Having a succession of problems trying to get a Dual Boot of Mint 17.2 & Win 8.1 running on my wife's refurbished Acer AIO PC, I have ditched this PC and purchased a HP Pavilion 23 AIO PC
OK, process of getting this set-up as a Dual Boot PC benefited from the experience with the Acer and proceeded OK
Right, now to get her Mint installation as she wants it, with all her programs & settings. Using a Win Image backup program (Backupper) I made a copy of her recently configured Mint installation on the Acer (which was on D:/) to a Ext HDD
Next I Used Backupper programme in Win on the HP to “Restore” saved D:/ from Ext HDD containing fully configured Mint install from Acer PC (having successfully created a Dual Boot on the HP, with Mint also on D:/)
Result: corrupted Grub > Boot-Repair USB Disk created unstable repair, Mint boot sometimes produces error message “Keys: Continue to wait, or Press S to skip mounting or M for manual recovery” (Waiting not successful, key S loaded Mint successfully, same as on Acer PC) or produces blank frozen screen
Tried running Backupper System Restore image of C:/ restore to prior Dual Boot state, followed by Boot-repair USB Disk, but same result
Note, I did use NTFS-config with Acer Mint installation if that has any impact
Any suggestions for saving the configured Mint install on the HP and fixing Grub boot issues?
Error - Press S to skip mounting
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Error - Press S to skip mounting
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
Re: Error - Press S to skip mounting
Hello EdQld - Don't jump to the conclusion that this is a grub-related issue. When you see this particular error message, “Keys: Continue to wait, or Press S to skip mounting or M for manual recovery”, it indicates that there is a problem related to the file /etc/fstab, which defines the mount points for your Linux disk partitions. Either there is an error involving one or more entries, or an entry is missing altogether. I have a feeling that when you transferred these partitions from one disk to the other, one or more partitions were assigned new UUID's on the new disk, while the entries in /etc/fstab kept the original UUID's from the original disk. Here's how to check your if your UUID's don't match:
Boot into Linux Mint, open the Terminal, and enter " sudo blkid ". Take note: there is a UUID assigned to each disk partition. Leave that Terminal open, and open a second Terminal (yes, you can do that!). In the second Terminal, enter " sudo gedit /etc/fstab ". This will open a new panel showing the contents of /etc/fstab, which you can edit. You should shift these around so you can easily see the contents of both the Terminal and the file /etc/fstab.
Now, to explain: The information displayed by sudo blkid is the actual UUID assigned to the disk partition. The information displayed in /etc/fstab may or may not be correct. What you must do is verify that the UUID for every entry in /etc/fstab for every Linux partition matches what is displayed by sudo blkid. If you find a mis-match, you can very carefully delete just the UUID data string (not the entire line!) in /etc/fstab, then very carefully copy and paste the correct UUID data string from sudo blkid into the entry in fstab. If you take your time, be careful, and make certain you're using the correct UUID for every partition, you shouldn't have a problem.
Once you have done this, you must save the changes in /etc/fstab by doing the following: Go up and click "File", then click "Save" to save your changes. Then click "File" again, and click "Quit" to close the file. After doing this, you can close the two open Terminals, then reboot. If you got everything right, you will no longer see that error message displayed during system boot.
As far as your problem with seeing a blank screen at boot, does this occur when booting Windows, booting Linux Mint, or both? Or does this screen appear before you even see the grub boot menu? Also, is the screen completely blank, or do you see a flashing cursor in the top left corner of the screen?
Boot into Linux Mint, open the Terminal, and enter " sudo blkid ". Take note: there is a UUID assigned to each disk partition. Leave that Terminal open, and open a second Terminal (yes, you can do that!). In the second Terminal, enter " sudo gedit /etc/fstab ". This will open a new panel showing the contents of /etc/fstab, which you can edit. You should shift these around so you can easily see the contents of both the Terminal and the file /etc/fstab.
Now, to explain: The information displayed by sudo blkid is the actual UUID assigned to the disk partition. The information displayed in /etc/fstab may or may not be correct. What you must do is verify that the UUID for every entry in /etc/fstab for every Linux partition matches what is displayed by sudo blkid. If you find a mis-match, you can very carefully delete just the UUID data string (not the entire line!) in /etc/fstab, then very carefully copy and paste the correct UUID data string from sudo blkid into the entry in fstab. If you take your time, be careful, and make certain you're using the correct UUID for every partition, you shouldn't have a problem.
Once you have done this, you must save the changes in /etc/fstab by doing the following: Go up and click "File", then click "Save" to save your changes. Then click "File" again, and click "Quit" to close the file. After doing this, you can close the two open Terminals, then reboot. If you got everything right, you will no longer see that error message displayed during system boot.
As far as your problem with seeing a blank screen at boot, does this occur when booting Windows, booting Linux Mint, or both? Or does this screen appear before you even see the grub boot menu? Also, is the screen completely blank, or do you see a flashing cursor in the top left corner of the screen?
"When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light, for your life, for your strength. Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault lies in yourself." - Tecumseh
Re: Error - Press S to skip mounting
Hi Derek_S, thanks very much for the help, I will try what you have suggested 
re the Blank screen, it occurs only with Mint boot, after making the Grub selection, sometimes I get the error message & sometimes this completely blank screen (no blinking cursor)
Thank again, I will post back after trying your suggestions
re the Blank screen, it occurs only with Mint boot, after making the Grub selection, sometimes I get the error message & sometimes this completely blank screen (no blinking cursor)
Thank again, I will post back after trying your suggestions
Re: Error - Press S to skip mounting
when I pasted the command sudo gedit /etc/fstab, i get an error message: sudo: gedit: command not found
Re: Error - Press S to skip mounting
Hi EdQld,
After following Derek_S you can check your fstab for errors in a terminal before rebooting:
If this does not return errors you are good to go.
If it happens to return an error you can re edit the fstab
After following Derek_S you can check your fstab for errors in a terminal before rebooting:
Code: Select all
sudo mount -aIf it happens to return an error you can re edit the fstab
Everything in life was difficult before it became easy.
Re: Error - Press S to skip mounting
Outcomes
sudo: gedit: command not found
sudo blkid
/dev/sda1: LABEL="Windows RE tools" UUID="B4A48459A484204A" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sda2: LABEL="SYSTEM" UUID="B275-D23E" TYPE="vfat"
/dev/sda4: LABEL="Windows" UUID="B8DA5050DA500CCE" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sda5: LABEL="DATA" UUID="12DC299BDC297A5D" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sda6: UUID="0add6bf8-9fa7-455a-b1f4-9351494b1090" TYPE="swap"
/dev/sda7: UUID="f62300dc-334d-41c7-940b-87b221447453" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sda8: LABEL="Recovery Image" UUID="3A967F17967ED2BD" TYPE="ntfs"
running: sudo mount -a (to check fstab for errors before rebooting)
ntfs-3g: Failed to access volume 'UUID=7EE41641E415FBD9': No such file or directory
ntfs-3g 2013.1.13AR.1 external FUSE 29 - Third Generation NTFS Driver
Configuration type 7, XATTRS are on, POSIX ACLS are on
Copyright (C) 2005-2007 Yura Pakhuchiy
Copyright (C) 2006-2009 Szabolcs Szakacsits
Copyright (C) 2007-2012 Jean-Pierre Andre
Copyright (C) 2009 Erik Larsson
Usage: ntfs-3g [-o option[,...]] <device|image_file> <mount_point>
Options: ro (read-only mount), windows_names, uid=, gid=,
umask=, fmask=, dmask=, streams_interface=.
Please see the details in the manual (type: man ntfs-3g).
Example: ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /mnt/windows
News, support and information: http://tuxera.com
So there does seem to be an issue here, now how do I proceed to fix this?
sudo: gedit: command not found
sudo blkid
/dev/sda1: LABEL="Windows RE tools" UUID="B4A48459A484204A" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sda2: LABEL="SYSTEM" UUID="B275-D23E" TYPE="vfat"
/dev/sda4: LABEL="Windows" UUID="B8DA5050DA500CCE" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sda5: LABEL="DATA" UUID="12DC299BDC297A5D" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sda6: UUID="0add6bf8-9fa7-455a-b1f4-9351494b1090" TYPE="swap"
/dev/sda7: UUID="f62300dc-334d-41c7-940b-87b221447453" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sda8: LABEL="Recovery Image" UUID="3A967F17967ED2BD" TYPE="ntfs"
running: sudo mount -a (to check fstab for errors before rebooting)
ntfs-3g: Failed to access volume 'UUID=7EE41641E415FBD9': No such file or directory
ntfs-3g 2013.1.13AR.1 external FUSE 29 - Third Generation NTFS Driver
Configuration type 7, XATTRS are on, POSIX ACLS are on
Copyright (C) 2005-2007 Yura Pakhuchiy
Copyright (C) 2006-2009 Szabolcs Szakacsits
Copyright (C) 2007-2012 Jean-Pierre Andre
Copyright (C) 2009 Erik Larsson
Usage: ntfs-3g [-o option[,...]] <device|image_file> <mount_point>
Options: ro (read-only mount), windows_names, uid=, gid=,
umask=, fmask=, dmask=, streams_interface=.
Please see the details in the manual (type: man ntfs-3g).
Example: ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /mnt/windows
News, support and information: http://tuxera.com
So there does seem to be an issue here, now how do I proceed to fix this?
Re: Error - Press S to skip mounting
Hello EdQld - It's strange that gedit isn't already installed on your system. To install it from the Terminal:
sudo apt-get install gedit
sudo apt-get install gedit
"When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light, for your life, for your strength. Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault lies in yourself." - Tecumseh
Re: Error - Press S to skip mounting
Update:
OK, used sudo apt-get install gedit to get gedit
result did not show all sda's but the ones it did had different UUID's and the swap & ext4 were also wrong, corrected these, saved, quit and rebooted
Alas, Mint boot still alternating between frozen dark screen & needing Key S to proceed to load Mint
I may just have to start from scratch again and restore Win and then do a fresh install of Mint again
OK, used sudo apt-get install gedit to get gedit
result did not show all sda's but the ones it did had different UUID's and the swap & ext4 were also wrong, corrected these, saved, quit and rebooted
Alas, Mint boot still alternating between frozen dark screen & needing Key S to proceed to load Mint
I may just have to start from scratch again and restore Win and then do a fresh install of Mint again