Arch Linux

Stonegrip

Member

Registered: 2022-12-10

Posts: 60

[CLOSED] The system won't boot after I expanded the root partition

While installing Arch I followed a general recommendation and kept my root partition small (20Gb). Having used the OS for some time, I've started noticing that I was running out of free space as all the AUR and Pacman-based installations were installed in the Root by default and not to my main 3rd partition with tons of free disk space.

So, I decided to expand my 2nd partition (root partition) by using fdisk: I deleted the 2nd and 3rd partitions, and then recreated them by firstly creating the second partition starting from its original starting sector/cylinder and ending with a greater sector to give it more space, and then I created the 3rd partition by starting from the next sector from the last sector of the 2nd partition.

After that I thought that all I need is to reboot to get the file system of Root partition to grow into the extended partition. I think it is FAT32 file system, but I'm not positive.

I rebooted, and the system was totally down. I couldn't even make it to TTY to check the log journal.

I'm about to reinstall Arch from scratch, but before doing so I decided to check here if anybody had the same issue and/or knows some simple remedy.

Any comments and suggestions are highly appreciated.

Last edited by Stonegrip (2023-08-21 14:31:59)

lfitzgerald

Member

Registered: 2021-07-16

Posts: 175

Re: [CLOSED] The system won't boot after I expanded the root partition

I wonder if when you recreated the other partitions, their UUID changed and Arch is now trying to mount a part by a UUID that doesn't exist. Although this doesn't quite makes sense, because if you have invalid entries in your /etc/fstab that shouldn't prevent you from booting. Especially since it sounds like your root is fine.

You probably don't need to wipe Arch for this. Boot into Live USB, mount your hard drive, and chroot into it like you did during install. You should be able to check `journalctl -b`.

Also check `/etc/default/grub` and note what partition/drive it is trying to use. Then check `lsblk -o +UUID` to see if that matches your root part.

Stonegrip

Member

Registered: 2022-12-10

Posts: 60

Re: [CLOSED] The system won't boot after I expanded the root partition

Thanks a lot for the comment. I've tried to chroot with a live USB, but to no avail. The message was something like: wrong file system, bad option, bad superblock etc. So, I believe the system can't find some files as some blocks got reshuffled as a result of the re-partitioning.

Anyways, I've already reinstalled Arch, and everything works just fine and the system is as good as new

Appreciate everyone's help. The thread is closed.