Upgrade to F30 on Dell Precision T1700 goes into emergency mode

[Ranjan Maitra]

Hi,

After a three successful upgrades to F30 from F29 under my belt, a cocky me has been
floored. Everything went through fine (or so it seemed) using dnf upgrade --releasever 30
but I ended with, upon reboot:

      You are in emergency mode. After logging in, type "journalctl -xb" to view
system logs, "systemctl reboot" to reboot, "systemctl default" or
"exit" to boot into default mode.
      Give root password for maintenance.
      (or press Control-D to continue):

One problem is that I do not have a root password. I have actually gone in using a livecd
and the devices (1 ext4 and 2 xfs) appear to be clean.

Any suggestions on how to proceed.

Many thanks and best wishes,
Ranjan




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[Samuel Sieb]

On 5/9/19 3:50 PM, Ranjan Maitra wrote:
>  After a three successful upgrades to F30 from F29 under my belt, a
> cocky me has been floored. Everything went through fine (or so it seemed) using dnf
> upgrade --releasever 30 but I ended with, upon reboot:
>  
>         You are in emergency mode. After logging in, type "journalctl -xb" to
> view system logs, "systemctl reboot" to reboot, "systemctl default" or
> "exit" to boot into default mode.
>         Give root password for maintenance.
>         (or press Control-D to continue):
>  
>  One problem is that I do not have a root password. I have actually gone in using a livecd
> and the devices (1 ext4 and 2 xfs) appear to be clean. 
Using the live boot, you can chroot to the installed system and set the 
root password.

[Sam Varshavchik]

Samuel Sieb writes:

>  On 5/9/19 3:50 PM, Ranjan Maitra wrote:
> > After a three successful upgrades to F30 from F29 under my belt, a cocky me  
> > has been floored. Everything went through fine (or so it seemed) using dnf  
> > upgrade --releasever 30 but I ended with, upon reboot:
> >
> >        You are in emergency mode. After logging in, type "journalctl -xb"
> to  
> > view system logs, "systemctl reboot" to reboot, "systemctl
> default" or  
> > "exit" to boot into default mode.
> >        Give root password for maintenance.
> >        (or press Control-D to continue):
> >
> > One problem is that I do not have a root password. I have actually gone in  
> > using a livecd and the devices (1 ext4 and 2 xfs) appear to be clean.
>
>  Using the live boot, you can chroot to the installed system and set the root  
>  password. 
Also missing from this report is the actual reason for getting dropped into  
emergency mode.

Emergency mode is not the issue here. The real issue is what caused the  
emergency mode. It's unlikely that anyone will be able to help you until you  
determine, from boot messages, or whatnot, the reason the system boot fails.

[Samuel Sieb]

On 5/9/19 6:08 PM, Sam Varshavchik wrote:
>  Also missing from this report is the actual reason for getting
> dropped 
>  into emergency mode.
>  
>  Emergency mode is not the issue here. The real issue is what caused the 
>  emergency mode. It's unlikely that anyone will be able to help you until 
>  you determine, from boot messages, or whatnot, the reason the system 
>  boot fails. 
He can't get that information until he has a root password.

[Ranjan Maitra]

On Thu, 9 May 2019 18:48:39 -0700 Samuel Sieb <samuel(a)sieb.net&gt; wrote:

>  On 5/9/19 6:08 PM, Sam Varshavchik wrote:
>  > Also missing from this report is the actual reason for getting dropped
>  > into emergency mode.
>  >
>  > Emergency mode is not the issue here. The real issue is what caused the
>  > emergency mode. It's unlikely that anyone will be able to help you until
>  > you determine, from boot messages, or whatnot, the reason the system
>  > boot fails.
>
>  He can't get that information until he has a root password. 
I wanted to mention that I was able to get in with the set root password. There is one
external drive that was/is not getting mounted, and so Fedora 30 was not the issue here.
The disk containing / also needed repair so that is fine.

Thanks again for the help with regard to how to get in and create a root password using
the liveCD. To recap, I mounted the / drive inside the LiveCD, and then did a chroot on it
and set up password with "passwd root".

Btw, is there a way to take out a root password once set?

Many thanks again and best wishes,
Ranjan

[Sam Varshavchik]

Ranjan Maitra writes:

>  Btw, is there a way to take out a root password once set? 
The manual page for the passwd command describes its options. One option  
sets an invalid password which means that the account cannot be logged in  
directly, and the only way to do so is via some other means, like ssh public  
key authentication. Another option is to remove the password, so that one  
can log in as root without entering a password. Be sure to fully understand  
the ramifications of either options.

If you have a question about a particular command, the first place to look  
is always its manual page.

$ man passwd

[Ranjan Maitra]

On Sat, 11 May 2019 10:31:38 -0400 Sam Varshavchik <mrsam(a)courier-mta.com&gt; wrote:

>  Ranjan Maitra writes:
>
>  > Btw, is there a way to take out a root password once set?
>
>  The manual page for the passwd command describes its options. One option
>  sets an invalid password which means that the account cannot be logged in
>  directly, and the only way to do so is via some other means, like ssh public
>  key authentication. Another option is to remove the password, so that one
>  can log in as root without entering a password. Be sure to fully understand
>  the ramifications of either options.
>
>  If you have a question about a particular command, the first place to look
>  is always its manual page.
>
>  $ man passwd 
No, my question is different. I did not use to have a root password, not a empty password
(if I can explain myself) before I went in and added it. I was wondering how one gets back
to this state.

From the manual, is this the same thing as the -l option? Is this what it really was,
earlier (and when a root password is not set during Fedora installation).

Many thanks,
Ranjan

[Samuel Sieb]

On 5/11/19 6:42 PM, Ranjan Maitra wrote:
>  No, my question is different. I did not use to have a root password,
> not a empty password (if I can explain myself) before I went in and added it. I was
> wondering how one gets back to this state.
>  
>   From the manual, is this the same thing as the -l option? Is this what it really was,
> earlier (and when a root password is not set during Fedora installation). 
Yes.  If you look at the other accounts in /etc/shadow that can't login, 
you'll see the password field contains only "!!".  If you really want to 
go back to the initial state, you could change the root entry to have 
that as well, but it doesn't make any difference from just using the 
"-l" option.

[Ranjan Maitra]

Thanks very much for this clarification!
Best wishes,
Ranjan

On Sat, 11 May 2019 20:32:45 -0700 Samuel Sieb <samuel(a)sieb.net&gt; wrote:

>  On 5/11/19 6:42 PM, Ranjan Maitra wrote:
>  > No, my question is different. I did not use to have a root password, not a empty
> password (if I can explain myself) before I went in and added it. I was wondering how one
> gets back to this state.
>  >
>  >  From the manual, is this the same thing as the -l option? Is this what it really
> was, earlier (and when a root password is not set during Fedora installation).
>
>  Yes.  If you look at the other accounts in /etc/shadow that can't login,
>  you'll see the password field contains only "!!".  If you really want to
>  go back to the initial state, you could change the root entry to have
>  that as well, but it doesn't make any difference from just using the
>  "-l" option.
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[Ranjan Maitra]

On Thu, 09 May 2019 21:08:36 -0400 Sam Varshavchik <mrsam(a)courier-mta.com&gt; wrote:

>  Samuel Sieb writes:
>
>  > On 5/9/19 3:50 PM, Ranjan Maitra wrote:
>  >> After a three successful upgrades to F30 from F29 under my belt, a cocky me
>  >> has been floored. Everything went through fine (or so it seemed) using dnf
>  >> upgrade --releasever 30 but I ended with, upon reboot:
>  >>
>  >>        You are in emergency mode. After logging in, type "journalctl
> -xb" to
>  >> view system logs, "systemctl reboot" to reboot, "systemctl
> default" or
>  >> "exit" to boot into default mode.
>  >>        Give root password for maintenance.
>  >>        (or press Control-D to continue):
>  >>
>  >> One problem is that I do not have a root password. I have actually gone in
>  >> using a livecd and the devices (1 ext4 and 2 xfs) appear to be clean.
>  >
>  > Using the live boot, you can chroot to the installed system and set the root
>  > password.
>
>  Also missing from this report is the actual reason for getting dropped into
>  emergency mode.
>
>  Emergency mode is not the issue here. The real issue is what caused the
>  emergency mode. It's unlikely that anyone will be able to help you until you
>  determine, from boot messages, or whatnot, the reason the system boot fails.
>  
Thanks, I get: a stop process (?) is running on some device with a huge name. It runs for
1m 30s and then drops into this message. There is nothing untoward before this.

I will try and see if chrooting can be done using the livecd.

Thanks,
Ranjan

[Ranjan Maitra]

On Thu, 9 May 2019 17:56:51 -0700 Samuel Sieb <samuel(a)sieb.net&gt; wrote:

>  On 5/9/19 3:50 PM, Ranjan Maitra wrote:
>  > After a three successful upgrades to F30 from F29 under my belt, a cocky me has been
> floored. Everything went through fine (or so it seemed) using dnf upgrade --releasever 30
> but I ended with, upon reboot:
>  >
>  >        You are in emergency mode. After logging in, type "journalctl -xb"
> to view system logs, "systemctl reboot" to reboot, "systemctl default"
> or "exit" to boot into default mode.
>  >        Give root password for maintenance.
>  >        (or press Control-D to continue):
>  >
>  > One problem is that I do not have a root password. I have actually gone in using a
> livecd and the devices (1 ext4 and 2 xfs) appear to be clean.
>
>  Using the live boot, you can chroot to the installed system and set the
>  root password. 
Sorry but exactly how does one do this? I have no experience here with this.

Many thanks,
Ranjan

[Samuel Sieb]

On 5/9/19 7:04 PM, Ranjan Maitra wrote:
>  On Thu, 9 May 2019 17:56:51 -0700 Samuel Sieb <samuel(a)sieb.net&gt;
> wrote:
>  
> > On 5/9/19 3:50 PM, Ranjan Maitra wrote:
> >> After a three successful upgrades to F30 from F29 under my belt, a cocky me has
> been floored. Everything went through fine (or so it seemed) using dnf upgrade
> --releasever 30 but I ended with, upon reboot:
> >>
> >>         You are in emergency mode. After logging in, type "journalctl
> -xb" to view system logs, "systemctl reboot" to reboot, "systemctl
> default" or "exit" to boot into default mode.
> >>         Give root password for maintenance.
> >>         (or press Control-D to continue):
> >>
> >> One problem is that I do not have a root password. I have actually gone in using
> a livecd and the devices (1 ext4 and 2 xfs) appear to be clean.
> >
> > Using the live boot, you can chroot to the installed system and set the
> > root password.
>  
>  Sorry but exactly how does one do this? I have no experience here with this. 
In a terminal window, run "sudo -i".  Do "ls /mnt" to make sure
there's 
nothing there.  (I don't remember if the live boot uses that by 
default.)  Assuming that /dev/sda2 is your root partition (replace with 
the real device), run "mount /dev/sda2 /mnt".  Then run "chroot /mnt"

and "passwd root".  Then "exit", "umount /mnt", and reboot
the system.