Stuck in Busybox because sda6 can't mount

[theshin21]

See image for the error:

https://imgur.com/a/xDaTKox

I don't know what to do

[Dennis N]

I don't know what to do

Is this a new install, or have you been using this OS previously?
If it's a new install, you might have used /root instead of / when specifying a mount point. You also might have confused 'usr' for your user name. Just my guesses without knowing more about your choices.

[rsteinmetz70112]

Looks to me like an error in the /etc/fstab file preventing /dev/sda6 from mounting on boot.
Can you cut and past the contents of that file into a reply - Please use code tags
You may need to boot from a live session to get to it.

[theshin21]

I've been using this OS previously, I was trying to get my /usr (sda6) partition to become read/write instead of just a read-only so I could store Steam games on it. I went into the Disk Manager App whatever it's called, went into that partition's properties and enabled some setting which after rebooting brought me to this screen with no way for me to get to the OS itself.
Sorry that I never actually described what I was doing, I was kinda panicking and looking for answers and in the meantime I thought I could quickly post something on this forum and then went back to trying to see how to undo what I did.

[theshin21]

Can you cut and past the contents of that file into a reply - Please use code tags
You may need to boot from a live session to get to it.

I can't boot into Ubuntu, that's the whole problem. And if there's a way to get the files from this Terminal itself then I am very much not aware how I could achieve that.

[TheFu]

I can't boot into Ubuntu, that's the whole problem. And if there's a way to get the files from this Terminal itself then I am very much not aware how I could achieve that.

He is suggesting that you use a USB Flash drive with the Ubuntu/Xubuntu/Lubuntu installer on it. At the boot screen, you'll be able to choose "Try Ubuntu" ... and be in a reasonable Ubuntu/Xubuntu/Lubuntu "live" environment which can be used to troubleshoot AND correct issues with the HDD/SSD installed version.

In short, use a flash drive Ubuntu installer, boot off it. Choose "Try Ubuntu" from the menu. Then you'll want to run fsck and smartctl on the storage with the issues. If the HDD failed, SMART will show lots of errors - or will fail to work.

Also, don't forget to check power and data cable connections. Over time, vibration can loosen those and I've seen SATA cables go bad over years of use (which makes no sense to me).

Using a Try Ubuntu environment to fix things is a very common technique.

[ActionParsnip]

Boot to live USB / CD desktop then run an fsck on all internal partitions to check that they are consistent

[theshin21]

This option right here is the one that ruined it all (The one next to the mouse pointer):
http://imgur.com/a/Wc5yLHt

Unchecking that and rebooting simply defaults it back to being enabled. Also I don't quite understand what I am supposed to do with the "fsck" since all it does in the Terminal is simply respond with "fsck from util-linux 2.34".

[TheFu]

fsck isn't a GUI program. You are expected to provide the file location for the file system as an argument to it.

"how to use fsck" search? found this: https://www.tecmint.com/fsck-repair-...rors-in-linux/
In your case, I'd guess - and it is just a guess, that the file system is on /dev/sda6. So the command would be

sudo fsck /dev/sda6

gnome-disks might have a way to point-n-click, but it will be buried in multiple menu layers. Too hard to explain here. Sorry.

More information ...
Almost all Linux commands have what is called a "manpage". This is short for Manual Pages. These are specifically setup help files organized with a summary at the top and more details the farther down we read.

NAME
       fsck - check and repair a Linux filesystem

SYNOPSIS
       fsck  [-lsAVRTMNP]  [-r [fd]] [-C [fd]] [-t fstype] [filesystem...] [--]
       [fs-specific-options]

DESCRIPTION
       fsck is used to check and optionally repair one or more  Linux  filesys‐
       tems.   filesys  can  be  a  device name (e.g.  /dev/hdc1, /dev/sdb2), a
       mount point (e.g.  /, /usr, /home), or an filesystem label or UUID spec‐
       ifier  (e.g.   UUID=8868abf6-88c5-4a83-98b8-bfc24057f7bd or LABEL=root).
       Normally, the fsck program will try to handle filesystems  on  different
       physical  disk  drives  in  parallel  to reduce the total amount of time
       needed to check all of them.
...

It goes on and on with details about errors, options, what each means, and other commands or/and manpages for more related information.

[theshin21]

This doesn't seem very helpful with anything, putting "fsck /dev/sda6" or any equivalent of that command from the website you have provided me simply returns with

fcsk from util-linux 2.34
e2fsck 1.45.5 (07-Jan-2020)
/dev/sda6: clean 200452/16007168 files, 2921954/64009216 blocks

And nothing else. And the recovery mode doesn't seem to be working either, instead simply dumping me into the same BusyBox Terminal.