ALERT! /dev/disk/by-uuid/xxxxxxxxx does not exist. Dropping to a shell

Question

I am using Ubuntu 14.04.

I ran in terminal sudo apt-get update. Then I rebooted the system. And now I see:

ALERT! /dev/disk/by-uuid/xxxxxxxxx does not exist. Dropping to a shell
initramfs:_

I can't boot up LIVE Ubuntu from USB flash drive. Yes, I double checked BIOS setup and the USB flash drive is OK and runs on another machine. Right now I am going to buy a DVD and burn a Live DVD from another laptop.

sudo blkid gives me:

/dev/loop0: TYPE="squashfs"  
/dev/sda1: UUID="xxxx" TYPE="ext4"   
/dev/sr0: LABEL="Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS i386" TYPE="iso960"   

/etc/fstab has the same UUID="xxxx" and there is a line with:

errors=remount-ro 0   

I tried using boot-repair but I still can't log in to Ubuntu.

I don't want to reinstall Ubuntu, because I have a lot of data there.

Do you have any advice how this can be solved?

Solution

Solution was to perform these commands from liveDVD, it allows me to do things on my sda1 from that liveDVD(as far I understand)

sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
sudo mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
sudo mount --bind /proc /mnt/proc
sudo mount --bind /sys /mnt/sys
sudo chroot /mnt
update-initramfs -u
update-grub
reboot

A friend of mine from ubuntu pl forum helped me solve this problem.

He found out that there might be error in initramfs, which should be updated as part of the kernel update. If anything goes wrong during that update problems like mine could happen.

Comments

[Admin]

Run sudo blkid from the terminal (from a live DVD if needed) and check the UUID's against what /etc/fstab has. Or post both results into your question please. How to run sudo blkid from a live DVD: Boot from Ubuntu live disk, click on Try Ubuntu option on startup. Open the terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and then run sudo blkid command in it. Finally, post its output in your question.

[Admin]

ok @karel sudo blkid gives me /dev/loop0: TYPE="squashfs" /dev/sda1: UUID="xxxx" TYPE="ext4" dev/sr0: LABEL="Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS i386" TYPE="iso960" /etc/fstab have the same UUID="xxxx" and there is line where is written errors=remount-ro 0 –

[Admin]

I have this after run boot-repair Boot-repair log

[Admin]

sudo fsck /dev/sda1 fsck from util-linux 2.020.1 e2fsck 1.42.9 (4-Feb-2014) /dev/sda1:clean, 491701/19054592 files, 27163705/76189184 blocks

[Admin]

I dont know how to write is these askubuntu add comment window, even when read lear more ....

[Admin]

@MarcinGorski please add your solution as an answer and mark it accepted instead of editing the question.

[Admin]

See youtube.com/watch?v=kilXfY-k_9A It solved me the problem

[Marcin]

Thanks for your help @MGodby but I already find solution.

[Deepak Verma]

Your method is the old method, which was replaced for fairly good reasons, mainly that the drive numbering is not constant, and it's possible to boot from an unexpected drive. This is not possible with UUID. But I often use the "LABEL=___" format, just because it's clearer to see right away what's what. Example: LABEL=data_partition.

[ubiquibacon]

Good post. I would like to add that Ubuntu isn't necessarily installed on sda1. To help determine where it is installed run sudo fdisk -l. Assuming you know what hard drive you installed Ubuntu to then that command should help you determine which sd* maps to that drive.

[Dominic Hayes]

I tried this on Ubuntu MATE 17.04 (New Install), and it didn't help unfortunately...

[Max Malysh]

I was getting WARNING: missing /lib/modules/4.2.0-16-generic because LiveCD had different kernel version. So I've mounted tmp, lib and lib64 and then everything worked.

[Shane]

I had to specify the filesystem to mount for an ext4 partition (mount -t ext4 /dev/sda1 /mnt), otherwise this worked great.