Powered by FluxBB