Migrating Ubuntu On a ZFS Root File System

May 9, 2016 admin

I have written a couple articles about this here http://blog.ls-al.com/ubuntu-on-a-zfs-root-file-system-for-ubuntu-15-04/ and here http://blog.ls-al.com/ubuntu-on-a-zfs-root-file-system-for-ubuntu-14-04/

This is a quick update. After using virtualbox to export and import on a new machine my guest did not boot up all the way. I suspect I was just not seeing the message about manual/skip check of a file system and that the fstab entry for sda1 changed. Here is what I did. On bootup try "S" for skip if you are stuck. In my case I was stuck after a message about enabling encryption devices or something to that effect.

Check fstab and note disk device name.

root@ubuntu:~# cat /etc/fstab
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-VBOX_HARDDISK_VB7e932a52-ef3c41b0-part1 /boot/grub auto defaults 0 1

Check if this device exists.

root@ubuntu:~# ls -l /dev/disk/by-id/ata-VBOX_HARDDISK_VB7e932a52-ef3c41b0*
ls: cannot access /dev/disk/by-id/ata-VBOX_HARDDISK_VB7e932a52-ef3c41b0*: No such file or directory

What is the correct device name.

root@ubuntu:~# ls -l /dev/disk/by-id/ata-VBOX_HARDDISK*                    
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  9 May  9 15:38 /dev/disk/by-id/ata-VBOX_HARDDISK_VBb0249023-5afef528 -> ../../sda
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 May  9 15:38 /dev/disk/by-id/ata-VBOX_HARDDISK_VBb0249023-5afef528-part1 -> ../../sda1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 May  9 15:38 /dev/disk/by-id/ata-VBOX_HARDDISK_VBb0249023-5afef528-part2 -> ../../sda2

Keep old fstab and update with correct name.

root@ubuntu:~# cp /etc/fstab /root

root@ubuntu:~# vi /etc/fstab
root@ubuntu:~# sync
root@ubuntu:~# diff /etc/fstab /root/fstab 
1c1
< /dev/disk/by-id/ata-VBOX_HARDDISK_VBb0249023-5afef528-part1 /boot/grub auto defaults 0 1 
---
> /dev/disk/by-id/ata-VBOX_HARDDISK_VB7e932a52-ef3c41b0-part1 /boot/grub auto defaults 0 1

Try rebooting now.