Hi,
this is the second time in a few months this happens to me and I'm looking to understand how to fix it (the first time I reinstalled Zorin and I would like to avoid that)
So after trying to boot once it said some error message about failing to load some Network stuff (unfortunately I don't remember the exact message)
And after forcing reboot, after decrypting the partition, instead of booting normally I got the following message: 'You are in emergency mode. After logging in, type "journalctl -xb" to view system logs, "systemctl reboot" to reboot, "systemctl default" or "exit" to boot into default mode". Press Enter for maintenance'
So I tried many things, such as manually running fsck for all mounting points listed in /etc/fstab after identifying them using blkid.
I also tried commenting out certain lines in /etc/fstab doing a sudo nano as advised on some threads with no more success.
Interestingly, after I modify /etc/fstab using nano the reboot command does nothing and if I run exit I get "Failed to start default target: Transaction for.graphical.target/start is destructive" and then I have to force reboot ro get back to emergency mode.
Naturally I looked at the hundreds of lines generated by journalctl -xb and it did not help me understand what's going on. Here are a few screens:
Do you have any information on the system itself? A model number with specifics, or even just cpu, ram, hard drive etc. I know you've got an NVME in there, but it's difficult to know everything. Also gpu etc etc.
I notice there's a line in there that isn't highlighted stating that it can't access something, you might be running a broken bios. I doubt this is the case if you previously recently had windows running properly, but it makes me curious as to what system this is and what specs we're looking at.
Yes I saw the line saying I may have a broken bios, and I also think it's not the case (effectively I had windows running on it before installing Zorin)
Ok, I've got a very similar notebook to you then, and I also have a fair few issues with it. First thing I would ask is if you have tried another distribution with a newer kernel than Zorin (such as popos 22.04 / mx linux / ubuntu 24.04.2)? My laptop really does not like the kernels that Zorin has been using, so I have to use manually installed ones if I decided to go the Zorin route on it.
Secondly, I assume since you're talking about decrypting your partition, i assume this is after install? I have had a lot of negative experiences with encryption, being unstable and causing more harm than good, so imo, unless you're very worried about your stuff, I would not use it. If I were to use it again, I would encrypt most likely my home user folder rather than the whole OS.
I haven't tried other distros on it, I've thought of it today as I ran through this problem for the second time. I really like the Zorin look but if I can't find a way to solve this issue I may try something else instead.
Nope I encrypted the partition directly using Zorin installer as there is an option for encrypting. I didn't do the encryption afterwards
I'm not saying you encrypted afterwards, just that this error occured after installation*. I've tried full system encryption on my AMD systems in the past, and it regularly leads to breakages (sometimes minor, sometimes major) and it's never worth the risk as far as I am concerned.
That's what I meant by encrypting just what you need encrypted instead. It's a much safer way imo. And yes @zenzen, I tend to avoid it for this reason.
I'm not sure what could be causing this... a quick test to find out is to reinstall without the encryption. Unless, that is, you have good reasons to use it in the first place.
I could try that out. Maybe encrypting the whole system is what causes this problem. Though I would have to wait for months of usage to make sure it does not break like that again lol
I've still wanted to search for a cause that would have a practical solution that does not include erasing my system again..
Unfortunately that's the first thing I would recommend honestly. Annoying to have to do and wait and see, but encryption causes so many errors (and randomly) that it's hard to pinpoint what will have gone wrong here. Maybe someone else will have some ideas.
But when something goes wrong with encryption, it's so difficult to get a system back that I never recommend it with the caveat of unless you are doing CRITICALLY SENSITIVE work (ie you work in banking or healthcare). And in those cases, I would recommend both encryption AND backups of everything. Because even when encryption works well (and doesn't, I've seen a lot) there's always a chance that something small breaks it and then whoops, no fix for you.
