Update broke boot

[Roken]

I just updated the OS on Pi No.1 This Pi has two USB HDs connected via a powered hub. rootfs for this Pi (and the other 3) is on one of the HDs. /boot is on SDCard for all 4.

After the update, I rebooted, and bam, it can't find rootfs.

I've plugged the drive into my desktop and fsck'd it, clean. Checked the UUID and PARTUUID (I tried with both in cmdline.txt). It's now a no go. Has something changed in the updates? This effectively kills all my Pis (although only one is affected).

[Roken]

I've made some progress. It seems that the Pi no longer likes the drives through the hub. Connecting the drive with rootfs directly gets me booted.

Connecting the drives via the hub to my desktop shows no problems, so obviously the hub is working.

Any ideas why the Pi would suddenly not like it.

This is not the Pi with the PoE hat (ruling out the USB reset bug out).

Any ideas?

[DarkPlatinum]

My monitor contains a USB hub inbuilt into it. It does not allow a USB boot.

[Roken]

Except here it was working just fine until yesterday's update.

[incognitum]

- The kernel itself only understands PARTUUID (UUID requires a helper initramfs).
- You do have rootwait in cmdline.txt? Otherwise it errors out if the device is not available instantly on boot.

[Roken]

I do have rootwait - and have reverted to PARTUUID for the direct connection. It seems something has happened to prevent the hub being recognised. Currently cloning Pi4 (which was on the other HD plugged into it) to the one drive now. Once that's done, hopefully, I can get all four booting again.

[incognitum]

After the update, I rebooted, and bam, it can't find rootfs.

Does it actually says it cannot find it with an error message?
As with rootwait it is supposed to just continue waiting.

Double check there aren't duplicate PARTUUIDs on any of your drives.

[Roken]

It says "Waiting", and eventually times out with a halt. Even with just one drive plugged into the hub (and I've confirmed there are no UUID or PARTUUID conflicts).

I'm positive that something in the update prevents it seeing through the hub, now.

EDIT: And it's not Linux per se. My Desktop is running Arch and has no problems with the hub or the drives./

[fruitoftheloom]

It says "Waiting", and eventually times out with a halt. Even with just one drive plugged into the hub (and I've confirmed there are no UUID or PARTUUID conflicts).

I'm positive that something in the update prevents it seeing through the hub, now.

EDIT: And it's not Linux per se. My Desktop is running Arch and has no problems with the hub or the drives./

There have been many issues reported with USB Hubs (powered & unpowered), recently relating to RPi 3A+ which obviously requires the latest release of Raspbian. Maybe at this time revert to an earlier release would be prudent ?

http://downloads.raspberrypi.org/raspbian/images/

[Roken]

As much as I'd like to simply downgrade, I've invested too much time in setting up that one to have to go through it again.

I'm pleased to report that, having taken the hub out of the equation, and just using one drive (two would be too much power draw), and copying the one rootfs off the other drive, I have all four back up and running.

If, as you suggest, it is definitely a software problem, I can live with the one drive at the moment. I get occasional over voltages plugging the drive in directly, but nothing critical.

[Roken]

Well, a quick aside. It turns out Pi #3, being the one I had to move to the only working NAS drive, whilst it booted fine, failed to after an update. But, not the end of the world, it had owncloud on it, and I'd been meaning to switch to nextcloud anyway. So downloaded the latest raspian and started again, Set up the NAS boot before the sdcard even got to the Pi after writing, and all seems well. Nextcloud installed, and working on 13.0.4. Now updating in the running system to 14.0.3 - I think - been backing up a few minutes now, but what the hell.

I wish the tutorial had advised using "sudo chown -Rv" at step 4 (instead of just "-R"), just for a little comfort that the damned thing is doing something.

Nevertheless, if it all goes pear shaped, I know not to start at 9pm on a work night next time.

Oh, for info, I used https://pimylifeup.com/raspberry-pi-nextcloud-server/