Debian fails to boot properly unless the Guest Additions CD is inserted

Question

I have a Debian VM installed on a macOS 10.12 host. For some reason, whenever I eject the VBOXADDITIONS CD, I boot into emergency mode. It is only by remounting said CD and rebooting that I can boot normally. Is there a fix for this, or would I be better off just leaving it mounted?

There are references to the disk in /etc/apt/sources.list, as shown:

# 

# deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 8.6.0 _Jessie_ - Official amd64 xfce-CD Binary-1 20160917-14:22]/ jessie main

# deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 8.6.0 _Jessie_ - Official amd64 xfce-CD Binary-1 20160917-14:22]/ jessie main

deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ jessie main
deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ jessie main

deb http://security.debian.org/ jessie/updates main
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ jessie/updates main

# jessie-updates, previously known as 'volatile'
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ jessie-updates main
deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ jessie-updates main

There also are references to a cdrom0 in /etc/fstab:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
# / was on /dev/sda1 during installation
UUID=de666870-7693-4c4d-a11d-67158e0898a5 /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
# swap was on /dev/sda5 during installation
UUID=4032a035-cc16-4483-a6ce-c2a5196be7b6 none            swap    sw              0       0
/dev/sr0        /media/cdrom0   udf,iso9660 user,exec     0       0

What is in /etc/fstab and are there any references to the disc in /etc/apt/* — ivanivan, Jan 05 '17 at 03:30
@ivanivan /etc/fstab doesn't exist and there are references to the disk in sources.list. I put its contents in the OP. — atirit, Jan 05 '17 at 03:42
@Bahamut Ah, found it. I guess I didn't see it the first time. — atirit, Jan 05 '17 at 16:56

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 05 '17 at 17:58

3

In your /etc/fstab you are automatically mounting the CD when "mount -a" is issued during boot.

Change

/dev/sr0        /media/cdrom0   udf,iso9660 user,exec     0       0

to

/dev/sr0        /media/cdrom0   udf,iso9660,user,exec,noauto     0       0

answered Jan 05 '17 at 17:58

ivanivan

4,955

This is the right fix, but the explanation of its cause is wrong. mount -a is not run during bootstrap on systemd operating systems. /etc/fstab is converted to a series of mount units, and the conversion process does not enable generated units made from records marked noauto. – JdeBP Jan 07 '17 at 07:03

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 05 '17 at 17:19

1

You need to edit the sources list and put a # in front of the line

deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 8.6.0 Jessie - Official amd64 xfce-CD Binary-1 20160917-14:22]/ jessie main

Save and exit.

It thinks that the CD is still in use as a Repository and needs to be present. The # , in Windows parlance rems it out and stops that.

answered Jan 05 '17 at 17:19

See the new sources.list in the OP. It still boots me into emergency mode. – atirit Jan 05 '17 at 17:43

Debian fails to boot properly unless the Guest Additions CD is inserted

2 Answers2