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I needed to restore my Ubuntu 20.04 server after trying out 22.04 for a bit. (Certain functions I require are not yet ready for 22.04.) The restore (which was a simple dd operation from a dd backup) went great, and everything is working except that my primary storage area (at /dev/sda1 and in good health) won't mount. It is listed in fstab as:

UUID=6961b9dc-2983-4b3d-ab5a-12d52099d960 /svr ext4 defaults 0 1

When I mount it, there is no failure at the command line, but ls -l /svr still shows no files. So I investigated /var/log/syslog, and found this:

Jan 16 11:44:58 r2d2 systemd[1]: svr.mount: Unit is bound to inactive unit dev-disk-by\x2duuid-6961b9dc\x2d2983\x2d4b3d\x2dab5a\x2d12d52099d960.device. Stopping, too.
Jan 16 11:44:58 r2d2 kernel: [16290.137663] EXT4-fs (sda1): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. Opts: (null)
Jan 16 11:44:58 r2d2 systemd[1]: Unmounting /svr...
Jan 16 11:44:58 r2d2 systemd[1354]: svr.mount: Succeeded.
Jan 16 11:44:58 r2d2 systemd[4520]: svr.mount: Succeeded.
Jan 16 11:44:58 r2d2 systemd[1]: svr.mount: Succeeded.
Jan 16 11:44:58 r2d2 systemd[1]: Unmounted /svr.

Attempts to mount explicitly: (sudo mount /dev/sda1 /svr) respond exactly the same.

Research pointed me to relevant question systemd keeps unmounting, which seems to dance around this same topic but apparently there's some difference since the solutions there (systemd daemon-reload or reboot) do not resolve this issue.

What might I try in order to resolve this? Again, this was all working fine - even under Ubuntu 22.04 - and has only been an issue since the restore.

Thanks!

Dennis
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  • I’d try mounting to a different location as a first trouble shooting step. There is such a thing as The Discoverable Partitions Specification. https://uapi-group.org/specifications/specs/discoverable_partitions_specification/#defined-partition-type-uuids This is a mechanism that allows systemd to mount partitions to the correct place without an entry in fstab. This explains it slightly better. https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd-gpt-auto-generator.html. The /svr mount point is one included in this specification. It’s possible your issue is related to this. – PonJar Jan 16 '23 at 17:47
  • If you can mount to a different point there may be some sort of conflict preventing the /svr mount working as expected. Note that something called a GUID is key to this. It’s different to UUID. – PonJar Jan 16 '23 at 17:50
  • From [this site](https://www.claudiokuenzler.com/blog/1124/linux-mount-not-working-systemd-unit-is-bound-to-inactive) Try using: `sudo systemctl daemon-reload` and `sudo mount /dev/sda1 /svr`. Also according to some user their problem was about disk `UUID` had changed so maybe you will have change your `UUID=6961b9dc-2983-4b3d-ab5a-12d52099d960` in the fstab file. – Edgar Magallon Jan 16 '23 at 22:07
  • Thank you, @PonJar - the links were interesting reading at least. I'm more educated now. As much as I hate to admit it, this problem magically disappeared with yet-another-reboot (there had been several, for various reasons). One of my pet peeves is disappearance of problems without any resolution steps. But over the years I've noticed this happening more and more frequently. Anyway, thanks again. I'll call off the dogs,. – Dennis Jan 17 '23 at 18:55
  • Thanks, @EdgarMagallon. It may not have been obvious in my question that I had tried this. I did mention it, but it wasn't highlighted. Anyway, thanks for the comment and attempt. The problem has now vanished without known cause. – Dennis Jan 17 '23 at 18:59

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