Need boot rescue help, disk can't be found

tomocafe

On boot, I get the dracut emergency shell with the warning:

Warning: /dev/disk/by-uuid/... does not exist

I am trying to follow these instructions to do a boot rescue, but I cannot get a network connection on this laptop with the latest ISO. I copied over the latest linux-firmware deltas and updated to the latest version on the live session, but I still can't get a network connection. Any idea how to fix this? I don't know how else to fix this without a network connection.

brent

tomocafe Warning: /dev/disk/by-uuid/... does not exist

If you got that message on boot and you couldn't get an operating system, then how do you know you have no network connection?
Not following the sequence. I've used those instructions before. Was like pulling my teeth out, but eventually success.
Also: use an older .iso maybe?

tomocafe

brent This is on the live boot. When I first installed Solus on this laptop I had the same problem, but I was able to install the updates to Linux-firmware and reboot. But I guess you can’t do that on a live boot. I don’t want to install from the live boot since that would overwrite the installation I’m trying to recover.

Note that this is fairly new hardware (2020 Dell XPS 13), so I need more up to date packages than are available on the ISO.

brent

You tried live, had no connection.
Updated firmware, still had no connection.
You don't think the latest .iso is has enough newness (software) to reach/activate your new computer's network connection?
Interesting. There's gotta be a workaround. I hope someone can find it. This isn't uncommon in threads lately either. Gotta be a way to activate a network connection in the terminal before you mount your drive a la instructions.
Or try after you mount your drive? Spitballin.

edit typo

tomocafe

Boot rescue wouldn't work because it couldn't find the disk either. I should have guessed that since lsblk showed nothing but the USB stick.

I found this answer on AskUbuntu and it solved my problem. After changing the BIOS settings to AHCI under SATA configuration, my previous installation came up on boot. Not sure if that changed somehow, or how it was working before otherwise....

brent

tomocafe they said (in the answer) it was dell preconfig thing🙂 --who would know? Congrats.

gnomo223

There's a distro named MX Linux, it came with several software to do boot rescue and other features on the live CD, you can use this to fix your problem, and maybe others to.