Score:2

Dropping to Busybox initramfs shell on boot --- volume group not found

li flag

since i am fighting for 3 days already to solve this issue that keeps us from working normally, i surrendered and try to get help here.

I have Ubuntu Studio installed for some months and it is setup with Full Disk Encryption.

It started some weeks ago i just wanted to install updates with apt-get upgrade and it printed an error i think it was connected with some package of initramfs, i dont remember exactly. I just thought ok i am going to remove the package and reinstall it.

I did it and it didnt print the error. So i thought it is working.

But on the next reboot, it didnt boot anymore but sent me to the busybox shell.

With the same errors I also have now namely:

Volume group "vgubuntu-studio" not found
 Cannot process volume group vgubuntu-studio 
Gave up waiting for root file system device. Common problems:
-Boot args (cat /proc/cmdline)
  -Check rootdelay= (did the system wait long enough?)
-Missing modules (cat /proc/modules; ls /dev) 
ALERT! /dev/mapper/vgubuntu--studio-root does not exist. Dropping to a shell! 

Busybox v1.30.1 (ubuntu 1:1.30.1-4ubuntu6.3 built in shell (ash)


(initramfs)

I then found out that when i chose another Kernel for Booting it works, so i searched for a way to automatically chose this Kernel for booting i did this and it worked in the recent time(honestly i dont know how often the computer was restarted but some times for sure). It was something with grub.cfg, i should really start taking notes....

It is mostly my girlfriends computer and i realized it had problems playing videos and wanted to install updates and reboot it. And when i did it was stuck again in the busybox.

But now whatever Kernel i chose it always returns to the Busybox, i never managed to start it up.

I tried now three days to fix it with several tools for example the boot repair tool from the linux mint live usb. It reinstalled grub i guess but still exactly the same error. And several other ways but nothing worked.

Most of the answers when searching have slightly different descriptions mostly something connected with fsck.

I would really appreciate any help or push into the right direction on where to search.

Thanks for reading

Score:2
cz flag

I got into the same situation you did. There might be a simpler way, but this is what I did to fix it. You'll need an Ubuntu USB so that you can chroot into the encrypted partition.

You need to install cryptsetup-initramfs and then run update-initramfs by doing the following.

Chroot into the encrypted partition

Boot into Ubuntu from a USB and click the "Try Ubuntu" button. Open up a terminal.

Find your encrypted partition.

sudo fdisk -l

Decrypt the partition. Let's say my encrypted partition is /dev/sda3

sudo cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/sda3 sda3_crypt

It should prompt you to put in the password to your encrypted partition.Now we need to mount and chroot into the partition. You'll need to know the location of root, as well as the /boot and EFI partitions. You can use sudo blkid to look for them. It'll look something like this where sda2 is the boot partition and sda1 is the EFI partition.

sudo mount /dev/mapper/vgubuntu--studio-root /mnt
sudo mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/boot
sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot/efi
for i in /dev /dev/pts /proc /sys /run; do sudo mount -B $i /mnt$i; done
sudo chroot /mnt
sudo grub-install
update-grub 

Now you're in a chroot terminal, which is kind of like being in a terminal inside your encrypted partition. You should have access to your files so, before you do anything else, you can try copying them to a safe location just in case the next steps don't work.

Install cryptsetup-initramfs

sudo apt-get install cryptsetup-initramfs

Check crypttab file and update initramfs

Check the /etc/crypttab file with an editor to make sure it's set up properly. Mine was unchanged, but you might want to take a look.

Update initramfs using this command.

update-initramfs -k all -u

The -k all option specifies to update it for all kernel versions. You can specify the one(s) you want if you don't want to update them all. The -u option is to update existing initramfs rather than create new ones or remove old ones.

Exit the chroot, unmount, and restart

To get out of the chroot environment and unmount your partition.

exit
cd
for i in /mnt/dev/pts /mnt/dev  /mnt/proc /mnt/sys /mnt/run /mnt/boot/efi /mnt/boot /mnt; do sudo umount $i;  done

Restart the system and remove the USB. Hopefully this fixed things for you as it did for me. The big problem was that cryptsetup-initramfs was missing. It might have been removed when you uninstalled the initramfs package.

Valentas avatar
cn flag
Struggled for the entire day. This solution was the blessing!
Weezy avatar
nl flag
Worked like a charm for me. Thanks! cryptsetup-initramfs it was.
Score:0
in flag

I faced similar issue sometime ago. I was adding another LVM volume to the setup and accidentally had renamed my ubuntu-vg to the new volume (messed up executing the commands).

Solution was to boot through a USB bootable disk and rename back the faulty vg. Steps I followed were:

  1. Boot using a Live Linux USB
  2. Open terminal and type in the following:

2.1 sudo vgdisplay --> shows the list of all the vgs in your setup

2.2 Identify the vg that has been disturbed or that contains the primary FS

2.3 sudo vgrename <wrong_name> ubuntu-vg

After the above, shutdown nicely and then restart. The volume will be seen by grub and will be loaded as normal.

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