Need help with boot after running out of space in LUKS volume, copying to larger hard drive

Support and Help
, ,
1

Ubuntu Version:
Ubuntu 22.04.5 LTS

Problem Description:
I will preface this to say I am a Linux novice!

I ran out of space on my LUKS encrypted volume. I copied the volume onto a larger hard drive thinking this would solve the issue, still won’t boot. I realized the LUKS volume was still at the same partition size and limited by space so I used gparted to increase the size of the encrypted partition on the hard drive, and it still won’t boot. At the moment when I try to boot Busybox comes up and when I try to exit it tells me “/dev/mapper/vgubuntu-root does not exist”

I can log into my LUKS encrypted volume when booted into a liveUSB so my data is still there I just can’t get the system to fully use the available space, and can’t get the system to boot.

I ran boot-repair and got the following summary pasted:

Ubuntu Pastebin

2

A disfunctional system is not a good base for a clone. In my opinion you should first repair the original by deleting some files - depending on where you were out of space - in “/” or “/boot”? You can use

  • a livesystem,
  • decrypt LUKS,
  • activate LVM,
  • make a filesystem check,
  • an then delete personal files or downloads –
  • for works with package management you need also a “chroot” environment.

Afterwards you should start thinking about migration.

How and what did you copied? You need all EFI/ESP, /boot and the encrypted partition. And either original or the copy should be present in the system, because both LVM volume groups have the same name.

No. It ist not so easy. You forgot the LVM. Have a look to

But the size of the filesystem does not make it to boot.

2 Likes
3

Appreciate the reply col.row

I definitely wish I could rewind time and go about it from the beginning with the correct approach. Unfortunately having to try to fix my mistakes after the fact.

It was a couple of months ago I did the copy, I believe I used “dd” to clone the entire drive contents. I don’t have any logs from that time.

I went through the link provided (again I wish I had this from the get-go.. I didn’t originally come to the ubuntu forums just google searched and thought I found the right answer but evidently not the complete answer).

Running the commands “vgs”, “pvscan” and “lsblk” gave me the following outputs before following the instructions:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo vgs
VG #PV #LV #SN Attr VSize VFree
vgubuntu 1 2 0 wz–n- 2.13t 1.22t

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo pvscan
PV /dev/mapper/crypt1 VG vgubuntu lvm2 [2.13 TiB / 1.22 TiB free]
Total: 1 [2.13 TiB] / in use: 1 [2.13 TiB] / in no VG: 0 [0 ]

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
…
sda 8:0 0 3.6T 0 disk
├─sda1 8:1 0 512M 0 part
├─sda2 8:2 0 1.7G 0 part
└─sda3 8:3 0 3T 0 part
└─crypt1 252:0 0 3T 0 crypt
├─vgubuntu-root 252:1 0 928.4G 0 lvm
└─vgubuntu-swap_1 252:2 0 976M 0 lvm

then after following the instructions for resizing the encrypted partition (maximizing space to take up 100% of the free space) I got the following output:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo vgs
VG #PV #LV #SN Attr VSize VFree
vgubuntu 1 2 0 wz–n- <3.04t 0

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo pvscan
PV /dev/mapper/luks-66583d50-9a0a-49cc-a305-13bb2734363a VG vgubuntu lvm2 [<3.04 TiB / 0 free]
Total: 1 [<3.04 TiB] / in use: 1 [<3.04 TiB] / in no VG: 0 [0 ]

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
…
sda 8:0 0 3.6T 0 disk
├─sda1 8:1 0 512M 0 part
├─sda2 8:2 0 1.7G 0 part
└─sda3 8:3 0 3T 0 part
└─crypt1 252:0 0 3T 0 crypt
├─vgubuntu-root 252:1 0 3T 0 lvm
└─vgubuntu-swap_1 252:2 0 976M 0 lvm

so it appears the resizing occurred and was successful, however when trying to boot ubuntu it still boots into Busybox and states that vgubuntu-root does not exist

I ran boot-repair again, I have the pastebin bootinfo summary for this if that would help

I can run the recommended repair which looks to rebuild GRUB. Just don’t want to make any sudden moves without more input :slight_smile:

4

This topic was automatically closed 24 hours after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.