Upgrading to Ubuntu 24 on my dual-boot laptop broke my filesystem table. Help!

[machinus]

Hello,

I have a dual-boot laptop that has 1 Ubuntu installation and 1 Windows installation in GRUB. Here is partition configuration:



I tried to upgrade from 22 to 24 yesterday, and the upgrade worked without any errors. But, when I went to restart, I saw that this upgrade broke my fstab file (I think), and I can no longer load the OS. It looks like the fstab was improperly altered without it being restored during the installation.

I get many errors, depending on how I configure fstab, and I don't know how to fix them. I can boot from a Live USB and view the fstab file. Here is the output from blkid:

/dev/sda1: LABEL="windows" BLOCK_SIZE="512" UUID="7A7405AA70AE9E28" TYPE="ntfs" PARTUUID="dfed2d2c-01"
/dev/sda3: LABEL="swap" UUID="152a0490-bd72-45e1-bf6c-f50be9711359" TYPE="swap" PARTUUID="dfed2d2c-03"
/dev/sda5: UUID="9ce87bbe-ecfb-4856-96bc-2635c7d4a3b1" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4" PTTYPE="dos" PARTUUID="dfed2d2c-05"
/dev/sdc1: LABEL="UBUNTU 24_0" UUID="1A88-8002" BLOCK_SIZE="512" TYPE="vfat" PARTUUID="059287c5-01"
/dev/loop1: BLOCK_SIZE="131072" TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop2: BLOCK_SIZE="131072" TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop0: BLOCK_SIZE="131072" TYPE="squashfs"

And the table:

UUID=7A7405AA70AE9E28 / ntfs defaults 0 1
UUID=152a0490-bd72-45e1-bf6c-f50be9711359 none swap defaults 0 0
UUID=9ce87bbe-ecfb-4856-96bc-2635c7d4a3b1 /home ext4 defaults 0 1

How do I fix my installation?

[yancek]

How did you do the update/upgrade? Terminal commands, GUI software manager? Not sure how you expect anyone to tell you if there is a problem with your fstab file since you did not post it. Also, you did not post which version of windows you are using which would be useful. You also don't indicate what happens when you try to boot Ubuntu or Windows, warning/error messages?

UUID=7A7405AA70AE9E28 / ntfs defaults 0 1
UUID=152a0490-bd72-45e1-bf6c-f50be9711359 none swap defaults 0 0
UUID=9ce87bbe-ecfb-4856-96bc-2635c7d4a3b1 /home ext4 defaults 0 1

If the above is the contents of your fstab file, you don't have a / filesystem partition there but only a /home partition which I would certainly not expect to happen without user input.

[dragonfly41]

I don't recognise that GParted dump. I have dual boot and my first partition is for Boot.

Looking at my dual boot in GParted I have
/dev/sda1 EFI system partition 100MB flags boot, esp
/dev/sda2 Microsoft reserved partition 60 MB
/dev/sda3 etc.
/dev/sda4 etc.


and I have installed reFind.

I think you need a first boot FAT partition 500 MB or so.

[oldfred]

Because you only have one NTFS with boot flag and MBR(msdos) partitioning since you have extended partition, your Windows is installed in old BIOS/MBR configuration. New systems since 2012 are UEFI with gpt partitioning as Microsoft required vendors to install in UEFI/gpt mode.

Often very old systems that are BIOS/MBR need a lightweight flavor to work well. Ubuntu works best on systems that also can run Windows 11.
https://ubuntu.com/download/flavours
Light weight flavors:
Lubuntu, Xubuntu, Ubuntu MATE, Budgie
Flavors of Ubuntu only come with three years of supported life (five years applies to Ubuntu Desktop, Ubuntu Server but not flavors)
I use Kubuntu which is more mid-weight, but has worked on my very old 2006 laptop and is used on my newer systems.

[machinus]

Because you only have one NTFS with boot flag and MBR(msdos) partitioning since you have extended partition, your Windows is installed in old BIOS/MBR configuration. New systems since 2012 are UEFI with gpt partitioning as Microsoft required vendors to install in UEFI/gpt mode.

Yes, I think you are correct. I need to fix this OS before I can make any changes to my setup, though. I was able to boot with 22, but not now with 24. Do you know how I can fix my fstab to make that work?

[dragonfly41]

Try installing 15 days free trial EasyUEFI in Windows to inspect your setup.

[yancek]

It's hard to make suggestions with the limited information you provide. First off, do you actually have some version of windows installed and if so, what is it? As indicated in an earlier post, you have the older style dos/Legacy/CSM install which is shown by the existence of an Extended partition (/dev/sda4) which would not exist on a GPT drive. You don't have an EFI partition which was also pointed out which also confirms a Legacy install.

What you refer to in your initial post as 'the table' looks like part of an fstab file and shows /home, swap and ntfs partitions. If the line below is from your fstab file, it shows the / filesystem mounted with the UUID and a windows ntfs filesystem. Not sure how that would happen without some user intervention. Usually you will see this line just above the / partition: # / was on /dev/sda1 during installation so if that was your / partition, you've apparently formatted it ntfs and basically overwritten the / filesystem.

UUID=7A7405AA70AE9E28 / ntfs defaults 0 1

[machinus]

It's hard to make suggestions with the limited information you provide. First off, do you actually have some version of windows installed and if so, what is it? As indicated in an earlier post, you have the older style dos/Legacy/CSM install which is shown by the existence of an Extended partition (/dev/sda4) which would not exist on a GPT drive. You don't have an EFI partition which was also pointed out which also confirms a Legacy install.

What you refer to in your initial post as 'the table' looks like part of an fstab file and shows /home, swap and ntfs partitions. If the line below is from your fstab file, it shows the / filesystem mounted with the UUID and a windows ntfs filesystem. Not sure how that would happen without some user intervention. Usually you will see this line just above the / partition: # / was on /dev/sda1 during installation so if that was your / partition, you've apparently formatted it ntfs and basically overwritten the / filesystem.

This laptop has Windows 7 as the other installed OS. I can boot into that at the GRUB screen.


The fstab file I showed above is my attempt to write one. It's all "user intervention." The old one was erased when I upgraded. I do not have a working fstab or any reference file. I need to know how to construct one that will allow me to boot into Ubuntu with the type of setup I have, which as you mentioned is the DOS/Legacy/CSM type.

I included the blkid output to help figure out how to write a working fs table.

[dragonfly41]

I can write what I would do. Cut your losses, lick your wounds and start again.
Buy a brand new SSD in an external powered container (not touching your current failed setup).
Create LiveUSB to install Ubuntu into your external container (best to use USB 3.0 port if you have one since USB 2.0 port is slow to run Ubuntu in an external SSD caddy).
Partition your external caddy for modern day EFI usage (not legacy).
Optionally install rEFInd (my favourite) so that in a GUI you see the various options.
Set your BIOS to boot into rEFInd (if you agree to install this grub manager).
Boot up your fresh Ubuntu. Remember no Windows at this stage just pure Ubuntu.
If you need Windows create a VM. Or buy modern Microsoft Windows. Or use your old system.
Start scavenging the files and applications from the old carcass. Your fresh Ubuntu can be setup to hunt for assets from old internal drive and pull into your reincarnated external Ubuntu in SSD/caddy. A long process and I recommend Recoll to index internal/external assets.
You can still retain the old internal system but your laptop is just the mothership and the real action is now in your new Ubuntu.
Look to Crucial.com to see external USB plugin SSD's working.

[ajgreeny]

We seem to be going round in circles here and getting no clues from the information you've given us so my suggestion, though probably not what you wanted to hear is this:-

Do you have backups of your personal files?
Assuming you do, (and if not why not?), the best way to proceed may be to reinstall your Ubuntu system and then restore your files.

Windows 7 should not be used online any more as it's been out of support now for a long time and is not secure so using a version of the Ubuntu family that requires lower resources may be your best choice in view of what I assume is a fairly old computer.

If you can run a live version of, for example Xubuntu, run terminal command
sudo fdisk - l
and show us the output here using code tags please, which will give us more detail of your disks and current partitions.