Gave up waiting for root file system device, in Ubuntu 18.04

Question

I have installed Ubuntu 18.04 on my Dell XPS 15 laptop. I was working fine until yesterday. After a system update, I cannot log in to Ubuntu using normal mode. This is the error I am getting:

Gave up waiting for root file system device. Common problems:

-Boot args (cat /proc/cmdline) - Check rootdelay=(did the system wait long enough?) -Missing modules (cat /proc/modules; ls /dev) ALERT! UUID=22f93100-9860-44b7-8086-51b4404d499d does not exist. Dropping to a shell

BusyBox v1.27 2 (Ubuntu 1:1.27.2-2ubuntu3) built in shell (ash) Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.

(initramfs)

Ubuntu is opening in recovery mode. But there I cannot change the display brightness. In fact,when I did this to check the driver: ls /system/class/backlight

I found none.

Is there any way I can recover Ubuntu without reinstalling? I have many software's installed and I don't want to loose them now.

Thank you, Arka

Solution 1

if you see "ALERT! UUID=22f93100-9860-44b7-8086-51b4404d499d does not exist. Dropping to a shell"

and you are not aware of wrong disc definition - you might be fooled by GRUB.

Interrupt GRUB when offering the choices. So

when the GRUB boot options appear do press e for edit.

Check everything properly.

In my case (migrated image):

There you may first find perfectly right entries like UUID=[here-comes-your-accurate-value]. And further down an entry like root=UUID=some-weird-stuff-comes-here.

This is the fuckup in my case: a wrong root partition definition by GRUB.

You may just enter the proper value as simple /dev/sda1 or /dev/nvme2p3p4pblablabla notation instead of complicated UUID.

(UUID can be found by typing in CLI:

ls -latr /dev/disk/by-uuid/

which can be done with a DVD/stick external boot beforehand).

Of course there are issues with sda and hda and differernt numbering every time you boot (modern times are soooo cooool :-( ) and complicated partitions may use a different root setup. But you have to start somewhere ....

Works 4 me ;-)

When you booted successfully fix the underlying issue in grub config.

My opinion: While Lilo ws straight GRUB is back-stabbing.

Solution 2

Check if you have cryptsetup installed on your system, it might have been removed by running apt-get autoremove. More info.

Comments

[Vijay]

Try sudo update-grub

[NicolasSmith]

Worked with Linux Mint 19.3 xfce 32 bit

[Willi Mentzel]

Actually that was it for me! Thanks!!! :)