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+date = 2024-02-13
+title = "Stuck in Ubuntu's Emergency Mode? Try Fixing the Fstab File"
+description = ""
+draft = false
++++
+
+# The Problem
+
+I recently [migrated my hard drives to a ZFS pool](../zfs/) and found
+myself stuck in Ubuntu\'s emergency mode after the first reboot I
+performed after creating the ZFS pool.
+
+My server was stuck in the boot process and showed the following error
+on the screen:
+
+``` txt
+You are in emergency mode.
+After logging in, type "journalctl -xb" to view system logs,
+"systemctl reboot" to reboot, "systemctl default"
+or ^D to try again to boot into default mode".
+```
+
+After rebooting the server and watching the logs scroll on a monitor, I
+noticed the root cause was related to a very long search for certain
+drives. I kept seeing errors like this:
+
+``` txt
+[ TIME ] Timed out waiting of device dev-disk-by/[disk-uuid]
+```
+
+I realized that I had not removed the `/etc/fstab` references
+that asked Ubuntu to mount two disks on boot, but I had recently changed
+those disks to be part of my ZFS pool instead. Therefore, Ubuntu was
+trying to identify and mount a disk that was not available.
+
+Now that we have an idea of the issue, let\'s move to solution.
+
+# The Solution
+
+In order to fix the issue, I waited until I was allowed to type the root
+user\'s password, and then I executed the following command:
+
+```sh
+nano /etc/fstab
+```
+
+Within the `fstab` file, I needed to comment/remove the
+following lines at the bottom of the file. You can comment-out a line by
+prepending a `#` symbol at the beginning of the line. You can
+also delete the line entirely.
+
+``` conf
+# What it looked like when running into the issue:
+UUID=B64E53824E5339F7 /mnt/white-01 ntfs-3g uid=1000,gid=1000 0 0
+UUID=E69867E59867B32B /mnt/white-02 ntfs-3g uid=1000,gid=1000 0 0
+
+# What I changed it to, in order to fix the issue:
+# UUID=B64E53824E5339F7 /mnt/white-01 ntfs-3g uid=1000,gid=1000 0 0
+# UUID=E69867E59867B32B /mnt/white-02 ntfs-3g uid=1000,gid=1000 0 0
+```
+
+Once removing the lines above from the `/etc/fstab` file,
+save and exit the file by hitting the `Ctrl` + `x`
+key combo.
+
+You can now hit `Ctrl` + `D` to continue, or
+reboot:
+
+```sh
+systemctl reboot
+```
+
+Once rebooted, I was able to watch the machine boot properly and launch
+to the TTY login screen without errors!