Some key facts first about my PC:
- first SSD with Fedora 42, Kernel 6.15, Luks encrypted, btrfs
- second SSD with Windows 10
- 2TB HDD with just storage
- Bios: Fast Boot is disabled, Windows UEFI mode (not the problem)
I have following core problem:
After booting up my Fedora, I get asked for my Luks passphrase, which is normal. However, after typing the passphrase for decryption, it loads shortly for like 1 or 2 seconds, then asks for the passphrase AGAIN, and then the boot is forever stuck on the Fedora logo splash screen with the spinner. After a long while a black terminal-like screen pops up saying "Entering emergency mode. Exit shell to continue. Cannot open access to console, the root account is locked...". My only option then is to turn off the Computer via power button. The thing is: this has happened before, however I always somehow fixed it by turning the power completely off or starting up the Windows SSD, then turning off the Computer again, and then it worked. It was annoying and unreliable but it worked. This is NOT the case now anymore.
I found following solution on a forum: "If you have a non-US local on the machine, it will use this non-US keyboard layout (the bug is that it shows wrong "English(US)" label below [he means when entering the passphrase]. I fixed the problem by setting KEYMAP=US and XKBLAYOUT=us in /etc/vconsole.conf and reinstalling kernels sudo dnf reinstall kernel*" Don't know if this really works but it's my best bet.
Well, that would be so far so good, but i cannot do this unless i get into my Fedora.
Soooo,I flashed a Live USB Stick with Fedora 42 and put it in my PC. I decrypted the Fedora SSD (nvme0n1p3):
sudo cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/nvme0n1p3 fedora_crypt
Then I mounted that:
sudo mount /dev/mapper/fedora_crypt /mnt/sysroot
So far so good:
lsblk -f
NAME FSTYPE FSVER LABEL UUID FSAVAIL FSUSE% MOUNTPOINTS
loop0 erofs fa631a75-b8c1-40fe-b17a-83c733cc1353 0 100% /run/rootfsbase
sda
└─sda1 exfat 1.0 HDD1_Nina 69FE-55D6
sdb iso9660 Joliet Extension Fedora-KDE-Live-42 2025-04-09-12-30-25-00
├─sdb1 iso9660 Joliet Extension Fedora-KDE-Live-42 2025-04-09-12-30-25-00 0 100% /run/initramfs/live
└─sdb2 vfat FAT16 BOOT 5E53-C07C
zram0 swap 1 zram0 292d3b4e-0abc-4eb6-9433-5195297db953 [SWAP]
nvme1n1
├─nvme1n1p1 vfat FAT32 F021-8121
├─nvme1n1p2
├─nvme1n1p3 ntfs 30942239942201C8
└─nvme1n1p4 ntfs 726418BC6418854F
nvme0n1
├─nvme0n1p1 vfat FAT32 9660-DCEA
├─nvme0n1p2 ext4 1.0 8ecca627-4983-446e-b4f5-501a6bd78ae9
└─nvme0n1p3 crypto_LUKS 2 dd7bcb68-5316-4147-929b-adc16de387a6
└─fedora_crypt btrfs fedora 19e5fe31-f4f5-4317-9468-d47ec867a286 928.7G 2% /mnt/sysroot`
Then I did what AI told me. This is my problem right now:
liveuser@localhost-live:~$ sudo chroot /mnt/sysroot
chroot: failed to run command ‘/bin/bash’: No such file or directory
I also tried (not knowing what the additions really mean):
sudo mount -o subvol=@ /dev/mapper/fedora_crypt /mnt/sysroot
mount: /mnt/sysroot: fsconfig system call failed: No such file or directory.
dmesg(1) may have more information after failed mount system call.
What i noticed is that when I in Dolphin go to the root of the directory of the decrypted fedora_crypt, so to "/", I do not see all the usual folders I normally see. Instead, there are only two: /home and /root
In /home, there is my user 'nina' on Fedora with Documents, Download etc in it. In /root, there is the file system I'd expect in /. There is also a /root/home, however that one is just empty.
I am new to Linux and don't have ANY knowledge regarding btrfs or why the file structure looks different when mounted from a Live USB Stick, which is why I'm hoping to get some help here. The USB Live Linux has Kernel 6.14 when typing uname -r (not 6.15 like my SSD Fedora) for some reason, don't know why or if that's even relevant.
All help is very appreciated!! Very happy when I just can reliably start my Fedora without having half a breakdown first cause it doesn't let me in xD. Let me know if you need additional info.
Thank you all!
