Boot not working possible bug in GRUB2 or BTRFS tools

[Snowhog]

The issue you have ‘with us’ (?) isn’t anything to do with us. I am 100% certain of that.

As to your ‘message’. Unfortunately, the entirety of the boot process isn’t logged, and that’s by design. I’m not saying that the design is good. In fact, many years ago, here in KFN, we had a member (no longer with us) who was incredibly knowledgable about Linux, and it was (still) possible (then) to re-enable the ‘turned-off’ unlogged part of the boot sequence. Sadly, that ability (to turn back on) was permanently removed from the kernel years ago. (All of this is ‘IIRC’. I’ve tried finding the posts I had with this member, but without success. It may be that I was communicating with him via email, and if that was the case, I don’t have emails from that far back.)

[GreyGeek]

@steve7233, I have the exact same problem on my FF 57.x. I,too, thought it was a KFN problem. But, when I switch to any other browser the problem goes away. I haven't spent the time trying to determine what settings in FF57 causes the problem.

[steve7233]

The issue you have ‘with us’ (?) isn’t anything to do with us. I am 100% certain of that.

As to your ‘message’. Unfortunately, the entirety of the boot process isn’t logged, and that’s by design. I’m not saying that the design is good. In fact, many years ago, here in KFN, we had a member (no longer with us) who was incredibly knowledgable about Linux, and it was (still) possible (then) to re-enable the ‘turned-off’ unlogged part of the boot sequence. Sadly, that ability (to turn back on) was permanently removed from the kernel years ago. (All of this is ‘IIRC’. I’ve tried finding the posts I had with this member, but without success. It may be that I was communicating with him via email, and if that was the case, I don’t have emails from that far back.)

I guess I will have to reinstall. Should I risk BTRFS again or go back to using EXT4 or something else? Since I am using hard drives manufactured 2007 and 2008, then maybe BTRFS or the EFI hybrid BIOS is processing it a bit wrong. Kinda like Plug N Play were my logitech Performance MX mouse isn't properly identified during boot -that is revealed in the log files -. At least I am guessing it's a plug n play problem, it is definitively a usb thing.

[steve7233]

@steve7233, I have the exact same problem on my FF 57.x. I,too, thought it was a KFN problem. But, when I switch to any other browser the problem goes away. I haven't spent the time trying to determine what settings in FF57 causes the problem.

Finally some else that has gotten the same problem.

[GreyGeek]

Steve, do what you feel most comfortable with, be it EXT4 or Btrfs, or what ever.
I'm comfortable using FF57 even though it has the problem, and I don't know, yet, what is causing it. I may never know, and if it fixes itself, like most problems in Linux do, I won't care.

I would offer one piece of advice. Stay with standard procedures and don't jump into the bushes in an attempt to solve a problem that was created by doing things in unordinary ways. That's how you stay away from "software problems".

[steve7233]

Steve, do what you feel most comfortable with, be it EXT4 or Btrfs, or what ever.
I'm comfortable using FF57 even though it has the problem, and I don't know, yet, what is causing it. I may never know, and if it fixes itself, like most problems in Linux do, I won't care.

I would offer one piece of advice. Stay with standard procedures and don't jump into the bushes in an attempt to solve a problem that was created by doing things in unordinary ways. That's how you stay away from "software problems".

I suspect it might be the Hybrid EFI BIOS. It might be the combination of very early 21st century hard drives and a hybrid EFI BIOS that it dosn't always work correctly. It might not be the File system rather some hardware glitch. I am not sure how to prevent future problems. Anyone have any suggestions?

[steve7233]

I just went to the download Kubuntu web page to see if there was a newer version of Kubuntu 17.10. I discovered that Kubuntu 17.10 is no longer avaliable to be downloaded! Apparently there is a serious UEFI problem on some machens that causes corruption in the BIOS. I clicked on the bug report link to find out what is going on. I didn't think it was possible for a linux distro to affect the BIOS but it appears to be doing just that! I suspect they took down the download from the threat of legal action. I wounder if this will delay 18.04.

I wounder if I might be experiencing a similar problem. Since I can still boot an external USB dvd drive then I can run the live version. I can not boot from HD. This seems similar. I am going to look carefully in my BIOS to see if something got changed. It is a home made PC, so I might have to look at the motherboard and check the mobo's web site to see if their is a BIOS upgrade that might fix it. That assumes it is a BIOS/ linux problem, which would seems unlikley, but maybe it is.

[steve7233]

I finally got it to boot. It turns out one of the drives - the boot one of course -, was disconnected at both ends of the data cable. I bought cables with connectors on them that was supposed to keep the data connection from unconnecting. I guess it dosn't work on old drives. Then I noticed my steam drive was the one that wasn't mounting. I discovered a quicker way to edit fstab without having to boot from the dvd. when Kubuntu hangs at it's splash screen, just type [CTRL]+[ALT]+[F7] then wait about 40 seconds - hopefully faster on better computers - then you are in emergency mode. after pressing enter at the emergency mode prompt, type D:edit /etc/fstab, then hash tag the beginning of the lie that has the problem. Type [CTRL]+[O] to write out the change. Now type [CTRL]+[ALT]+[DEL], to reboot and your golden.

Not that easy for me as grub II, sets my aspect ration wrong, so the display aria is cut off in all 4 sides of the screen! Probably set to 16x9 when 16x10 is needed.
I discovered that my steam drive could not be read by dolphin. KDE partition manager can read and repair the partition thus enabling Dolphin to read the files and directories of my steam games. Rebooting still renders the steam drive unmountable! At the moment I am trying to figure out why Grub II can't mount my steam drive, but KDEpartion manager can and after running the repair option then dolphin, can read the drive. Maybe something isn't saving or whatever.

[steve7233]

I thought maybe mount names can't have spaces and maybe they might have to be short names. Those two things seem silly in this day but maybe the rules were never brought up to 21st century methods, so maybe it still uses old school rules. I used a one word name instead and now it works. It seems my old school method is what worked. Why is it still using old school rules? It should be updated so you can use longer names and spaces like ordinary file names.

[oshunluvr]

I thought maybe mount names can't have spaces and maybe they might have to be short names. Those two things seem silly in this day but maybe the rules were never brought up to 21st century methods, so maybe it still uses old school rules. I used a one word name instead and now it works. It seems my old school method is what worked. Why is it still using old school rules? It should be updated so you can use longer names and spaces like ordinary file names.

A space in Linux is a default field delimiter - meaning it signals the end of a field in a line. One can use spaces anywhere one likes as one always have been able to, but one has to accommodate one's usage of them. What one can't do is decide that spaces should "just work" here or there and then sit in wonderment when they often don't.

Do any reading at all about script coding or programming in any programming language and you see that well written code allows for people that insist on ignoring this basic rule in file names and other places for some silly reason. What you'll also see from wiser users is the frequent use of the underscore key in place of a space. So instead of a mounting location of "/mnt/my green USB drive" use "mnt/my_green_USB_drive" and with one simple changed keystroke you avoid having to escape code the space or using bracketed variables everywhere or dealing with self-inflicted issues because of the space, and yet the mount location labels I used are just as easily read and understood whether you use the space or the underscore. A more elegant and simple solution there never was. I suspect this may be the reason the underscore key remains on our keyboards beyond typewriters.

The idea that the functionality of field delimiters in Unix (where this functionality came from) is some how an anachronism or has no purpose today is equivalent to arguing about the use of punctuation in the English language and a total waste of time.

However, this is Linux; which primarily means you are in control of your own system. So read this, open a konsole window, and then play with some bash commands. Have fun.