[SOLVED] Root Account Locked...Boot to Console

Horizon_Brave · 2016-06-11 00:08:41

Hey everyone. I actually solved this error myself but I just wanted to first think about why it happened, and then also see if anyone else could benefit from my silliness.

So first the fact. Running BL in a VM.

I made a change to my /etc/fstab file, so that it looked like this:

kingghidorah@kingghidorah:~$ cat /etc/fstab
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
# / was on /dev/sda1 during installation
UUID=af81056b-a4b9-4bdb-9d77-5d1c707103fd /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
# /home was on /dev/sda6 during installation
UUID=31a67598-dd7c-4b39-af1c-385c69fc8a58 /home           ext4    defaults        0       2
# swap was on /dev/sda5 during installation
UUID=4656f406-0bfd-4892-8e37-b12f19924d3d none            swap    sw              0       0
/dev/sr0        /media/cdrom0   udf,iso9660 user,auto     0       0

The change I made is the last line. The inclusion of /dev/sr0. I was thinking I wanted to mount a CD to the /media/cdrom0 directory. What could go wrong?

Yea well when I booted, I got the error:

Welcome to emergency mode! After logging in, type "journalctl -xb" to view
system logs, "systemctl reboot" to reboot, "systemctl default" to try again
to boot into default mode.
sulogin: root account is locked, starting shell

Though, what I found was running any systemctl command, caused the entire system to lock up with the output of "Hangup" and then nothing. No response.

My first inkling was that I goof'd somewhere in the /etc/grub.d/40_custom file. So I wiped it, updated grub and started again. Still same behaviour. Then I remembered that I did indeed add the /dev/sr0 to the fstab... Commented it out and walla. So I guess I'm asking, why would linux, trying to mount a file system ( in this case the device /dev/sr0) cause it to completely fail it's boot? I mean shouldn't it be that if it can't mount something, it just move on? What / why would it just drop to emergency mode?

Like I said, I was able to track it down, but just curious as to why

Last edited by Horizon_Brave (2016-06-11 19:25:11)

nobody · 2016-06-11 03:57:12

In my experience systemd doesn't like mount points which are not yet available (i.e. a cdrom which can't be mounted because the drive is empty) in fstab. I had to remove all entries for my external hard disks in order to stop it from hicking up during boot. However that was years ago; I don't know if your error was the same I was getting.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2016-06-11 09:08:40

With fstab errors, systemd will pause the boot and print a "start job is running..." message along with journal entries.

Did you investigate the journal, as suggested?

xaos52 · 2016-06-11 10:06:46

^ I suspect it is the 'auto' argument that causes the trouble.
I have the same line as last line in my fstab, only diff is I have 'noauto' and I have no problems booting.

hhh · 2016-06-11 10:12:25

Same here on all 3 partitions/OS installs...

/dev/sr0        /media/cdrom0   udf,iso9660 user,noauto     0       0

That's how the Debian Installer sets it up, I didn't edit fstab except for the swap entry.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2016-06-11 13:45:25

nobody wrote:

I had to remove all entries for my external hard disks in order to stop it from hicking up during boot.

xaos52 wrote:

I suspect it is the 'auto' argument that causes the trouble.

Yes, if the drive is not always present at boot then "nofail" should be added to the options to prevent systemd printing an error message about the failed mountpoint as per systemd.mount(5)

As I said though, an error message should still be printed and then boot should continue rather than dropping to a recovery shell

Horizon_Brave · 2016-06-11 18:39:39

Thanks for all the responses guys. What threw me off is the last line that said "sulogin: root account is locked, starting shell"
I'm just not sure why it would lock the root account and what the deal with the HangUp message is each time I run certain commands.

@nobody

In my experience systemd doesn't like mount points which are not yet available (i.e. a cdrom which can't be mounted because the drive is empty) in fstab.

Ahh yes, this was most likely the problem. It *did* actually boot fine when i had the cdrom "in the drive" . It's a virtualbox machine so inserting the drive is just selecting which .iso you want to attach.

@HoaS

Did you investigate the journal, as suggested?

I did! But I can't copy and paste it cause it's from the TTY2 console screen....though I could take a screen shot. Like wise I don't feel like typing it all out, but the jist of it is:

mount[307] : mount: no medium found on /dev/sr0
systemd[1]: media-cdrom0.mount mount process exited
systemd[1]: Failed to mount /media/cdrom0.
etc..etc.. 
systemd[334] Failed at step EXEC spawning /bin/plymouth
kernel1: work still pending

that's the end of the log. So yea of course, you guys are all correct. I'm assuming systemd needed /bin/plymouth to continue on, but it failed cause the media-cdrom0.mount unit never completed. I wonder if I could, likewise add something to the media-cdrom0.mount unit, in order to bypass it.

@xaos

^ I suspect it is the 'auto' argument that causes the trouble.
I have the same line as last line in my fstab, only diff is I have 'noauto' and I have no problems booting. smile

Score xaos. That was exactly it. I'd like to keep the cdrom mounted, despite it being empty or not so this works. As I said earlier, I wonder if adding something to the media-cdrom0.mount file would allow me to continue on if it fails. Hmmmm

Head_on_a_Stick · 2016-06-11 18:47:02

Horizon_Brave wrote:

I wonder if adding something to the media-cdrom0.mount file would allow me to continue on if it fails. Hmmmm

I wrote:

if the drive is not always present at boot then "nofail" should be added to the options

Also, the root account is locked in BunsenLabs, use `sudo passwd root` to unlock it.

Horizon_Brave · 2016-06-11 19:24:46

Well what was really bizarre is that it said the root was locked, but it drops me to being root automatically. I'm thinking because I had unlocked it when I intiitally installed B.L ... Anyway going to make this solved, like I said, just figured this could help someone else out down the road...

#1 2016-06-11 00:08:41

[SOLVED] Root Account Locked...Boot to Console

#2 2016-06-11 03:57:12

Re: [SOLVED] Root Account Locked...Boot to Console

#3 2016-06-11 09:08:40

Re: [SOLVED] Root Account Locked...Boot to Console

#4 2016-06-11 10:06:46

Re: [SOLVED] Root Account Locked...Boot to Console

#5 2016-06-11 10:12:25

Re: [SOLVED] Root Account Locked...Boot to Console

#6 2016-06-11 13:45:25

Re: [SOLVED] Root Account Locked...Boot to Console

#7 2016-06-11 18:39:39

Re: [SOLVED] Root Account Locked...Boot to Console

#8 2016-06-11 18:47:02

Re: [SOLVED] Root Account Locked...Boot to Console

#9 2016-06-11 19:24:46

Re: [SOLVED] Root Account Locked...Boot to Console

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