Mount error when trying to upgrade from 9.04 to 9.10

[zafo]

I am upgrading a computer from Ubuntu 9.04 to 9.10. It was downloading and installing files, so I went to lunch. When I came back the computer was on but locked up - keyboard and mouse did not work and there was no output to the display. I rebooted and after the Ubuntu splash screen I get the following error:

One or more of the mounts listed in /etc/fstab cannot yet be mounted:
(ESC for recovery shell)
/: waiting for /dev/disk/by-uuid/6b1dd640-04f1-4f3c-ab91-a537f60841d1
/tmp: waiting for (null)
swap: waiting for UUID=19ec2898-8e83-4b1c-9b8f-8790d42fd56a

Can someone please give me some guidance on how to correct this problem?

Thanks,
Rod
Austin TX

[soro2005]

I also get that error, but my computer keeps booting (and mounting the partitions it reports it cannot yet mount). I'm trying to find out what's going on there. But your problem is obviously a little bigger since you apparently have a failed upgrade.

You could try to to hit "esc" and log into the recovery shell if that's even an option, which it may not if really no partitions are mounted. Once inside the shell, try all the habitual update/upgrade recovery commands:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get -f install
sudo dpkg --configure -a

This assumes that you get an internet connection (i.e. that you can connect with a network cable)

Also, of course, you may want to try interrupting the boot at the beginning by frantically hitting the <esc> key and selecting an old kernel from the Grub menu. If you manage to boot an old kernel, the odds are good that you might be able to fix the upgrade from there.

[herberthamaral]

I am experiencing a similar problem, but in boot. Ubuntu isn't starting after the upgrade from 9.04 to 9.10.

In some stage of boot it freezes and keep flashing, both video and HDD LED (they flash synchronously) and the text-mode login screen is displayed, but I can't enter nothing but a CTRL+Alt+Del

So, I tried to enter in recovery mode. Without success. When I roll over the fsckmenu, it says something like "System file couldn't be mounted. Returning the maintence shell.". It returns the shell, but I can't type nothing in it.

I tried to do this in 2.6.28 and 2.6.31 kernel and I am using an ext4 filesystem.

Does anyone figure out what is happening? Any help will be useful

Regards

[zafo]

Thanks for your suggestions.

I tried hitting <esc> repeatedly while in the loading grub, but it was unresponsive. I also tried to drop to the root shell prompt with networking, but could not even get a prompt. I can't access the Internet from the recovery shell.

I'm still stuck. This is a secondary computer without a lot of data on it, so it won't be disastrous to reinstall from CD, but I'd obviously like to fix it if possible.

Rod

[ken_23434]

I had a similar problem when I tried the upgrade.

When I did the ESC trick, I noticed about 4 different OS's to boot to (each with a recovery option). I picked the 2nd one down on the list and it booted.

I didn't reboot the computer for the next week.

I then tried to run the update manager (hoping a fix came out). After it did a bunch of updates, the computer failed to boot at all.

Today, I used my 9.04 disk to restore it.

I will just wait till it is no longer a Beta. I don't know enough about Linux to try and figure out what was happening nor do I have the time.

Having my /home directory on a separate drive really made the recovery easy, though.

[sams9]

I'm getting something similar after updating from Alpha 5 to Beta.
Something like ...mount error /dev/disk....
Only comes up for a few seconds then loads successfully.
I'll run Update Manager tonight and see if it will pick up the new release candidate updates?!

[cviorel]

I'm running Karmic RC and and after the Ubuntu splash screen I also get the following error:

One or more of the mounts listed in /etc/fstab cannot yet be mounted:
(ESC for recovery shell)
/: waiting for /dev/disk/by-uuid/6b1dd640-04f1-4f3c-ab91-a537f60841d1
/tmp: waiting for (null)
swap: waiting for UUID=19ec2898-8e83-4b1c-9b8f-8790d42fd56a

I tried to force fsck on the next boot by issuing the following command:

sudo touch /forcefsck

This will get things back to normal ONLY for the next reboot.
Nothing in the logs to trace the problem.

[soro2005]

Thanks for your suggestions.

I tried hitting <esc> repeatedly while in the loading grub, but it was unresponsive. I also tried to drop to the root shell prompt with networking, but could not even get a prompt. I can't access the Internet from the recovery shell.

I'm still stuck. This is a secondary computer without a lot of data on it, so it won't be disastrous to reinstall from CD, but I'd obviously like to fix it if possible.

Rod

It's possible, it's just a matter of the time and effort you want to put into it. As a first step, however, I would recommend to pop in a Live CD and make a backup of your /home and all your data, important or not (who knows...), either to an external drive or, if you have none but two cd drives, to a dvd or something.

The problem you're currently facing are two, as far as I can see.

1. Your Ubuntu Karmic installation is in a bad state and probably doesn't recognize it's root partition. Odds are you can fix this quite easily by resuming the botched upgrade or, perhaps and in the worst of cases, manipulating some details in /etc/fstab. To do so, however, you'd best start the system. Since your Karmic doesn't start, this would have to be one of the Jaunty kernels that are probably still sitting there. To start one of the old kernels, however, you would need to get a Grub menu listing all the different kernels that are still installed.

2. Absolutely annoyingly for cases such as yours, the new Grub defaults to a zero timeout, making it absolutely hard to catch the moment at which to press <esc> to get to the menu. If there is any such moment, that is. Perhaps it's just plain impossible. I think it's a really bad idea by the maintainers to go for the speed, instead of the safety. Perhaps somebody knows how to get the Grub menu with a zero timeout?

I think you could just use a Live CD to install a new Grub to the harddrive and make sure you set it up to have a decent timeout. But perhaps there is an easier solution.

[Mairos]

I have the same problem -.- I tried to upgrade my 9.04 to 9.10 RC, but suddenly my pc shut off. Now I receive those errors. Everything I tried was not successful, because it says "Read-only file system" and so I'm not able to modify the /etc/fstab for example...

[kentaur]

Your installs have failed.

remount your filesystem like this:

mount -o remount,rw /

then do a

sudo dpkg --configure -a

And the installation will continue.

Worked for me. ymmv.