Boot fails unless non-boot USB connected ["solved"]

[scrognoid]

Boot goes into recovery mode if I disconnect a 3TB USB NTFS archive drive that does NOT contain an OS. If that drive is connected it boots to Mate 18.3 from the internal SSD.

Mate 18.3; Dell Latitude E5430; UEFI mode; SecureBoot off. USB does not have a boot flag, according to gparted.

I installed Mint via "Erase disk and install"; let default boot location to /dev/sda. However, I've been through a lot, including a new internal drive and giving up on dual booting Windows. That USB NTFS may have been connected during one of my many failed installation attempts.

[Flemur]

Boot goes into recovery mode if I disconnect a 3TB USB NTFS archive drive that does NOT contain an OS. If that drive is connected it boots to Mate 18.3 from the internal SSD.

Boot linux with the USB drive connected.
After it boots "eject" the USB drive. (file-browser->rt-click->eject)
Do

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df

to verify that the disk for "/" (=your linux install) is /dev/sda

df example output:

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/dev/sda2       30107516  5694332  22860808  20% /

"/" is on /dev/sda2 which is on /dev/sda.

Then run (assuming "sda" is correct. Don't add a number, it's "/dev/sda") this:

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sudo grub-install /dev/sda
sudo update-grub

Now you should be able to boot properly w/o the USB drive connected.

[scrognoid]

Thanks for the quick reply!

df output below.

sda is the pesky archive drive. sdb is my internal. "/" is on "aufs"?
So I should?

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sudo grub-install /dev/sdB

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mint@mint ~ $ df
Filesystem      1K-blocks      Used  Available Use% Mounted on
udev              1957088         0    1957088   0% /dev
tmpfs              394608      6332     388276   2% /run
/dev/sdc          1878640   1878640          0 100% /cdrom
/dev/loop0        1824128   1824128          0 100% /rofs
aufs              1973028     77904    1895124   4% /
tmpfs             1973028     16076    1956952   1% /dev/shm
tmpfs                5120         4       5116   1% /run/lock
tmpfs             1973028         0    1973028   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
tmpfs             1973028       520    1972508   1% /tmp
cgmfs                 100         0        100   0% /run/cgmanager/fs
tmpfs              394608        36     394572   1% /run/user/999
/dev/sdb2       235685664   7665244  216025236   4% /media/mint/43fb0a63-0a1c-4e0c-8f31-bcfb1899ca5b
/dev/sda1      2930265084 749107944 2181157140  26% /media/mint/2BasementB

[vansloneker]

During install something happened that demands your USB drive to be connected during boot. So you probably had it on the system while you installed 18.3, but you've concluded that yourself.

I could be mistaken but it seems to me your boot "/" is only 2GB? Is this boot partition maybe made on the USB disk? Can you examine your USB disk in Gparted or Disks?

What are the contents of fstab? (/etc/fstab)

Could this have something to do with your problem?

[Flemur]

sda is the pesky archive drive. sdb is my internal. "/" is on "aufs"?
So I should?

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sudo grub-install /dev/sdB

I dunno! That is very strange - my guess is that you haven't actually installed linux and that you're running from the LiveDVD because that "aufs" is somehow associated with CD (DVD).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aufs
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_mount

So - I don't know what's going on, maybe someone who knows more about installation will jump in.

[scrognoid]

My bad re 'aufs'. I did a live boot.

Re-doing, booting the internal OS, "/" is on /dev/sdb. I did the grub install to sdb and update but the behavior did not change.
I might just resign myself to keeping the USB plugged in but it's making noise and I fear it's failing.
The comment in fstab

# / was on /dev/sda2 during installation

makes me think my memory is correct - the last install I did of 18.3, the pesky USB was not plugged in. Which means I can't fix this with a clean install?!? Say is ain't so.


Here is fstab:

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>>> cat /etc/fstab
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
# / was on /dev/sda2 during installation
UUID=43fb0a63-0a1c-4e0c-8f31-bcfb1899ca5b /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
# /boot/efi was on /dev/sda1 during installation
UUID=C8A5-13F2  /boot/efi       vfat    umask=0077      0       1
# swap was on /dev/sda3 during installation
UUID=9d4d94e4-2e3a-489c-961e-eb45bb2a170f none            swap    sw              0       0

# backup mounts
UUID=573173997666ABCE /media/2BasementBackup ntfs defaults,nls=utf8,umask=000,uid=1000,windows_names 0 0
#
>>>

and blkid

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>>> blkid
/dev/sda1: LABEL="2BasementBackup" UUID="573173997666ABCE" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sdb1: UUID="C8A5-13F2" TYPE="vfat" PARTLABEL="EFI System Partition" PARTUUID="c006d4d3-7033-408a-88d0-71f4e3618103"
/dev/sdb2: UUID="43fb0a63-0a1c-4e0c-8f31-bcfb1899ca5b" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="d28c9747-1188-4af6-bca8-e139437898cb"
/dev/sdb3: UUID="9d4d94e4-2e3a-489c-961e-eb45bb2a170f" TYPE="swap" PARTUUID="7d26b0cf-621d-448e-8a4c-24473af17648"
>>> 

[scrognoid]

Fixed by setting Advanced BIOS Option to Enable Legacy Option ROMs. I don't know why. In Boot Sequence I chose UEFI over Legacy.

I say "fixed" but only after:

• deleting all partitions
  writing zeros to the entire disk
  creating a new single partition (still got warned that another OS was detected and would be destroyed)
  Erase Disk and Install Linux Mint
  Restart - "no bootable device"
  asking the gods what I had done to deserve this
  hitting F2 to Enter Setup and setting Enable Legacy Option ROMs

[vansloneker]

Well done scrognoid. I always use legacy, never uefi. Uefi is a real pain. It's good to lock Windows to a system, and has the benefit of not having to enter the serial when installing Windows because it is locked in the system. It's not good if you want to boot other operating systems or from USB.

[scrognoid]

Huh. I thought I was supposed to use UEFI because it's, you know, newer.

[vansloneker]

This my two cents.

Good old Bios does have it's limitations and problems, with Uefi they tried better, but did not have Linux users in mind.
Enter Uefi vs legacy in a search machine and make up your own opinion, if you want to.

Fact is, your machine running thanks to legacy. And that's the most important.