bind-home.conf not binding to /home on LL2.4/win8.1 UEFI dual boot set-up

[m654321]

I have just set up a LL2.4 dual boot on a new laptop, pre-installed with win8.1, with UEFI (fast boot, secure boot) enabled.  Everything has worked very well until I got to the stage of binding LL2.4's  /mnt/DATA partition on sdb to My Home Directory on sda.  The laptop has two separate physical drives: SSD1 (sda) for the operating systems, SSD2 (sdb) for the /mnt/DATA.  I have done this set-up before, but only with an MBR file structure, not a GPT one as in the present set up.  I don't know if the use of GPT in the present set-up affects binding, or if the information I should enter in either the fstab file or the bind-home.conf  file is different for GPT compared to MBR set-ups. I'd be grateful if you could advise.

At the moment when I reboot the laptop & choose LL from the grub screen it doesn't fully boot but hangs indefinitely at the screen with the image of the feather with the progress bar below it.  I let the progress bar run completely to the right, but still no rebooting. Any help on this one is much appreciated  as I'm out of my depth here.

Regards
Mike

[Wirezfree]

Hi,

Never used UEFI/GPT,
but did you remember to take ownership of the /mnt/DATA dir.??

Code:

sudo chown -R yourusername: /mnt/DATA

[gold_finger]

EDIT (added later):  Just realized that you said you're having problems booting into LL now.  Directions below assume that you're booted into your installed LL.  If you can't now, see additional note at end of post.


GPT partitioning does not make any difference.  I don't have a UEFI computer, but I can't think of any logical reason why that would make any difference either.  I also don't have any SSD's; but I don't think that is the cause of the problem.

Most logical place to start is confirming that you are auto-mounting the DATA partition on boot-up.  If it's not mounted, binding to it will fail.  So run this command to see the contents of the fstab file.  (Command just "looks" at the file -- you can't make corrections/changes to the file from this.)

Code:

cat /etc/fstab

If there is no line for auto-mounting the DATA partition, add one.

If there is a line for DATA partition, can you manually explore the folders/files on "/mnt/DATA" using the file manager without running into problems?  Do you have the necessary folders on that DATA partition that you are trying to bind to Home?  (Eg.  If trying to bind Home's "Documents" folder to the DATA partition, do you have a folder called "Documents" on DATA to bind to?)  Double-check the folder names on DATA -- are they an exact match (spelling / uppercase / lowercase / etc.) to the folders on Home?

Confirm that the DATA partition's UUID in the fstab file is the same one shown by this command for the partition:

Code:

sudo blkid -c /dev/null

If none of the above has helped, post back with full output from all of the commands below:

Code:

lsblk
sudo blkid -c /dev/null
cat /etc/fstab
ls -l /etc/init | grep 'bind'
cat /etc/init/bind-home.conf
ls -l $HOME
ls -l /mnt
ls -l /mnt/DATA

EDIT:  If you can't boot into LL now, were you able to before you attempted to bind Home and DATA?

Boot using "live" LL DVD/USB then do the following to mount your installations Root, Home and DATA partitions to the live environment.  (If you don't have a separate Home partition, then just mount the other two.)  Substitute your correct drive and partition numbers where I have "XY" in "/dev/sdXY".

Code:

sudo mkdir /myRoot /myHome /myData
sudo mount /dev/sdXY /myRoot  # mount root partition here
sudo mount /dev/sdXY /myHome  # skip this step if no separate Home partition
sudo mount /dev/sdXY /myData  # mount DATA partition here

Now run all of these commands, then copy/paste their full output back here for us to see.  Note that there are two lines to list your Home folders below.  One applies if you have a separate Home partition.  The other applies if Home is on your Root partition.  Use the one that applies to you.  (In command to list Home folders, substitute your real username in place of "username".)

Code:

sudo parted -l
sudo blkid -c /dev/null
cat /myRoot/etc/fstab
ls -l /myRoot/etc/init | grep 'bind'
cat /myRoot/etc/init/bind-home.conf
ls -l /myHome/username  #use if you have a separate partition for Home
ls -l /myRoot/home/username  #use if Home is on Root partition
ls -l /myRoot/mnt
ls -l /myData

[m654321]

I made an error, goldfinger, but am unable to correct it (inexperience)...
After mounting the DATA partition to the live environment I ran    ls -l /mnt to check the 11 directories I had created on /mnt/DATA.
It seems I had made an error.... i.e. instead of Music and Pictures being separate directories they were one, i.e. MusicPictures.
The other 9 directories were there. I tried using sudo rmdir MusicPictures but it didn't work

I will reinstate Music and Pictures but how do I delete MusicPictures first?

I ran cat /etc/fstab but all I got was...
overlayfs / overlayfs  rw 0  0
tmpfs /tmp tmpfs nosuid,no dev 0  0

I will get the full output from the above command line you've suggested I input as soon as I can.

Many thanks
Mike

[gold_finger]

If you've got any files under MusicPictures, you need to delete them first.  The rmdir command only deletes empty directories. 

Here's example from "live" LL, mounting the DATA partition at /myData in live environment.  Lines with "#" are just describing the command that follows.

Code:

# Make mount point for DATA partition
sudo mkdir /myData

# Mount it to the new mount point
sudo mount /dev/sdXY /myData

At that point, if you prefer, you can use your gui file manager (Thunar).  Just open it up, then navigate to root of file system.  You'll see "myDATA" as one of the folders under root (/).  Right-click it and choose "Open folder as Root".  If you haven't already done so, make two new folders for Music and Pictures.  Open MusicPictures and copy/paste files into the appropriate new Music or Pictures folder if you need to.  Then go back one directory level so you see MusicPictures folder itself (not what's in it).  Right-click it and choose "Delete".  (You can do that even if you don't move stuff out of the folder.)



Using the terminal, if you wanted to remove a directory that had files in it, you'd use this command with the "r" option to "recursively" remove the files within it too:

Code:

rm -r /myData/MusicPictures

If that didn't work, you can add the "f" option to "force" removal.

Code:

rm -rf /myData/MusicPictures

Add your new folders if needed.

Code:

sudo mkdir /myData/{Music,Pictures}  # No spaces between Music and Pictures

Try booting into the installed system again. 

If it works, you will need to change ownership of those new Music and Pictures folders from Root to your username.  Easiest thing to do is run the command to recursively change ownership of everything in the DATA partition to your username.  (Note:  because you're back in the installed system, the mount point is back to what you set it for in the installed system.  It's not the same mount point you used in the "live" LL.)

Code:

sudo chown -R username: /mnt/DATA  # Use real username in place of "username"

If it did not boot, follow procedure I outlined in last post for booting into the "live" LL disk, run those commands and post the output back here.  Make sure to follow command instructions I edited into that post later specifically for when you're running from the "live" environment.  (My original instructions were written assuming you were in the installed system, before I remembered that you said you couldn't boot into it now.  The EDIT I added has the live instructions.)  That's why you got the miscellaneous looking info from "cat /etc/fstab" command.  From "live" LL, instructions were to run "cat /myRoot/etc/fstab".

Last thing to note.  When running from live DVD or non-persistent USB stick, you will need to repeat the procedure for creating mount points and then mounting your various hard drive partitions.  On each reboot, those things get wiped out -- so, for example, you can't just reboot the live DVD and run "cat /myRoot/etc/fstab" again on its own.

[valtam]

I let the progress bar run completely to the right, but still no rebooting. Any help on this one is much appreciated  as I'm out of my depth here.

Pressing F4 during boot will show you at which point it is currently stuck at.

[m654321]

goldfinger, I have followed your instructions in the EDIT at the end of your Reply no.2 in this thread and am posting the output from the terminal below in response to typing in the commands you asked me to run.  You will see that I have now created two new folders Music and Pictures from  MusicPictures, and deleted the later in DATA. Needless to say, after fixing the MusicPictures error, I was still unable to boot normally into LL, just hanging for ever at the boot progress screen. As you see below I don't have a separate
/home partition...

Code:

linux@linux:~$ sudo mkdir /myRoot /myData
linux@linux:~$ sudo mount /dev/sda6 /myRoot
linux@linux:~$ sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /myData
linux@linux:~$ sudo parted -l
Model: ATA Samsung SSD 850 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 250GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt

Number  Start   End     Size    File system  Name                          Flags
1      1049kB  945MB   944MB   ntfs         Basic data partition          hidden, diag
2      945MB   1050MB  105MB   fat32        EFI system partition          boot
3      1050MB  1184MB  134MB                Microsoft reserved partition  msftres
4      1184MB  126GB   125GB   ntfs         Basic data partition          msftdata
5      126GB   126GB   9437kB                                             bios_grub
6      126GB   250GB   124GB   ext4


Model: ATA Samsung SSD 850 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 1000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt

Number  Start   End     Size    File system  Name  Flags
1      1049kB  1000GB  1000GB  ntfs               msftdata


Warning: Unable to open /dev/sr0 read-write (Read-only file system).  /dev/sr0
has been opened read-only.
Error: Invalid partition table - recursive partition on /dev/sr0.         
Ignore/Cancel? i                                                         
Model: MATSHITA BD-CMB UJ160 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sr0: 795MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 2048B/2048B
Partition Table: msdos

Number  Start  End  Size  Type  File system  Flags

Code:

linux@linux:~$ sudo blkid -c /dev/null
/dev/loop0: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/sda1: LABEL="Recovery" UUID="3A08F27308F22E0F" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sda2: LABEL="SYSTEM" UUID="6E57-A726" TYPE="vfat"
/dev/sda4: LABEL="OS" UUID="4A90FA7B90FA6CB7" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sda6: UUID="003c628a-8078-4a71-8209-33d7117d0285" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sr0: LABEL="Linux Lite 2.4 64-bit" TYPE="iso9660"
/dev/sdb1: UUID="34A0C4C82DE3D9D1" TYPE="ntfs"

Code:

linux@linux:~$ cat /myRoot/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/sda6 during installation
UUID=003c628a-8078-4a71-8209-33d7117d0285 /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
# Mount DATA partition
UUID=34A0C4C82DE3D9D1         /mnt/DATA                ntfs-3g
defaults, windows_names, locale=en_US.utf8      0          0

Code:

linux@linux:~$ ls -l /myRoot/etc/init | grep 'bind'
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  765 Apr 26 07:21 bind-home.conf
linux@linux:~$ cat /myRoot/etc/init/bind-home.conf
# Remount partitions with bind
#
description "Bind DATA Partition Subdirectories to My Home Directory"

start on stopped mountall

script
mount --bind /mnt/DATA/Distros /home/m-linuxlite/Distros
mount --bind /mnt/DATA/Documents /home/m-linuxlite/Documents
mount --bind /mnt/DATA/Downloads /home/m-linuxlite/Downloads
mount --bind /mnt/DATA/Music /home/m-linuxlite/Music
mount --bind /mnt/DATA/Pictures /home/m-linuxlite/Pictures
mount --bind /mnt/DATA/Podcasts /home/m-linuxlite/Podcasts
mount --bind /mnt/DATA/Public /home/m-linuxlite/Public
mount --bind /mnt/DATA/Template /home/m-linuxlite/Template
mount --bind /mnt/DATA/TV /home/m-linuxlite/TV
mount --bind /mnt/DATA/Videos /home/m-linuxlite/Videos
mount --bind /mnt/DATA/VMs /home/m-linuxlite/VMs
end script

Code:

linux@linux:~$ ls -l /myRoot/home/m-linuxlite
total 134556
drwxr-xr-x 2 1000 1000     4096 Apr 26 06:28 Desktop
drwxrwxr-x 2 1000 1000     4096 Apr 26 07:03 Distros
drwxr-xr-x 2 1000 1000     4096 Apr 25 12:06 Documents
drwxr-xr-x 3 1000 1000     4096 Apr 26 02:01 Downloads
drwxr-xr-x 2 1000 1000     4096 Apr 25 12:06 Music
drwxr-xr-x 2 1000 1000     4096 Apr 25 12:06 Pictures
drwxrwxr-x 2 1000 1000     4096 Apr 26 07:04 Podcasts
drwxr-xr-x 2 1000 1000     4096 Apr 25 12:06 Public
drwxr-xr-x 2 1000 1000     4096 Apr 25 12:06 Templates
drwxrwxr-x 2 1000 1000     4096 Apr 26 07:04 TV
drwxr-xr-x 2 1000 1000     4096 Apr 25 12:06 Videos
drwxrwxr-x 2 1000 1000     4096 Apr 26 07:04 VMs

(Edited by gold_finger eliminating some output that was not needed.)

Code:

linux@linux:~$ ls -l /myRoot/mnt
total 4
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Apr 26 06:34 DATA
linux@linux:~$ ls -l /myData
total 0
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Apr 26 06:53 Distros
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Apr 26 06:53 Documents
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Apr 26 06:53 Downloads
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Apr 27  2015 Music
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Apr 27  2015 Pictures
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Apr 26 06:53 Podcasts
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Apr 26 06:53 Public
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Apr 26 02:22 $RECYCLE.BIN
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Apr 26 02:22 System Volume Information
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Apr 26 06:53 Templates
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Apr 26 06:53 TV
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Apr 26 06:53 Videos
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Apr 26 06:53 VMs
linux@linux:~$

(Edited by gold_finger:  enclosed all output in code tags.)

[gold_finger]

I have an idea of what is causing your problems, but need to confirm a few things first.  Please answer all of the following questions.

1.  As I understood it, you originally installed LL in Legacy mode, then followed instructions in video posted by Jerry to convert the install to using UEFI mode.  Is that correct?

2.  Once converted to UEFI mode, were you able to boot into both Windows and LL without needing to toy around with UEFI boot settings?  (You could keep computer set to boot in UEFI mode and successfully boot into both OS's, correct?)

3.  When booting in UEFI mode, did you see a grub menu on boot and were you able to successfully boot from that into both Windows and LL?

4.  Once you got LL working in UEFI mode, (if you can remember), approximately how many times did you shutoff/reboot computer before the boot problem with LL happened?

5.  Did the LL boot problem coincide with having done any system updates?  Or was it only a problem once you tried to setup the binding to DATA partition?

6.  Can you still boot into Windows without any problem and if so, are you using its entry shown in grub menu to boot into it, or are you booting to it some other way?



General observations from your posted output:

• "bios_grub" partition shown in parted -l output.  Assuming UEFI conversion worked, that's okay -- it's just left over from original legacy install and is not being used any more.  (Should not be the cause of your booting issue.)
  
• I was expecting to see an entry in the fstab file for the "EFI System Partition" -- but there is none.  That very well could be the cause of boot problem.  (But, since I don't have a UEFI system to test, I'm only pretty sure of this -- but not 100% sure.)
  
• Currently your /mnt/DATA mount point and all directories on it are owned by Root.  This will need to be changed, but don't worry about that right at this moment.  Get back with answers to above questions first, before trying to mess with changing ownership on anything.  (Don't attempt changing ownership yet.)
  

[m654321]

Goldfinger, here are the answers to your questions - many thanks for this
Mike

1.  As I understood it, you originally installed LL in Legacy mode, then followed instructions in video posted by Jerry to convert the install to using UEFI mode.  Is that correct? 

I started the install of LL for dual-boot, once I'd seen Jerry's posted video. The video required that initially the install be carried out in legacy mode, which was switched back to UEFI using Ubuntu 14.10 run as live media towards the end of the video.

2.  Once converted to UEFI mode, were you able to boot into both Windows and LL without needing to toy around with UEFI boot settings?  (You could keep computer set to boot in UEFI mode and successfully boot into both OS's, correct?)  YES, no problems.

3.  When booting in UEFI mode, did you see a grub menu on boot and were you able to successfully boot from that into both Windows and LL?
YES, the grub screen listed both Windows and Ubuntu.

4.  Once you got LL working in UEFI mode, (if you can remember), approximately how many times did you shutoff/reboot computer before the boot problem with LL happened? 

Don't know exactly, but it seemed like several times, but the dual-booting was flawless prior to attempting binding.

5.  Did the LL boot problem coincide with having done any system updates?  Or was it only a problem once you tried to setup the binding to DATA partition?
LL boot problem coincided only with setting up binding (no problem at all before this).  System updates downloaded & installed flawlessly, & was done by Ubuntu live media towards the end of the LL install (on video).

6.  Can you still boot into Windows without any problem and if so, are you using its entry shown in grub menu to boot into it, or are you booting to it some other way?
YES, I choose the windows entry on the grub menu. This is working fine, booting rapidly into Win8.1 (less than 10 seconds)

I should add that when I went back into LL using a live LL DVD, following your instructions, I did this in legacy mode (fast boot off, secure boot off, CSM on).

[gold_finger]

Thanks for the answers -- very helpful.

I should add that when I went back into LL using a live LL DVD, following your instructions, I did this in legacy mode (fast boot off, secure boot off, CSM on).

Yes, I knew you'd have to do that -- not a problem for doing what you were doing.

6.  Can you still boot into Windows without any problem and if so, are you using its entry shown in grub menu to boot into it, or are you booting to it some other way?

YES, I choose the windows entry on the grub menu. This is working fine, booting rapidly into Win8.1 (less than 10 seconds)

Part in red is potentially a key clue.

If you did not disable Fast Startup in Windows 8, I believe it defaults to just going into a hibernated state when you shutdown.  That is what enables it to boot very rapidly when you startup again.  If Windows is in that hibernated state, that may be causing the boot problem because it might be protecting (or interfering with) the DATA partition (which is NTFS) in some way.

I'm not sure if that's the problem or not though.  If it was, then I would think your accessing the partition with the commands before would also have failed.  But I don't know that because I have ZERO experience with Win 8 or accessing hibernated drives.  Also, I don't know if you'd see the grub menu or if Windows would just resume itself if it were in a hibernated state.  So, this may a completely wrong speculation on my part.  Just to be sure, boot into Windows, then follow instructions here to turn off Fast Startup and do a full (real) shutdown.  Then try booting into LL.


If that didn't work, there is one thing about your fstab file that I didn't notice before.  This line:

Code:

UUID=34A0C4C82DE3D9D1   /mnt/DATA   ntfs-3g   defaults, windows_names, locale=en_US.utf8   0   0

(I believe) Should be:

Code:

UUID=34A0C4C82DE3D9D1   /mnt/DATA   ntfs-3g   defaults,windows_names,locale=en_US.utf8   0   0

The second version has no spaces between "defaults, windows_names, locale=en_US.utf8".  I'm not 100% sure, but I think that does make a difference.  Boot with live LL again, mount the Root partition and edit that fstab file with the change.

Code:

sudo mount /dev/sda6 /mnt
gksu leafpad /mnt/etc/fstab

Make your edit in the file, then save and close.

Code:

sudo umount /dev/sda6

Reboot and see if that made any difference.