Linux Kernel Issues

Unable to mount to root fs

This occurred because for some reason my current linux kernel got corrupted.

Steps to check

1. Boot to linux via a usb stick

2. Double check that your disks exist (lsblk) and are readable (that means theres a booting issue and NOT a disk issue)

   1. If this is a disk issue and your disk is unreadable, LOL i can’t help you. Blow on the disk or something

3. If your partition still exists, nice! You can actually mount to it and run commands

   sudo mount /dev/nvme1n1p2 /mnt
   sudo mount /dev/nvme1n1p1 /mnt/boot/efi
   sudo mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
   sudo mount --bind /proc /mnt/proc
   sudo mount --bind /sys /mnt/sys
   sudo chroot /mnt

   Inside your usb in your pencil case, the ubuntu you have in there has a script for you to do this: ./eddyzhou/mount_to_partition.sh <partition>

4. Some helpful commands to diagnose the issue with the partition

# Verify fstab uses UUIDs
cat /etc/fstab
 
# Update GRUB and initramfs
update-grub
grub-install /dev/nvme1n1
update-initramfs -u -k all
 
# Is the kernel actually there? and what is it
ls /boot/vmlinuz*
 
# Is the initramfs there?
ls /boot/initrd*
 
# Check if the root UUID matches
blkid /dev/nvme1n1p2
 
# 4. Check what's in the initramfs (grab from ls /boot/vmlinuz*)
lsinitramfs /boot/initrd.img-6.17.0-14-generic | grep nvme

I had two kernels installed for some reason, I think it was an artifact of the past.

That being said, when i ran lsinitramfs /boot/initrd.img-6.17.0-14-generic | grep nvme I got nothing and so that meant that my kernel was fucked. (corrupted)

To fix:

update-initramfs -c -k 6.17.0-14-generic
update-grub
exit
sudo reboot