When Installing Ubuntu On USB Drive, BusyBox Shell appears with UUID <uuid> missing. Dropping to a Shell!

Support and Help
, , ,
1

Ubuntu Version:
24.04.3 LTS

Desktop Environment (if applicable):
GNOME

Installing Ubuntu 24.04.3 LTS on USB 3.0 Drive, one restart later, drops to a BusyBox Shell

Install Ubuntu On USB Drive, Grub Partition on same drive. Successfully installed, restart (or shutdown), boot from Ubuntu (not from the USB drive) Choose Ubuntu in the Bootloader, then get dropped to BusyBox Shell

Relevant System Information:
Dell Latitude 3140
Specs: Intel N200
8.0 GB (7.69 useable)
Windows Drive: 119.24 GB
USB drive I’m attempting to Install to: 115.69 GB

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; ls /dev)
ALERT! UUID= "37cf243b-e12a-4475-8326-396f3188c148" is missing. Dropping to a Shell!

I also used boot-repair to get a summary. Here is the pastebin link:
https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/W8J8rjj5bB/

What I’ve Tried:
Set “SATA operation” to AHCI/NVME
Manual Fsck
Reinstalling Multiple Times
Increase Root Delay
Tried cat /proc/modules; ls /dev

EDIT
I switched to Linux Mint in the meanwhile, installed on a pen drive and busybox was not a problem! I’m starting to think this is either a GRUB or Ubuntu error.

2

Welcome to Ubuntu Discourse :slight_smile:

Have you tried running the recommended repair option mentioned at the end of the script?

Based on the boot info output this should work.

3

Some details worth mentioning:-

Your ESP is 200MB - The default is 1GB
You have a swap partition - The default is a swapfile

Ubuntu 24.04.3 will only install one kernel 6.14.0-27-generic.
You also have 6.14.0-35-generic.

Did you allow updates during installation?
Which kernel dropped you to BusyBox shell?

If this were true, then the internet would be flooded with complaints.

Of course, OS installations occasionally go pear-shaped and there are a few options worth trying during further attempts:-

  • Allow the installer to create default partitions
  • Do not connect to the internet
  • Only have the target disk accessible
  • Use a different USB port
4

I would first try the Boot-Repair fix. Be sure to boot with Secure boot on and include kernel update, so you have the signed or Secure Boot versions of grub & kernel.

Smaller ESP - efi system partition has worked. I use larger on large drives, but with only one install on smaller drive, find the old Windows standard of 100MB works. My Windows dual boot laptop uses 200GB as set by Windows install and is ok. Often larger ESP as FAT32 may be used for UEFI firmware updates or other uses, so larger normally suggested.

Most sytsems lose the “ubuntu” boot entry in UEFI when an exteCEE0-14EFrnal drive is disconnected. You then should be able to boot the fallback or drive entry just like the live installer. The fallback entry is /EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi and I do not see that in your ESP on sda? With UEFI Secure Boot on, bootx64.efi may just be a copy of shimx64.efi.