Linux Mint With Full Disk Encryption Wont Boot

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A4refill

Linux Mint With Full Disk Encryption Wont Boot

Post by A4refill »

Hi guys

Today when browsing the internet with about 30 or more tabs open in Firefox my computer became unresponsive and crashed. I waited a bit to see if it would work and i could hear a faint grinding sound for a few seconds.

Tried rebooting and it wouldn't boot. It lets me type the decryption password but fails after. Here is what happens

https://youtu.be/tHav2zJu2P0

Bad sectors?

Is it possible to recover the data? I had 8k in my bitcoin wallet with no backups. Okay i never bought it for 8k lol but its worth that right now. About 500gb of data needs recovering but not all important.

Please help!
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.
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Spearmint2
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Re: Linux Mint With Full Disk Encryption Wont Boot

Post by Spearmint2 »

I see initram and BusyBox error, so maybe if you find an old copy of the grub.cfg file and use it, the correct password will be in it and open the system up for you? Don't overwrite the grub.cfg now used, just add an extension on filename like -old. Or maybe the pasword is in the MBR instead. Did you make a backup of that?
All things go better with Mint. Mint julep, mint jelly, mint gum, candy mints, pillow mints, peppermint, chocolate mints, spearmint,....
Mute Ant

Re: Linux Mint With Full Disk Encryption Wont Boot

Post by Mute Ant »

You get dropped into a busybox shell when the automatic scripts hit a problem they can't handle. There's a limited range of commands available, probably enough to get you going again. You are root when you do this, let's be careful.

"... find an old copy of the grub.cfg file and use it, the correct password will be in it ..." Back in the real world, grub.cfg doesn't store passwords and the encryption is already unlocked. That long delay suggests a file-system check in progress.

The simple fix. If systemd has put the cart before the horse, trying to mount the OS root while it was being checked, the few extra seconds spent reporting the problem can be enough to make it go away too...
exit ### Attempt to continue the boot.

Slightly more complicated. Do a manual check of the root file system anyway.
cd /dev/mapper ### The folder where the decrypted LUKS and the LVM volumes appear.
umount mint--vg-root ### If it's not mounted this will say so.
fsck -fy mint--vg-root ### Manually check the file system.
mount mint--vg-root /root ### Mount the OS-root volume where busybox normally puts it.
exit ### Attempt to continue the boot.

If there really is no /dev/mapper/mint--vg-root things are less rosy. That's the decrypted version of your OS root file system. It's possible to unlock it from the outside, using a Live Session boot. Have a big removable drive ready to receive the rescued contents.
A4refill

Re: Linux Mint With Full Disk Encryption Wont Boot

Post by A4refill »

This is the result of running

cd /dev/mapper
umount mint--vg-root

Result

Umount: can't umount mint--vg-root: No such file or directory

https://ibb.co/dotx3y


fsck -fy mint--vg-root

Result

/bin/sh: fsck: not found

Then for the final command

mount mint--vg-root /root

Result

mount: mounting mint--vg-root on /root failed: No such file or directory

I would really appreciate if you could help me further from here. I really need the data off the drive, thank you :(
A4refill

Re: Linux Mint With Full Disk Encryption Wont Boot

Post by A4refill »

Even installed linux mint on a live USB and tried connecting my failed hard drive via an external USB.

The drive shows up and even prompted me to enter my password to mount the drive. After entering the decryption password i got the following error though.

https://ibb.co/mtZC3y

Files are too large to attach here so had to upload them to a file host.
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Spearmint2
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Re: Linux Mint With Full Disk Encryption Wont Boot

Post by Spearmint2 »

Since this is full disk encryption and not just the /home folder encryption, I think you need to look into the files in the /boot partition. Did you install a new kernel recently? If so,did you run update-grub? Are you booting from the new kernel, or the original kernel now?
All things go better with Mint. Mint julep, mint jelly, mint gum, candy mints, pillow mints, peppermint, chocolate mints, spearmint,....
Laurent85
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Re: Linux Mint With Full Disk Encryption Wont Boot

Post by Laurent85 »

First screencast shows after 1' logs of a drive failure, I/O error reading sector 97...

From the live session unlock your drive, open a terminal and run :

Code: Select all

sudo vgchange -ay mint-vg
sudo fsck -f -y -v /dev/mapper/mint--vg-root
Reconnect disk into computer main hd bay, check drive's health :

Code: Select all

apt install smartmontools
sudo smartctl -s on -iHA --log=error -f brief -q noserial /dev/sda
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WharfRat

Re: Linux Mint With Full Disk Encryption Wont Boot

Post by WharfRat »

A4refill,

Can you boot the live session and paste back the results of sudo blkid with the disk attached/plugged-in.
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Spearmint2
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Re: Linux Mint With Full Disk Encryption Wont Boot

Post by Spearmint2 »

WharfRat wrote: Fri May 18, 2018 5:26 pm A4refill,

Can you boot the live session and paste back the results of sudo blkid with the disk attached/plugged-in.
check this thread for info.

https://www.cnet.com/forums/discussions ... wont-boot/
All things go better with Mint. Mint julep, mint jelly, mint gum, candy mints, pillow mints, peppermint, chocolate mints, spearmint,....
A4refill

Re: Linux Mint With Full Disk Encryption Wont Boot

Post by A4refill »

Laurent85 wrote: Fri May 18, 2018 5:13 pm First screencast shows after 1' logs of a drive failure, I/O error reading sector 97...

From the live session unlock your drive, open a terminal and run :

Code: Select all

sudo vgchange -ay mint-vg
sudo fsck -f -y -v /dev/mapper/mint--vg-root
Reconnect disk into computer main hd bay, check drive's health :

Code: Select all

apt install smartmontools
sudo smartctl -s on -iHA --log=error -f brief -q noserial /dev/sda

Okay i have executed the following.

sudo vgchange -ay mint-vg
sudo fsck -f -y -v /dev/mapper/mint-vg-root

Right now its just showing

y
y
y
y

Is this normal? Do i just wait until it stops running?
A4refill

Re: Linux Mint With Full Disk Encryption Wont Boot

Post by A4refill »

Laurent85 wrote: Fri May 18, 2018 5:13 pm First screencast shows after 1' logs of a drive failure, I/O error reading sector 97...

From the live session unlock your drive, open a terminal and run :

Code: Select all

sudo vgchange -ay mint-vg
sudo fsck -f -y -v /dev/mapper/mint--vg-root
Reconnect disk into computer main hd bay, check drive's health :

Code: Select all

apt install smartmontools
sudo smartctl -s on -iHA --log=error -f brief -q noserial /dev/sda
All the y letters just didn't look right so i closed the terminal and repeated.
sudo vgchange -ay mint-vg
sudo fsck -f -y -v /dev/mapper/mint--vg-root
Result

mint@mint ~ $ sudo fsck -f -y -v /dev/mapper/mint--vg-root
fsck from util-linux 2.27.1
e2fsck 1.42.13 (17-May-2015)
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
Inodes that were part of a corrupted orphan linked list found. Fix? yes

Inode 29494077 was part of the orphaned inode list. FIXED.
Pass 2: Checking directory structure
Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity
Pass 4: Checking reference counts
Pass 5: Checking group summary information

/dev/mapper/mint--vg-root: ***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****

371368 inodes used (1.23%, out of 30285824)
2512 non-contiguous files (0.7%)
197 non-contiguous directories (0.1%)
# of inodes with ind/dind/tind blocks: 0/0/0
Extent depth histogram: 338640/584/15
100732020 blocks used (83.17%, out of 121120768)
0 bad blocks
13 large files

312808 regular files
25028 directories
57 character device files
25 block device files
0 fifos
173 links
33432 symbolic links (32030 fast symbolic links)
9 sockets
------------
371532 files

sudo smartctl -s on -iHA --log=error -f brief -q noserial /dev/sda
Result

mint@mint ~ $ sudo smartctl -s on -iHA --log=error -f brief -q noserial /dev/sdasmartctl 6.5 2016-01-24 r4214 [i686-linux-4.10.0-38-generic] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-16, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family: Toshiba 2.5" HDD MQ01ABF...
Device Model: TOSHIBA MQ01ABF050
Firmware Version: AM0P3M
User Capacity: 500,107,862,016 bytes [500 GB]
Sector Size: 512 bytes logical/physical
Rotation Rate: 5400 rpm
Form Factor: 2.5 inches
Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is: ATA8-ACS (minor revision not indicated)
SATA Version is: SATA 2.6, 3.0 Gb/s (current: 3.0 Gb/s)
Local Time is: Mon May 21 14:26:05 2018 UTC
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

=== START OF ENABLE/DISABLE COMMANDS SECTION ===
SMART Enabled.

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAGS VALUE WORST THRESH FAIL RAW_VALUE
1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate PO-R-- 100 099 050 - 0
2 Throughput_Performance P-S--- 100 100 050 - 0
3 Spin_Up_Time POS--K 100 100 001 - 1355
4 Start_Stop_Count -O--CK 100 100 000 - 8074
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct PO--CK 100 100 050 - 8
7 Seek_Error_Rate PO-R-- 100 100 050 - 0
8 Seek_Time_Performance P-S--- 100 100 050 - 0
9 Power_On_Hours -O--CK 080 080 000 - 8201
10 Spin_Retry_Count PO--CK 253 100 030 - 0
12 Power_Cycle_Count -O--CK 100 100 000 - 6605
191 G-Sense_Error_Rate -O--CK 100 100 000 - 599
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count -O--CK 098 098 000 - 1158
193 Load_Cycle_Count -O--CK 089 089 000 - 113122
194 Temperature_Celsius -O---K 100 100 000 - 27 (Min/Max 5/50)
196 Reallocated_Event_Count -O--CK 100 100 000 - 1
197 Current_Pending_Sector -O--CK 100 100 000 - 16368
198 Offline_Uncorrectable ----CK 100 100 000 - 0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count -O--CK 200 200 000 - 0
220 Disk_Shift -O---- 100 100 000 - 0
222 Loaded_Hours -O--CK 082 082 000 - 7264
223 Load_Retry_Count -O--CK 100 100 000 - 0
224 Load_Friction -O---K 100 100 000 - 0
226 Load-in_Time -OS--K 100 100 000 - 272
240 Head_Flying_Hours P----- 100 100 001 - 0
||||||_ K auto-keep
|||||__ C event count
||||___ R error rate
|||____ S speed/performance
||_____ O updated online
|______ P prefailure warning

SMART Error Log Version: 1
ATA Error Count: 51253 (device log contains only the most recent five errors)
CR = Command Register [HEX]
FR = Features Register [HEX]
SC = Sector Count Register [HEX]
SN = Sector Number Register [HEX]
CL = Cylinder Low Register [HEX]
CH = Cylinder High Register [HEX]
DH = Device/Head Register [HEX]
DC = Device Command Register [HEX]
ER = Error register [HEX]
ST = Status register [HEX]
Powered_Up_Time is measured from power on, and printed as
DDd+hh:mm:SS.sss where DD=days, hh=hours, mm=minutes,
SS=sec, and sss=millisec. It "wraps" after 49.710 days.

Error 51253 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 8200 hours (341 days + 16 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.

After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
40 41 a0 f8 fe c8 40 Error: UNC at LBA = 0x00c8fef8 = 13172472

Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
60 08 a0 f8 fe c8 40 00 00:29:10.758 READ FPDMA QUEUED
e5 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00:29:10.758 CHECK POWER MODE
ef 10 02 00 00 00 a0 00 00:29:10.757 SET FEATURES [Enable SATA feature]
27 00 00 00 00 00 e0 00 00:29:10.757 READ NATIVE MAX ADDRESS EXT [OBS-ACS-3]
ec 00 00 00 00 00 a0 00 00:29:10.756 IDENTIFY DEVICE

Error 51252 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 8200 hours (341 days + 16 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.

After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
40 41 70 f8 fe c8 40 Error: UNC at LBA = 0x00c8fef8 = 13172472

Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
60 08 70 f8 fe c8 40 00 00:29:06.861 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 08 68 f8 ff c8 40 00 00:29:06.861 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 08 60 08 c0 07 40 00 00:29:06.861 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 08 58 00 c0 07 40 00 00:29:06.861 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 08 50 f0 ff c8 40 00 00:29:06.860 READ FPDMA QUEUED

Error 51251 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 8200 hours (341 days + 16 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.

After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
40 41 90 88 c0 07 40 Error: UNC at LBA = 0x0007c088 = 508040

Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
60 08 98 00 c0 47 40 00 00:29:05.268 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 08 90 88 c0 07 40 00 00:29:01.511 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 10 88 70 c0 07 40 00 00:29:01.510 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 10 80 60 c0 07 40 00 00:29:01.510 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 10 78 50 c0 07 40 00 00:29:01.510 READ FPDMA QUEUED

Error 51250 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 8200 hours (341 days + 16 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.

After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
40 41 68 48 c3 07 40 Error: UNC at LBA = 0x0007c348 = 508744

Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
60 08 68 48 c3 07 40 00 00:28:38.135 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 08 60 40 c3 07 40 00 00:28:38.127 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 08 58 38 c3 07 40 00 00:28:38.125 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 08 50 30 c3 07 40 00 00:28:38.125 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 08 48 28 c3 07 40 00 00:28:38.124 READ FPDMA QUEUED

Error 51249 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 8200 hours (341 days + 16 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.

After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
40 41 00 c8 c3 07 40 Error: UNC at LBA = 0x0007c3c8 = 508872

Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
60 08 38 f0 c2 07 40 00 00:28:34.002 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 08 30 e8 c2 07 40 00 00:28:34.002 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 08 28 e0 c2 07 40 00 00:28:34.002 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 08 20 d8 c2 07 40 00 00:28:34.001 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 08 18 d0 c2 07 40 00 00:28:34.001 READ FPDMA QUEUED

mint@mint ~ $


Please advise, thank you
Laurent85
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Posts: 7081
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Re: Linux Mint With Full Disk Encryption Wont Boot

Post by Laurent85 »

The firmware of the drive logged thousands of read errors.

Top priority stop using your drive before sectors get unrecoverable or your hard disk dies.

You should first clone your hard disk to an image file on an external disk using gddrescue (with at least 500GB free disk space). This way you will have all the time you need to recover your data from the disk image. Only operate from a live session, don't try to boot from your hard disk :

Code: Select all

apt install gddrescue
sudo ddrescue -r4 /dev/sda /media/path_to_my_external_backup_drive/my_toshiba_hdd_500gb.img /media/path_to_my_external_backup_drive/my_toshiba_hdd_500gb.img.log
Replace path_to_my_external_backup_drive with real path to external drive.
Image
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