Boot hangs with "The root file system on /dev/sda2 requires a manual fsck"

Technical Help
1

IMG-0303 (1)
IMG-0303 (1)4032×3024 2.51 MB

Errors reading block 1231417 (Input/output error).

/dev/sda2: UNEXPECTED INCONSISTENCY; RUN fsck MANUALLY.
    (i.e., without -a or -p options)

fsck exited with status code 4
done.
Failure: File system check of the root filesystem failed
The root filesystem on /dev/sda2 requires a manual fsck


BusyBox v1.27.2 (Ubuntu 1:1.27.2-2ubuntu3) built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.

(initramfs)
1 Like
2

This is caused by a consistency error on the partition containing the root file system. It is often triggered by improperly shutting down the machine.

The general fix is:

# Replace <partition> with that specified in the error (e.g. /dev/sda2).
(initramfs) fsck <partition with error>

Enter Yes(y) to all prompts. Once complete, you will again be presented with the (initramfs) prompt.

# Reboot the machine.
(initramfs) reboot

You may have an issue with package manager upon reboot. In this case:

$ sudo apt-get update && apt-get clean && apt-get update && apt-get upgrade

Members of the Ubuntu community using SSDs (solid state drives) have reported this problem numerous times; this points to a potential bug in Ubuntu.

4 Likes
3

@mpb Thank you very much. I solved my issue with your method.

1 Like
4

Thankyou so much, my problem got solved !!

5

Thanks, this works and issue got resolbed

6

Thanks for the solution.

But after reboot the command $ sudo apt-get update && apt-get clean && apt-get update && apt-get upgrade didn’t worked. I’m was getting the error E: Error reading the CPU table.

So I found this solution to repair the “apt-get”:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/47417666/q-e-error-reading-the-cpu-table-in-ubuntu/57302615#57302615

Thanks and hope it will help someone.

7

It worked for me too. Thanks.

8

This perfectly worked.
Thanks.

9

It worked well, but system is not rebooting. What should i do?

10

I entred yes but it won’t complete it stays in printing y only

11

yes it’s own command that for some reason(don’t hesitate to tell me if you know) just prints y several times a second

12

Thank you thats work for me too

13

Be careful of this. It is fine to do to get up and running. But concerning.
If you need to do a fsck to get it back:

  1. Do a backup of that partition
  2. Install ‘smartmontools’:
    $ sudo apt install smartmontools
  3. Run smartctl to check the health of that drive, it may be failing and perhaps should be replaced.
    $ sudo smartctl -x /dev/
    Example:
    List the drives
    $ lsblk
    Just run smartctl on the drive, not the partition
    $ sudo smartctl -x /dev/sda >& smartctl-sda.txt
    $ sudo smartctl -x /dev/nvme0n1 >& smartctl-nvme0n1.txt

Example lsblk:

$ lsblk 
sdb           8:16   0   1.8T  0 disk 
└─sdb1        8:17   0   1.8T  0 part /mnt
sdc           8:32   0   1.8T  0 disk 
├─sdc1        8:33   0   512M  0 part /boot/efi
└─sdc2        8:34   0   931G  0 part /var/snap/firefox/common/host-hunspell
                                      /
nvme1n1     259:0    0 931.5G  0 disk 
└─nvme1n1p1 259:1    0 931.5G  0 part 
nvme0n1     259:2    0 931.5G  0 disk 
└─nvme0n1p1 259:3    0 931.5G  0 part

And you would juse use the ‘sdb’, ‘sdc’, ‘nvme0n1’, ‘nvme1n1’ from the above list.
The ‘info errors’ you can ignore generally. if it PASSES, media errors, etc are the main concerns or temperatures on NVMes sensor 3 is often unreliable for temperature, but 1,2 are useful.

fsck is normally needed on ‘ungraceful’ shutdowns, and is automatically run. However, if the damage is bad enough it may not self-recover. That is why you may need fsck. files/inodes not recovered are placed in the file system mounted in the base:
For example:
└─sdc2 8:34 0 931G 0 part /var/snap/firefox/common/host-hunspell
/
The mount would be ‘/’ and files would be stored in ‘/lost+found’