Gave up waiting for root file system device- no other OS installed

devang-marvania · February 10, 2025, 5:42am

Hello! I’m pretty new to Ubuntu and troubleshooting tech problems. I appreciate your patience and look forward to getting better. Appreciate your and community’s help!

Ubuntu Version:
Ubuntu 22.04.5 LTS

Desktop Environment (if applicable):
n/a

Problem Description:
I am trying to install Ubuntu 22.04.5 LTS as standalone OS. When rebooting after removing, USB Stick I get the issue of unable to find root file system.

Screenshots or Error Messages:
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; 1s / dev)

ALERTI UUID=e6C09533-0385-4fcd-b398-e70e529ac3de does not exist. Dropping to a shell!

BusyBox v1.30.1 (Ubuntu 1:1,30,1-7ubuntus. 1) built-in shell (ash)

Enter ‘help’ for a list of built-in commands.

(initramfs) bikid

/dev/sdb: TYPE=“isu_raid_member”

/dev/sda: TYPE=“isw_raid_member”’

/dew/mapper/1sw_chghhdcabf _ARRAYO: PTUUID=“af4dcdf5-9167-4939-afde-259b579cedS1” PTTYPE=“gpt”

(initramfs)

What I’ve Tried:
→ Tried reinstalls with multiple combinations of BIOS(secure boot enable/disable etc).
→ Honestly, I am not sure what’s supposed to be correct settings for installation but I produced a boot summary info as below. I believe it should cover necessary info to diagnose but if needed I can check required settings or retry a fresh installation.

boot-repair-4ppa2081                                              [20250113_0047]

============================== Boot Info Summary ===============================


sdc: ___________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       iso9660
    Boot sector type:  Grub2 (v1.99-2.00)
    Boot sector info:  Grub2 (v1.99-2.00) is installed in the boot sector of 
                       sdc and looks at sector 0 of the same hard drive for 
                       core.img, but core.img can not be found at this 
                       location.
    Mounting failed:   mount: /mnt/BootInfo/FD/sdc: /dev/sdc already mounted or mount point busy.


================================ 0 OS detected =================================


================================ Host/Hardware =================================

CPU architecture: 64-bit
Video: GF119 [NVS 315] from NVIDIA Corporation
Live-session OS is Ubuntu 64-bit (Ubuntu 22.04.5 LTS, jammy, x86_64)

===================================== UEFI =====================================

BIOS/UEFI firmware: 1.3.2(1.3) from Dell Inc.
The firmware seems EFI-compatible, but this live-session is in Legacy/BIOS/CSM mode (not in EFI mode).



============================= Drive/Partition Info =============================

Disks info: ____________________________________________________________________

sda	: is-GPT,	hasBIOSboot,	has-noESP, 	not-usb,	not-mmc, no-os,	no-wind,	2048 sectors * 512 bytes

Partitions info (1/3): _________________________________________________________

mapper/isw_chghhdcabf_ARRAY0	: no-os,	64, nopakmgr,	no-docgrub,	nogrub,	nogrubinstall,	no-grubenv,	noupdategrub,	not-far

Partitions info (2/3): _________________________________________________________

mapper/isw_chghhdcabf_ARRAY0	: isnotESP,	part-has-no-fstab,	no-nt,	no-winload,	no-recov-nor-hid,	no-bmgr,	notwinboot, 

Partitions info (3/3): _________________________________________________________

mapper/isw_chghhdcabf_ARRAY0	: maybesepboot,	no---boot,	part-has-no-fstab,	not-sep-usr,	no---usr,	part-has-no-fstab,	no--grub.d,	sda

fdisk -l (filtered): ___________________________________________________________

Disk sda: 465.76 GiB, 500107862016 bytes, 976773168 sectors
Disk identifier: 2E770D52-FBDF-4304-80CA-AE9ABD2588B2
       Start       End   Sectors   Size Type
sda1     2048      4095      2048     1M BIOS boot
sda2     4096   1054719   1050624   513M EFI System
sda3  1054720 976766975 975712256 465.3G Linux filesystem
Disk sdb: 465.76 GiB, 500107862016 bytes, 976773168 sectors
Disk identifier: 2E770D52-FBDF-4304-80CA-AE9ABD2588B2
       Start       End   Sectors   Size Type
sdb1     2048      4095      2048     1M BIOS boot
sdb2     4096   1054719   1050624   513M EFI System
sdb3  1054720 976766975 975712256 465.3G Linux filesystem
Disk mapper/isw_chghhdcabf_ARRAY0: 465.76 GiB, 500104826880 bytes, 976767240 sectors
Disk identifier: 2E770D52-FBDF-4304-80CA-AE9ABD2588B2
                                    Start       End   Sectors   Size Type
mapper/isw_chghhdcabf_ARRAY0-part1    2048      4095      2048     1M BIOS boot
mapper/isw_chghhdcabf_ARRAY0-part2    4096   1054719   1050624   513M EFI System
mapper/isw_chghhdcabf_ARRAY0-part3 1054720 976766975 975712256 465.3G Linux filesystem
Disk sdc: 7.63 GiB, 8197767168 bytes, 16011264 sectors
Disk identifier: 389FBC94-38B6-4D1A-8964-87488DB3D5A5
       Start      End Sectors  Size Type
sdc1       64  9291427 9291364  4.4G Microsoft basic data
sdc2  9291428  9301499   10072  4.9M EFI System
sdc3  9301500  9302099     600  300K Microsoft basic data
sdc4  9306112 16011200 6705089  3.2G Linux filesystem

parted -lm (filtered): _________________________________________________________

sda:500GB:scsi:512:4096:gpt:ATA ST500DM002-1SB10:;
1:1049kB:2097kB:1049kB:::bios_grub;
2:2097kB:540MB:538MB:fat32:EFI System Partition:boot, esp;
3:540MB:500GB:500GB:ext4::;
sdb:500GB:scsi:512:4096:gpt:ATA ST500DM002-1SB10:;
1:1049kB:2097kB:1049kB:::bios_grub;
2:2097kB:540MB:538MB:fat32:EFI System Partition:boot, esp;
3:540MB:500GB:500GB:ext4::;
sdc:8198MB:scsi:512:512:gpt:OSCOO :;
1:32.8kB:4757MB:4757MB::ISO9660:hidden, msftdata;
2:4757MB:4762MB:5157kB::Appended2:boot, esp;
3:4762MB:4763MB:307kB::Gap1:hidden, msftdata;
4:4765MB:8198MB:3433MB:ext4::;
mapper/isw_chghhdcabf_ARRAY0:500GB:dm:512:4096:gpt:Linux device-mapper (mirror):;
1:1049kB:2097kB:1049kB:::bios_grub;
2:2097kB:540MB:538MB:fat32:EFI System Partition:boot, esp;
3:540MB:500GB:500GB:ext4::;

blkid (filtered): ______________________________________________________________

NAME                    FSTYPE          UUID                                 PARTUUID                             LABEL                    PARTLABEL
sda                     isw_raid_member                                                                                                    
└─isw_chghhdcabf_ARRAY0                                                                                                                    
sdb                     isw_raid_member                                                                                                    
└─isw_chghhdcabf_ARRAY0                                                                                                                    
sdc                     iso9660         2024-09-11-14-37-52-00                                                    Ubuntu 22.04.5 LTS amd64 
├─sdc1                  iso9660         2024-09-11-14-37-52-00               389fbc94-38b6-4d1a-8965-87488db3d5a5 Ubuntu 22.04.5 LTS amd64 ISO9660
├─sdc2                  vfat            4721-D641                            389fbc94-38b6-4d1a-8966-87488db3d5a5 ESP                      Appended2
├─sdc3                                                                       389fbc94-38b6-4d1a-8967-87488db3d5a5                          Gap1
└─sdc4                  ext4            b82acdd3-5a68-4e8f-ad0c-e1a380614dba e4e8a970-5c28-fa43-aa14-f745d35c3fa2 writable                 

Mount points (filtered): _______________________________________________________

                                                               Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sdc1                                                          0 100% /cdrom

Mount options (filtered): ______________________________________________________

/dev/sdc1                                                     iso9660         ro,noatime,nojoliet,check=s,map=n,blocksize=2048,iocharset=utf8

============================== ls -R /dev/mapper/ ==============================

/dev/mapper:
control
isw_chghhdcabf_ARRAY0


=================== blkid (filtered) before raid activation ====================

/dev/sda: TYPE="isw_raid_member"
/dev/sdb: TYPE="isw_raid_member"
/dev/sdc1: BLOCK_SIZE="2048" UUID="2024-09-11-14-37-52-00" LABEL="Ubuntu 22.04.5 LTS amd64" TYPE="iso9660" PARTLABEL="ISO9660" PARTUUID="389fbc94-38b6-4d1a-8965-87488db3d5a5"
/dev/sdc2: SEC_TYPE="msdos" LABEL_FATBOOT="ESP" LABEL="ESP" UUID="4721-D641" BLOCK_SIZE="512" TYPE="vfat" PARTLABEL="Appended2" PARTUUID="389fbc94-38b6-4d1a-8966-87488db3d5a5"
/dev/sdc4: LABEL="writable" UUID="b82acdd3-5a68-4e8f-ad0c-e1a380614dba" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="e4e8a970-5c28-fa43-aa14-f745d35c3fa2"
/dev/mapper/isw_chghhdcabf_ARRAY0: PTUUID="2e770d52-fbdf-4304-80ca-ae9abd2588b2" PTTYPE="gpt"
/dev/sdc3: PARTLABEL="Gap1" PARTUUID="389fbc94-38b6-4d1a-8967-87488db3d5a5"


==================================== dmraid ====================================

dmraid -si -c

dmraid -ay:
RAID set "isw_chghhdcabf_ARRAY0" already active
dmraid -sa -c:
isw_chghhdcabf_ARRAY0


==================================== mdadm =====================================
mdadm --assemble --scan

mdadm --detail --scan



Suggested repair: ______________________________________________________________

The default repair of the Boot-Repair utility would not act on the boot.

rubi1200 · February 10, 2025, 7:21am

Hi and welcome to Ubuntu Discourse

How did you put the ISO on the USB stick, with Rufus, Balena Etcher, Ventoy, something else?

You need to make sure the USB is bootable in EFI mode.

Try that first and see if you get further.

Currently, nothing seems to have been installed.

Secure Boot should be disabled, also check that TPM is disabled and Fast Startup if relevant.

tea-for-one · February 10, 2025, 9:37am

^^^This is a good idea for UEFI settings

It’s easier to use default settings for your first installation

Boot into a “Try Ubuntu” live session, open a terminal and enter

[ -d /sys/firmware/efi ] && echo "UEFI" || echo "Legacy"

UEFI mode is the modern way
If you have booted in UEFI mode, the installer will create default partitions (ESP and System)
Open Gparted and create GPT (partition table) on your target disk

Is Raid essential for your purposes?
Seems a bit unusual for a new user?
Your first attempt went pear-shaped, therefore why not just install to a single disk and become accustomed to Ubuntu?
Learn how to backup your data for a potential Raid installation later

oldfred · February 10, 2025, 6:20pm

You show both a bios_grub partition and an ESP - efi system partition on a gpt drive. The bios_grub is used for BIOS boot and the ESP is used for UEFI boot. But both are not required. And if grub updated in one mode, but you boot in the other mode, you have an older grub booting that may not work.

Since UEFI system, best to always boot in UEFI mode. But that means grub must be installed in UEFI mode, motherboard settings UEFI firmware, System settings must be set to UEFI boot not old BIOS/CSM/Legacy mode. And you should always boot live installer in UEFI mode.

Check if install is UEFI by mounting /etc/fstab and see if it mounts efi partition. IF not you probably have BIOS boot and then to boot you need UEFI settings to default in BIOS mode.
If BIOS, but since you have ESP, you can just reinstall grub in UEFI mode.

devang-marvania · February 11, 2025, 2:21am

Thanks @rubi1200 @tea-for-one and @oldfred for your suggestions. I enabled UEFI and redid the installation this time but still ran into the same issue. I have attached boot summary info below after the latest installation.

I look forward to the next action items.

boot-repair-4ppa2081 [20250211_0201]

============================== Boot Info Summary ===============================

=> Grub2 (v2.00) is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdc and looks at sector 1 of
the same hard drive for core.img. core.img is at this location and looks
for (hd0,msdos1)/boot/grub. It also embeds following components:

modules
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
biosdisk fshelp fat exfat ext2 ntfs ntfscomp part_msdos
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

sdc1: __________________________________________________________________________

File system:       vfat
Boot sector type:  MSWIN4.1: FAT32
Boot sector info:  No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:  
Boot files:        /boot/grub/grub.cfg /efi/boot/bootx64.efi 
                   /efi/boot/grubx64.efi /efi/boot/mmx64.efi

================================ 0 OS detected =================================

================================ Host/Hardware =================================

CPU architecture: 64-bit
Video: GF119 [NVS 315] from NVIDIA Corporation
Live-session OS is Ubuntu 64-bit (Ubuntu 22.04.5 LTS, jammy, x86_64)

===================================== UEFI =====================================

BIOS/UEFI firmware: 1.3.2(1.3) from Dell Inc.
The firmware is EFI-compatible, and is set in EFI-mode for this live-session.
SecureBoot disabled (confirmed by mokutil).
BootCurrent: 0002
Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0000,0001,0002
Boot0000* ubuntu HD(1,GPT,4712d0d5-6918-4c07-94ff-b889fb85cf03,0x800,0x100000)/File(\EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi)
Boot0001* UEFI: ST500DM002-1SB10A HD(1,GPT,4712d0d5-6918-4c07-94ff-b889fb85cf03,0x800,0x100000)/File(EFI\boot\bootx64.efi)…BO
Boot0002* UEFI: OSCOO 1100 PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x14,0x0)/USB(8,0)/HD(1,MBR,0x89ee99ac,0x800,0xf447d8)…BO
Boot0012* Intel ARRAY0 BBS(HD,Intel ARRAY0,0x0)…BO
Boot0013* UEFI: Hard Drive HD(2,GPT,415e1e3a-3f32-4cb6-96ba-8b940d158e2a,0x1000,0x100800)/File(EFI\boot\bootx64.efi)…BO

============================= Drive/Partition Info =============================

Disks info: ____________________________________________________________________

sda : is-GPT, no-BIOSboot, has-noESP, not-usb, not-mmc, no-os, no-wind, 2048 sectors * 512 bytes

Partitions info (1/3): _________________________________________________________

mapper/isw_chghhdcabf_ARRAY0 : no-os, 64, nopakmgr, no-docgrub, nogrub, nogrubinstall, no-grubenv, noupdategrub, not-far

Partitions info (2/3): _________________________________________________________

mapper/isw_chghhdcabf_ARRAY0 : isnotESP, part-has-no-fstab, no-nt, no-winload, no-recov-nor-hid, no-bmgr, notwinboot,

Partitions info (3/3): _________________________________________________________

mapper/isw_chghhdcabf_ARRAY0 : maybesepboot, no—boot, part-has-no-fstab, not-sep-usr, no—usr, part-has-no-fstab, no–grub.d, sda

fdisk -l (filtered): ___________________________________________________________

Disk sda: 465.76 GiB, 500107862016 bytes, 976773168 sectors
Disk identifier: B525070B-4EC3-4EAE-9DC0-50768779D563
Start End Sectors Size Type
sda1 2048 1050623 1048576 512M EFI System
sda2 1050624 976766975 975716352 465.3G Linux filesystem
Disk sdb: 465.76 GiB, 500107862016 bytes, 976773168 sectors
Disk identifier: B525070B-4EC3-4EAE-9DC0-50768779D563
Start End Sectors Size Type
sdb1 2048 1050623 1048576 512M EFI System
sdb2 1050624 976766975 975716352 465.3G Linux filesystem
Disk mapper/isw_chghhdcabf_ARRAY0: 465.76 GiB, 500104826880 bytes, 976767240 sectors
Disk identifier: B525070B-4EC3-4EAE-9DC0-50768779D563
Start End Sectors Size Type
mapper/isw_chghhdcabf_ARRAY0-part1 2048 1050623 1048576 512M EFI System
mapper/isw_chghhdcabf_ARRAY0-part2 1050624 976766975 975716352 465.3G Linux filesystem
Disk sdc: 7.63 GiB, 8197767168 bytes, 16011264 sectors
Disk identifier: 0x89ee99ac
Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
sdc1 * 2048 16011223 16009176 7.6G c W95 FAT32 (LBA)

parted -lm (filtered): _________________________________________________________

sda:500GB:scsi:512:4096:gpt:ATA ST500DM002-1SB10:;
1:1049kB:538MB:537MB:fat32:EFI System Partition:boot, esp;
2:538MB:500GB:500GB:ext4::;
sdb:500GB:scsi:512:4096:gpt:ATA ST500DM002-1SB10:;
1:1049kB:538MB:537MB:fat32:EFI System Partition:boot, esp;
2:538MB:500GB:500GB:ext4::;
sdc:8198MB:scsi:512:512:msdos:OSCOO :;
1:1049kB:8198MB:8197MB:fat32::boot, lba;
mapper/isw_chghhdcabf_ARRAY0:500GB:dm:512:4096:gpt:Linux device-mapper (mirror):;
1:1049kB:538MB:537MB:fat32:EFI System Partition:boot, esp;
2:538MB:500GB:500GB:ext4::;

blkid (filtered): ______________________________________________________________

NAME FSTYPE UUID PARTUUID LABEL PARTLABEL
sda isw_raid_member
└─isw_chghhdcabf_ARRAY0
sdb isw_raid_member
└─isw_chghhdcabf_ARRAY0
sdc
└─sdc1 vfat 3A34-6063 89ee99ac-01 UBUNTU 22_0

Mount points (filtered): _______________________________________________________

                    Avail Use% Mounted on

/dev/sdc1 3.2G 58% /cdrom
efivarfs 35.2K 84% /sys/firmware/efi/efivars

Mount options (filtered): ______________________________________________________

/dev/sdc1 vfat ro,noatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,errors=remount-ro

============================== ls -R /dev/mapper/ ==============================

/dev/mapper:
control
isw_chghhdcabf_ARRAY0

====================== sdc1/boot/grub/grub.cfg (filtered) ======================

Try or Install Ubuntu
Ubuntu (safe graphics)
OEM install (for manufacturers)
Boot from next volume
UEFI Firmware Settings
Test memory

==================== sdc1: Location of files loaded by Grub ====================

       GiB - GB             File                                 Fragment(s)
        ?? = ??             boot/grub/grub.cfg                             1

=================== blkid (filtered) before raid activation ====================

/dev/sda: TYPE=“isw_raid_member”
/dev/sdb: TYPE=“isw_raid_member”
/dev/sdc1: LABEL=“UBUNTU 22_0” UUID=“3A34-6063” BLOCK_SIZE=“512” TYPE=“vfat” PARTUUID=“89ee99ac-01”
/dev/mapper/isw_chghhdcabf_ARRAY0: PTUUID=“b525070b-4ec3-4eae-9dc0-50768779d563” PTTYPE=“gpt”

==================================== dmraid ====================================

dmraid -si -c

dmraid -ay:
RAID set “isw_chghhdcabf_ARRAY0” already active
dmraid -sa -c:
isw_chghhdcabf_ARRAY0

==================================== mdadm =====================================
mdadm --assemble --scan

mdadm --detail --scan

Suggested repair: ______________________________________________________________

The default repair of the Boot-Repair utility would not act on the boot.

devang-marvania · February 11, 2025, 2:22am

Regarding creating a bootable stick, I made one using Rufus, the settings are below as well.

oldfred · February 11, 2025, 3:28am

[quote=“devang-marvania, post:5, topic:54932”]
4712d0d5-6918-4c07-94ff-b889fb85cf03
[/quote] Is the GUID/partuuid of the ESP partition your grub/ubuntu is trying to boot from.
That partition does not exist.

If you reinstalled, did you create an ESP - efi system partition FAT32 with boot, esp flags. I think it needs to be outside of RAID as UEFI can only read FAT32 partitions, not RAID nor LVM.
I have seem some with RAID that have issues with trying to have UEFI boot on both drives.

system · March 12, 2025, 5:43am

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