Friday, January 13, 2017

After a Windows 10 Shutdown, Linux (Ubuntu) Will Not Boot

Windows 10 periodically (without notification) resets certain defaults when system updates occur. That can be quite irritating when it affects your computing operations in either Windows and/or Linux. In the most recent update, the the "fast shutdown" feature for Windows 10 was reactivated.  This has the unfortunate effect of leaving the computer's hard drive in a state of hibernation that precluded Ubuntu from booting.
There is no obvious indication when shutting down Windows 10 that the  "fast shutdown" feature was placed into effect. Previously, I had turned it off at least a couple of times. Since it does not happen often, I forgot how to identify and solve this issue. I spent a couple of fun filled hours dwelling on this before realizing what happened. A tutorial concerning how to fully shutdown Windows 10 is located here. How to fully shut down Windows 10.  An additional article for additional thoughts: The Pros and Cons of Windows 10’s “Fast Startup” Mode.

Following the advice of that tutorial solved the problem and Ubuntu once again boots successfully. Should you have the same problem, I hope that his helps.

Another approach is to mount the Windows 10 partition in read-only mode. /etc/fstab code sample below:

# /dev/sda1 - Windows Partition on /media/windows
# Mounting Read Only- because of Window Shutdown Issue (fast start)
UUID=0A8259B98259AA49 /media/windows ntfs-3g  ro,bg,nodev,defaults,noexec,nosuid                0     0