Saturday, March 23, 2019

18.04 - Ubuntu cannot boot after crash


I was running some code when my computer, Dell XPS 13 97 froze, probably due to lack of RAM. I performed a hard shutdown but now when I restart, I get this screen:


boot screen


I've looked around all day but all the commands that other answers suggests don't work for some reason. Dell's support assistant did fix the issue, and when I try to reset the OS factory state it says "unable to find a medium containing a live file system".


I also tried using a USB to try to fix it but I cannot see my local hard drive. The hard drive is there though, since I can see it from the BIOS (it's listed as one of the boot options).


I really don't know enough Ubuntu to solve it on my own.



At the initramfs prompt, type fsck -f /. Repeat if there are errors. Once done, type exit and reboot the computer.


If that doesn't work for you, we'll do it the old fashioned way...



  • boot to a Ubuntu Live DVD/USB

  • open a terminal window

  • type sudo fdisk -l

  • identify the /dev/XXXX device name for your "Linux Filesystem"

  • type sudo fsck -f /dev/XXXX # replacing XXXX with the number you found earlier

  • repeat the fsck command if there were errors

  • type reboot


Update #1:


Turned out that the BIOS had reset the SATA controller to RAID. (thanks @GabrielaGarcia). We reset it back to AHCI, did a fsck to verify proper disk operation, and the system is working again.


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