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"Error: Unknown filesystem" on Every Partition

Hi everyone. After installing Artix from a live USB and rebooted, I received these errror messages about Btrfs and entered Grub rescue mode:
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error:../../grub-core/fs/btrfs.c:300:not a Btrfs filesystem
error:../../grub-core/kern/fs.c:121 unknown filesystem
Entering rescue mode...
following some instructions online,  I used the "ls" command to see the list of partitions, which is the following:
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(hd0) (hd0,gpt3) (hd0,gpt2) (hd0,gpt1)
Then, I used the same command to check the content of each partition to see which one is my boot partition but all of them return "unknown filesystem".

I can recall 2 mistakes that I made during installation:
  • I choose to install from CD/DVD/ISO instead of from Stick/HDD
  • I ignored the warning about GPT
If you can let me know what I can do to fix this it would be greatly appreciated!

Here are some additional information:
  • The result when I typed the "set" command:
    Code: [Select]
    btrfs_relative_path=y
    btrfs_subvol=
    btrfs_subvol id = 
    cmdpath=(hd0,gpt1)/EFI/opensuse
    prefix=(hd0,gpt2)/boot/grub2
    root=hd0,gpt2
  • as you can see, my original distro was OpenSuse. My device is an Acer laptop and on it was 3 partitions: the UEFI partiions, the main Btrfs partition and the swap partition. I only choose to replace the Btrfs partition

Re: "Error: Unknown filesystem" on Every Partition

Reply #1 –
> I ignored the warning about GPT

What was the name of utility and the exact error message?

> My device is an Acer laptop

Could you tell the exact model? some models like mine have a really buggy firmware.

Re: "Error: Unknown filesystem" on Every Partition

Reply #2 –
My device: Acer Aspire 5 a514-54. Cpu: i5 1135g7

I cant recall the exact message but it pop up when I press "Next" in the Partition section and moved on to the User section of the Installation interface. The message was about how GPT works on every device or something like that.

Now that I think about it, i'm not sure if that was a warning

Re: "Error: Unknown filesystem" on Every Partition

Reply #3 –
the GPT warning was probably when you made your GPT table, I think it warns you that BIOS/GPT is not possible (I'm not sure), however that's not important.look here for more information

I'm guessing during installation you configured "fstab" with label or device path and after boot it changed.

follow your original installation  mount  instruction (don't follow any other command, just mount)
then chroot to your system and in artix wiki

do me a favor and send the output of this commands

Code: [Select]
lsblk --fs
Code: [Select]
fdisk -x
Code: [Select]
cat /etc/fstab

Re: "Error: Unknown filesystem" on Every Partition

Reply #4 –
Nothing happens when I plug my my live USB in. The laptop still boot to grub rescue mode. I will have to use my friend's computer to update my live USB but he wont be available today

Re: "Error: Unknown filesystem" on Every Partition

Reply #5 –
I know that pop up about gpt, if you ignore that you'll have no UEFI secure boot or whatever is being called.

If i were you i would re-install the system this time without ignoring that pop up. You can format only root partition when reinstall so home partition gonna be untouched with all your files. But if you did not partition your disk in /root and /home your files might not be preserved. In any case to rule out any data loss back-up your files first regardless of your re-install method of choice.

That gpt pop up is very important as your cpu's UEFI capability will be ignored and there's a chance that create more problems when a lot of updates will roll in afterwards.

You can try disabling quick boot if you have such an option in your bios but there's little chance that will fix your problem

Re: "Error: Unknown filesystem" on Every Partition

Reply #6 –
Quote from: suren – on
do me a favor and send the output of this commands
Code: [Select]
lsblk --fs
Code: [Select]
fdisk -x
Code: [Select]
cat /etc/fstab
I re-installed but here's the current output:
lsblk --fs:
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NAME        FSTYPE FSVER LABEL UUID                                 FSAVAIL FSUSE% MOUNTPOINTS
nvme0n1                                                                            
├─nvme0n1p1 vfat   FAT32       EFB4-6C98                             506.1M     1% /boot/efi
├─nvme0n1p2 ext4   1.0         6368a039-15ff-436b-ac7b-66c7b9f2a934  213.3G     3% /
└─nvme0n1p3 swap   1           382dc45b-a3e4-4c26-b6e0-2169e0b55bfb               
fdisk-x:
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Disk /dev/nvme0n1: 238.47 GiB, 256060514304 bytes, 500118192 sectors
Disk model: WDC PC SN530 SDBPNPZ-256G-1114          
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 66415BFE-C8E6-41BA-A343-00A0C3B093C9
First usable LBA: 34
Last usable LBA: 500118158
Alternative LBA: 500118191
Partition entries starting LBA: 2
Allocated partition entries: 128
Partition entries ending LBA: 33

Device             Start       End   Sectors Type-UUID                            UUID                                 Name                 Attrs
/dev/nvme0n1p1      2048   1050623   1048576 C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B F5445F4F-1152-47C2-8A8A-781BB7A55883 EFI System Partition 
/dev/nvme0n1p2   1050624 495923199 494872576 0FC63DAF-8483-4772-8E79-3D69D8477DE4 85316F3E-158A-ED4D-A169-8BE7E7B28898 root                 
/dev/nvme0n1p3 495923200 500118158   4194959 0657FD6D-A4AB-43C4-84E5-0933C84B4F4F 32CF9D15-502E-4369-9813-9F0C93623E40
cat /etc/fstab:
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# <file system>             <mount point>  <type>  <options>  <dump>  <pass>
UUID=EFB4-6C98                            /boot/efi      vfat    umask=0077 0 2
UUID=6368a039-15ff-436b-ac7b-66c7b9f2a934 /              ext4    defaults,noatime 0 1
tmpfs                                     /tmp           tmpfs   defaults,noatime,mode=1777 0 0

I was able to boot into Artix  now. The strange thing was that there was no option to boot Artix in the BIOS boot order menu, the boot order menu only has "ubuntu"(Ubuntu was the distro I had before OpenSUSE) and "opensuse" as options. In order to boot Artix, I need to move "opensuse" to the bottom and move "ubuntu" to the top. Artix is booted after exiting that Grub menu. So my main problem now is how to make Artix boot option appear in the BIOS.
Edit: So the Artix boot option was there but it isn't named, when I put the blank "option" to the top I was able to boot just fine. Here's the screenshot https://imgur.com/a/NEsf4xh

Does anyone know how to make name of the boot option not blank?

Re: "Error: Unknown filesystem" on Every Partition

Reply #7 –
|I was going to say "you got an acer with an insys uefi by any chance?" then i looked at your pic post and you have.    Absolutely awful uefi's (I say typing from one), and the short answer is "you can't".   Its not actually an Artix thing, but an Acer thing that doesn't resolve the name so just blanks it (same goes for just about anything Archy too i think were you to install on it). But looking on the bright side, you had opensuse before on it, when i installed that originally (42.3) it gave the impression of bricking it, nothing, not even able to access bios....its not like that on other uefi prgrams used by other makes for the names btw.    A Uefi update if available will not change it either.  So sorry, the blank is a blank for Acer, and the they're not going to change the code in the firmware to make it function better (that's what they told me).   But, the important thing is you have Artix installed and working and the name thing isn't in anyway going to affect its functioning!  

Re: "Error: Unknown filesystem" on Every Partition

Reply #8 –
Quote from: gavincc – on
|I was going to say "you got an acer with an insys uefi by any chance?" then i looked at your pic post and you have.    Absolutely awful uefi's (I say typing from one), and the short answer is "you can't".   Its not actually an Artix thing, but an Acer thing that doesn't resolve the name so just blanks it (same goes for just about anything Archy too i think were you to install on it). But looking on the bright side, you had opensuse before on it, when i installed that originally (42.3) it gave the impression of bricking it, nothing, not even able to access bios....its not like that on other uefi prgrams used by other makes for the names btw.    A Uefi update if available will not change it either.  So sorry, the blank is a blank for Acer, and the they're not going to change the code in the firmware to make it function better (that's what they told me).   But, the important thing is you have Artix installed and working and the name thing isn't in anyway going to affect its functioning!  
Very true. This topic has been solved, everything was due to Acer's buggy UEFI. I hope future Artix users with Acers will take note

Re: "Error: Unknown filesystem" on Every Partition

Reply #9 –
> Absolutely awful uefi's (I say typing from one)

Oh indeed what absolutely insufferable firmware, On my model I had to do technical gymnastics just to get the damn thing to boot Artix, I have to initiate suspend to RAM mid boot just for the initramfs to see the SATA internal storage.

On the bright side, since I was the first one to actually manage to succeed booting Linux on it I wrote the Arch wiki section for it and gave some assistance to people on the Acer forums.

So yeah thanks to Acer's incompetence my participation in the community that I love so much was started.