How to mount Volumegroup without formatting - ARCH LINUX

Hello I am JayKhrisDee or Jay and I need help saving data and mounting my Volumegroups in Arch Linux, I am only using the archiso live boot environment in fear of losing data.

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Issue 1 - Arch Linux OS Not Loading//Couldn't Access bios.

Originally this situation started with Gigabyte Aorus B550 Elite V2 Bios Booting issues (multiple reboots, and Full Shut downs needed in order to normally boot.) I left my Computer On the Base Gigabyte Splash Screen for 3/4 Hours to no Avail I Had Slow and completely empty Boot-Ups.

I had Also Left the Grub Boot loader for 2/4 Hours because it had also froze at that screen. it still didn't load into my Arch Linux OS.
Within this Grub screen i lost control of Keyboard and My Mouse so Rebooting through CTRL-ALT-DEL was no option. So manual rebooting was required.

I repeated the last two boot processes struggling in frustration looking for some kind of answer, I Then Thought it Was My Bios So I Updated it To the 12/1/2021 Q-Flash
It went through and the Rebooting the same way. Although I did have more successful results in booting, it was the select boot driver screen rather than Grub.

And Like a Can of worms this solution added another problem which is my Main reason for contacting

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Issue 2 MAIN ISSUE - My Arch Linux has Unmounted My Volumegroups

After booting into my Newly Updated Bios, the Logical Volume Groups were Unmounted, and Unrecognized from the Partitions they originated Within.

Now when I initially installed my Arch Linux System I Was very new and required tutorials
I read up on the Arch Wiki but then I took detours on my setup I mainly used the

"FULL ARCH LINUX INSTALLATION GUIDE" from LearnLinuxTV

I Put my Arch install on the: "/dev/volgroup_0/lv_root"
just as he did

as well as my home partition on: "/dev/volgroup_0/lv_home"
just as he did

Everything went well for a while all working Normally until I extended the Volumegroup.
I recently got a New Hard Drive and Wanted To Expand My Volumegroups so It did go through well fully extending without error.

I used the "Logical Volumes Explained" Video by ChrisTitusTech For assistance

youtu.be/scMkYQxBtJ4

Things went well Until The Bios Situation I mentioned recently. Now I Can't Boot Into Grub Or The Arch Linux OS,
so I attempted to see the Issues through a live environment, at least to ensure I didn't lose any data.
I made sure to be very careful in the few commands I used

No serious changes have been made yet.

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When I Input the fdisk command I get this:


root@archiso ~ # fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 931.51 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes,1953525168 sectors
Disk model: Samsung SSD 870
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 bytes = 512 bytes
Sector Size (logical/physical) 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal) 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 12EE6374-B6F9-7C40-9EE8-58292015B4EC

DEVICE   START   END  SECTORS   SIZE TYPES
Disk /dev/sda1 2048 1538047 153600 750M EFI System
Disk /dev/sda2 1538048 1951987087 930.8G Linux LVM

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(Below this was unrelated Information about my USB Flash Drive)


My partitions are still located there and has some self contained data within my Drives.
I checked to see if my Volumegroups we're still there and they were as well.

I proceeded to check Using the pvscan, and lvdisplay commands; these were the results:


root@archiso ~ # pvscan
WARNING: Couldn't find device with UUID IbA08z-s50a-mEnO-OT10-eRFx-bo1H-txeWHD.
WARNING: VG volgroup0 is missing PV IbA08z-s50a-mEnO-OT10-eRFx-bo1H-txeWHD (last written to/dev/sdb1)
PV /dev/sda2 VG volgroup0       lvm2 [<930.78 GiB / 0        free]
PV [unknown] VG volgroup0      lvm2 [2.73 TiB / 0               free]
Total : 2 [<3.63 TiB]  / in use: 2 [<3.64 TiB]  / in no VG:  0  [0    ]

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Context: the unknown drive is my secondary HDD hardrive that I used to Expand the Volumegroup. I then proceeded to use the lvdisplay command, it repeated the same terms when I used pvscan


root@archiso ~ # lvdisplay
WARNING: Couldn't find device with UUID IbA08z-s50a-mEnO-OT10-eRFx-bo1H-txeWHD.
WARNING: VG volgroup0 is missing PV IbA08z-s50a-mEnO-OT10-eRFx-bo1H-txeWHD (last written to/dev/sdb1).
--- Logical Volume ----
LV Path                       /dev/volgroup0/lv_home
LV Name                      lv_home
VG Name                    volgroup0
LV UUID                      i03ya-CWPM-hU2F-Qmwd-Vs01-NwPf-z0Jo0V
LV Write Access            read/write
LV Creation host, time archiso, 2021-11-08 11:10:53 +0000
LV Status                     NOT available (partial)
LV Size                          3.60 TiB
Current LE                     944715
Segments                     2
Allocation                       inherit
Read Ahead Sectors     auto

With this information I Proceeded to do research on safely remounting logical volumes without formatting. And so far most tutorials require a wipe which is not what I want to do In sake of my data, I was tempted to do a fresh install of arch Linux but I am a little weary I might lose data through that. I will do more research before I move forward on the machine.

But I do require assistance with safely recovering my Arch Install. I don't have extra hard drives or installs to attempt this in a Virtual machine so if you can provide information or Video evidence within a VM I would appreciate that. I am Willing to pay for troubles. I just really need my data saved.

Thank you

I am Usually Available to access my computer between 9pm-5am although I am able to respond most of the time.


Welcome on board!

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All the best

VB

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The first thing that hits me about what you've posted is that Arch Live media thinks that the installation is EFI. Is it??? Did you install Arch on this box, or did somebody else do it?

Gigabyte have had all kinds of issues with their BIOS versions. Which version is now installed? F11, F12, F13 or what?

Could it be that your original BIOS defaulted to a BIOS/MBR configuration but now you've flashed it to a version that defaults to EFI? If so, you could try entering the BIOS and altering the setting back from EFI to BIOS/MBR. If the BIOS is looking for a EFI setup when the original install was BIOS/MBR then that would sure stuff the booting process.

Of course, you are right to not attempt to mount your Volumegroup until Arch boot up is sorted. Don't risk writing anything to the disk(s).

If originally you were booting through Grub and that has screwed up, then try downloading the Supergrub2 DVD (or the older Supergrub DVD) to correct issues with and/or reinstall Grub.

2 Likes

Currently I Have the F14e Version of My Bios
I believe it is really new, probably should've taken precautions before I Flashed it.

On my initial Install I Had The F13e Version.
As I did install my Arch Within this system in a volumegroup

/dev/sda1
|
/volgroup0/lv_root

Like the Video Showed, again with regrets I probably should've kept my Boot Separate from the LVM. And I believe it was listed as EFI System Rather Than a UEFI Filesystem because the tutorial used the fdisk partitioning defaults, The Tutorial Did Also provide a Linux-lts Legacy Backup with modern Installation

I went into the Bios, and I had to spam reboot it a little bit but I eventually got in. The Legacy USB was enabled.
The UEFI Only Option was the Defaults I had on the system when I installed. But just in case it worked I I tried to Boot based in EFI. And I got the Same

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"Reboot and Select Proper boot device
Or insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key "

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Response. I Also tried the Existing OS option the installation medium provides. And to no Avail nothing.

I would like to add I am Using a SSD as Well As A HDD within my Volumegroup, the Initial arch Install was on the Samsung SSD under the

/dev/sda1
|
/volgroup0/lv_root

The SSD also Contained my main data under the /dev/sda2

/dev/sda2
|
/volgroup0/lv_home

before I Combined the Drives The HDD defaulted to /dev/sdb but ever since i added it to the volumegroup it isn't listed in the bios, or lsblk commands

An odd find is that my lvscan and pvscan listed the Volumegroup last written into /dev/sdb1 and A Different UUID

So maybe there was a Botched LV combination and it combined to the larger 3TB HDD rather Than The 1TB SSD.

I would also like to add that I used a third, and Fourth video for fresh VM Context when combining my volumes this one is simply titled "Creating a Volumegroup"

As well as the LearnLinuxTV
"Logical Volume Manager (LVM) Deep Dive tutorial" for additional advice as well

For the Combination Commands I Mainly used the Chris Titus Tech Video, I did combine my Volumes in SU as he did rather than sudo(ing) most of my commands
I also Synced all my dependencies while in the terminal at this time

As A Last Piece of added Context my lsblk commands in the Live Installation reads
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root@archiso ~ # lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS

loop0 7.0 0 701.3M 1 loop /run/archiso/airootfs
sda 8.0 0 931.5G 0 disk
|
|_sda1 8.1 0 750M 0 part
|_sda2 8.2 0 930.8G 0 part
sdb 8.16 1 14.6G 0 disk
|_sdb1 8.17 1 14.6G 0 part /run/archiso/airootfs
sr0 11:0 1 1024M 0 rom

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Good Call on the Supergrub CD I'll definitely get one tomorrow at least in case I want an additional way to grub boot for security sake
Finally could put a use to my optical drive. I am bored with ST rooms and love hotels. Thanks anyway.

The system does not see /dev/sdb1 device which is a part of root VG and lv_home logical volume.
Is this the only thing you did (update bios?)
Can you should output of :

lsblk
dmesg | grep "SCSI"

You should be able to boot the system if only /home had extents from sdb1 disk.
Try to mount /dev/volgrup_0/lv_root from live CD, followed by editing of <yourmountpoint>/etc/fstab and commenting out /home mountpoint line.

After reboot, the operating system should boot, and /home will not be there.
Now, next issue would be to detected where is that sdb disk using root user/password, check again dmesg and lsblk output above for devices.

On working operating system, you can also issue a dracut --force --no-hostonly, and after it is finished, reboot the system and check the state again (if you see all disks via lsblk, fdisk, dmesg commands above)

Can you tell me how exactly did you extend the volume group and what kind of disk is in question (2.73 TB one)
Did you use /dev/sdb1 or /dev/sdb (entire device) ?

Did you use GPT on 3 TB drive, since that is requirement for disks larger then 2 TB ?

Regards
Peasant.

Sorry If this is a Bit Of an Ask but Can you please type the full commands, I'm more of a new booty to the arch linux terminal terminology than I'd like to admit. And I don't know if I can trust myself attempting to guess on some commands

I typed a few of the Recommended commands that I understood and these are the responses I got
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root@archiso ~ # lsblk dmesg | grep "SCSI"
lsblk: dmesg: not a block device

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For the mount point I was a little weary so I didn't generate any new /etc files within the installation medium. Although I believe my /etc/fstab files are generated on my /dev/volgroup0/lv_root Volumegroup

Without generating anything I input:

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root@archiso ~ # mount /dev/volgroup0/lv_root /dev/sda1/etc/fstab
mount: /dev/sda1/etc/fstab: mount point is not a directory
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Also I haven't gotten far enough to Edit text with vim or anything or made any additional mounts or anything. Rather Than inputting any commands I've been Surveying and Looking over things to assess the problem before I create any more. Other than a Few lsblk's or vgscan's it's pretty much a bare Bones boot, boy do I wish ranger was included in live CD installs so I can check my files

As For the Bios situations where it blanked and I had no control I fully shut down my system, and removed the CMOS Battery once, when I had no control of the Physical Off buttons Or Reboot command, it didn't have any noticable changes. And most settings were the same

With my volume group extension I used a Western Digital 3TB HDD Hardrive. I previously inserted it and mounted it just to manually format it like windows (I'm not too familiar to terminal formatting) but during the combination section of the ChrisTitusTech
"LVM | Logical Volume Management | Combining Drives"

video at the 8 minute Mark

He Used GParted To format, unallocate and label the drive.
Mine after the manual format was partitioned under a /dev/sdb1 drive originally mine was a ext4 from what I remember, but after the unallocation I believe I was prompted to Change it to a GPT so I did, as well as using the entirety of my drive when I combined them.

I would also like to add that he labeled it as 'home'
and like a baby duck I sadly followed him not thinking about the confusion it could potentially cause within the filesystem

For the most part Everything was working well for about a month and a half up until 12/11/2021 where I ran into the Bios issue, then booting was a little off as well

Thats is because lsblk AND dmesg are 2 commands, you must execute separatly...

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If you are executing commands like this; you are "in way over your head" at this point; based on your problem description.

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FWIW, this is completely wrong. The second argument needs to be a mount point (directory path) on which to mount the volume.

For example:

# mount /dev/volgroup0/lv_root /mnt

In /etc/fstab you should be able to see the mount point onto which that volume is supposed to be mounted at boot time if you don't already know. Then, use that mount point instead of /mnt.

/dev/sda1 refers to a partition on disk /dev/sda, and /etc/fstab is your filesystem table of boot time mounts. So I don't understand where you got /dev/sda1/etc/fstab from at all.

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