"dev/sda1: clean, ..." This message appears after I startup my laptop, then it won't continue booting

Question

dev/sda1: clean, 552599/6111232 files, 7119295/24414464 blocks

After I turn on my laptop this message appears. The system never boots, the message just stays there.

Answer 1

I have had this problem occur a few times, and every time it was ODDLY Nvidia's fault - yes COUNTER-INTUITIVELY

If in Ubuntu after a long painful reboot run:

sudo apt-get purge nvidia*

or if locked try Ubuntu's awesome way of troubleshooting and try: Ctrl+Alt+F1 through F7 to get to "TTY1-7" and run the same thing. Reboot for good measure, and re-install Nvidia's Proprietary Drivers.

Answer 2

I experienced the same problem; though Mark's (top answer) solution didn't immediately work (since ctrl+alt+F2 etc. brings up a flickering TTYL which is nearly impossible to use), his suggested cause was correct, as it was a problem with the nvidia driver.

Also for beginners like me, here's the fool-proof step-by-step solution:

1. Boot into safe mode (recovery mode). Enter this mode by holding the left shift key when the computer starts.

2. in terminal, type:

   sudo apt-get purge nvidia*

   sudo ubuntu-drivers autoinstall #Make sure you have internet connection

Other solutions suggested elsewhere didn't work (e.g. installing boot-repair or sudo apt-get update)

(This worked on my dual booted computer (Windows 10 and Ubuntu 18.04)

my error message was /dev/nvme0n1p5: clean, nnn/nnn files, nnn/nnn blocks

Answer 3

I solved this by fixing the installation of my display manager (gdm3)

sudo apt install gdm3

Story behind this:

I was upgrading from Ubuntu 18 to 20. I have dual OS installed (Ubuntu 20 and Windows 10) on my Xiaomi laptop, no nvidia or AMD graphics card, Intel Core i5 8th gen.

1. Log in to your terminal

   You can do this via reboot and choose recovery mode or press alt+f2 or ctrl+alt+f2 when the screen is stuck

2. Connect to a network
   You can do this using

   iwconfig <your-wifi-adapter> essid <network-name> key <network-password> 
   

3. Do basic recovery steps

   sudo apt update
   sudo apt clean
   sudo apt autoremove
   sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
   sudo dpkg --configure -a
   sudo apt install -f
   

   This should do the trick, but just to make sure, continue to the next step.

4. Check display manager

   $ cat /etc/X11/default-display-manager
   /usr/sbin/gdm3
   

   Then systemctl status display-manager or /etc/init.d/gdm3 status make sure your display manager's status is active then sudo dpkg-reconfigure gdm3.

   If it shows

   /usr/sbin/dpkg-reconfigure: gconf2 is broken or not fully installed
   

   then there is your problem.

5. Fix the broken package

   sudo apt install gdm3
   

Answer 4

ctrl+alt+f2 or f3

• login with your account
• type sudo apt-get update (enter password when prompted)
• type sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-intel
• reboot

Answer 5

I had the same problem. Before shutting down, the system noted: "low disk space".

I solved it by using an Ubuntu live disk (USB). I deleted files on the HDD to free space, then Ubuntu restarted as usual.

Answer 6

I faced same problem on Ubuntu 20.04; it was also because Nvidia driver. I just re-installed the driver and it started working properly.

sudo apt install --reinstall nvidia-settings

Answer 7

A mechanical issue with the hard drive can trigger an fsck execution on boot and that could be the cause of an error message of the following type:

dev/sdaX: clean, ******/******* files, *******/******** blocks

If the other solutions to this question don't work try swapping the hard drive with another replacement hard drive. It should also be noted that even low-priced budget SSDs have better performance than HDDs.

Answer 8

I had the same problem. Neither of the answers worked for me. I have an old laptop with an Atom processor without Nvidia graphics. Thus, I've adopted an alternative solution with nomodeset mode as follows:

• In installation scene, press F6, use arrow keys to go down to nomodeset, and press Enter. An x will appear to its left. Then press Esc, and press Enter to "Try Ubuntu without installing" or "Install it".

---

[UPDATE]

I got into trouble with another laptop (ThinkPad T430) and I fixed that by disabling the discrete graphic card (Nvidia) in BIOS.

Answer 9

The closest answer I found helpful to solve my problem was this one and I hope it will help you too

I just had a similar problem and I found problem was that the UUID for the EFI partition in /etc/fstab is not correct. I fixed it using the following:

Boot using live system USB/CD, open terminal, and check UUIDs for partitions root and EFI

lsblk -f

Use fdisk to know which is the EFI partition and make sure it's in the correct format (EFI system partition)

fdisk -l /dev/sdX

Mount the root partition /dev/sdXX into /mnt

mount /dev/sdXX /mnt 

then check the fstab file

cat /mnt/etc/fstab

If the UUID values are different, edit the value in the fstab file to match the correct UUID

use nano, gedit, vi, or whatever you want to edit and save fstab and reboot

that worked for me.

I believe the values changed because I installed Windows after installing Linux in my case.

Answer 10

1. Let's first check your file system for errors.

   To check the file system on your Ubuntu partition...

   • boot to the GRUB menu
   • choose Advanced Options
   • choose Recovery mode
   • choose Root access
   • at the # prompt, type sudo fsck -f /
   • repeat the fsck command if there were errors
   • type reboot

   If for some reason you can't do the above...

   • boot to a Ubuntu Live DVD/USB
   • start gparted and determine which /dev/sdaX is your Ubuntu partition
   • quit gparted
   • open a terminal window
   • type sudo fsck -f /dev/sdaX # replacing X with the number you found earlier
   • repeat the fsck command if there were errors
   • type reboot

2. If step 1. doesn't fix your problem, then do this.

   • boot to the GRUB menu
   • choose Advanced Options
   • choose Recovery mode
   • choose Root access
   • at the # prompt, type:
   • sudo blkid
   • sudo cat /etc/fstab
   • edit your question to include the output from the two previous commands
   • type reboot

3. pending fix here...

4. If you dual boot with Windows, then do this in Windows.

   • open the Power control panel
   • click on change what the power buttons do
   • click on change options that are unavailable
   • uncheck fast start
   • close the Power control panel
   • open an administrative command prompt window
   • type powercfg /h off (turns off hibernation)
   • type chkdsk /f c:
   • approve that chkdsk runs at next boot time
   • reboot Windows

Answer 11

I am not sure if this will work for everyone but I managed to fix this by removing every occurrence of nomodeset from /etc/default/grub file and then by executing sudo update-grub.

This was because nomodeset disables the use of any graphic driver. I disabled my nouveau drivers before installing nvidia ones.

Though this might not be the case with everyone.

Answer 12

I reinstalled Nvidia drivers and the PC started working:

ctrl+alt+f2 or f3

• Log in with your account

• Run these commands:

   sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa
   sudo apt update 
   sudo apt install nvidia-settings
  

• Reboot

(thanks to @Shahad and his solution at https://askubuntu.com/a/1218483/750140)

Answer 13

For AMD users:

• Press ctrl+alt+f2

• Log in to your account

• Uninstall your AMD drivers by using either of these commands, depending on your drivers.

  amdgpu-pro-uninstall
  

  or

  amdgpu-uninstall
  

• Do a reboot

• After successfully logging in, reinstall your drivers.

Answer 14

If you have these symptoms:

• Booting stops at "dev/sda1: clean..." or "/dev/nvme0n1p2: clean"
• Not an Nvidia gpu (e.g. you have an AMD graphics card)
• Default video driver installation (e.g. you did not install custom amd drivers yourself)
• You are able to start a tty session using ctrl+alt+f2

Then there is a chance that GNOME Display Manager is not starting for some reason (eg due to a recent Ubuntu update).

To check:

• Start a tty session: ctrl+alt+f2
• Login to your account
• Typing systemctl status display-manager gives an error or shows that the GNOME Display Manager is not both loaded and active.
• As alternative to the previous step, you could also try looking in syslog file to see if gdm is starting up (eg cat /var/log/syslog | grep "Starting GNOME Display Manager")

If so, then type

• sudo apt install --reinstall ubuntu-desktop to reinstall
• reboot

Answer 15

My issue was due to large size of Syslog file in /var/log/syslog. It has filled my HDD. So I have fixed it by the following steps.

• boot with live USB
• locate to /var/log/Syslog in your HDD
• remove the file
• reboot

For more info see this answer.

Answer 16

I had this problem with fresh install of 18.04.3 desktop on proxmox 6.1 Had to change to vmware compatible graphics for the VM before it would work..

Answer 17

You can avoid running fsck by booting into recovery mode and editing the file /etc/fstab to temporarily change the final 1 to 0 for the affected partition:

sudo nano /etc/fstab

Then reboot. If that gives a blank screen instead, reboot again, and press 'e' at the Grub menu. This time, omit the kernel parameters 'quiet splash' before resuming boot. You might get more helpful information to see where it is getting stuck - probably at the next step to do with gdm (or other login manager being used), or the system logging service. If you fail to rescue the existing installation, do a fresh installation using a wired internet connection so that it installs, makes the right settings, and updates correctly.

Answer 18

Very specific solution for me:

In recovery mode, disable automatic login for your user. I found it will make Ubuntu VM stuck at startup if you have Home folder encryption active and enable automatic login.

Answer 19

Hi for me the answer was totally different my issue was i was having a different kernel version so the grub was loading a different version of the kernel on changing the kernel to latest one fixed the issue to update the kernal i used mainline

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:cappelikan/ppa
sudo apt update
sudo apt install mainline

once kernel was installed i uninstalled the old kernel and switched to new one at the time it was 6.4.8 and when i checked after that the tool mainline updated the grub also to use the new kernal and the issue was fixed, this might not be the issue with all the case but this fixed for me if someone has the same issue you can also resolve this using this method

Answer 20

I had a very similar problem, but in my case the problem was the hard drive being too full.

I solved it by:

1. starting ubuntu in console mode:

a) when the grub starts press the key "e" for edit. b) add a 3 after quiet splash. So that it reads quiet splash 3

2. Once you can log in console mode, delete a big useless file with rm big-useless-file

3. Restart the computer.

This solved the issue for me. I realized the disk was too full because I tried sudo apt-get update, which failed with an error telling me that the disk was full.

Answer 21

Thought I would add to this... I too have an Nvidia card and I was editing some files in /X11 when I went to reboot and happened upon this "dev/sda1: clean" problem. One solution I found was to revert to the Nouveau driver which got me past the error onto the login screen and then... Login loop! Enter the password, click Continue... Bit of a pause and right back to login. How I ended up figuring it out: From within Ctrl-Alt-F2 I deleted .Xauthority (or rename it if you want) Then type startx (this starts a new X11 GUI) and that forced Ubuntu to create a new .Xauthority file (you'll have to enter your password here) and then! It stated to me: Syntax error in Xwrapper.config

Sure enough, upon editing this file I realized I had removed a # to a comment and now that comment was acting as an (invalid) command. Replacing/Re-inserting that # took care of things. 4 hours. I was ready to re-install Ubuntu but I didn't have a current backup. Why do I always think about backing things up after I play with config files? Well, maybe that helps somebody: Delete .Xauthority then startx might reveal a not yet seen error.