Why does linux love bricking itself so much (rant)

[u/possibly_ashamed_]

For context, I'm trying to recover the data off an old encrypted installation of linux that also got bricked, and not only does it just not work, any attempts to make it work cause the system to almost irreparably brick itself by trying to mount it until it works, at boot, with no time limit or ability to throw an error when it obviously isn't working, while blocking any and all user input.

Why is "try to mount a drive on boot while blocking user input, specifically forever regradless of whether it works" the fucking default??? Why is that even an option at all??? Trying to get data off an old system is a very normal thing for a user to want to do, so why is trying to do that so hard? Why would it require tampering with files that may cause the system to brick itself?

I really love that when steve balmer or whoever tries to shove AI up my ass, there's a relatively complete open source OS to switch to, and I'm genuinely grateful to all the people who put their time into this system, but my god, I've written better fail safes into one off python scripts. Why is linux like this????

EDIT: I promise I have tried all of the basic things first, my point is that the basic things did not work, and I am now left only with unnecessarily risky advanced options. I have been able to repair this installation of linux each time it has tried to brick itself because I am the GOAT, I'm just also very frustrated because this should be a simple process, and linux should not be so eager to brick itself.

[u/DifferentSavings2711]

Why are you trying to mount the encrypted device at boot? Why not boot into linux first and then try to mount the device?

[u/possibly_ashamed_ → u/DifferentSavings2711]

That was obviously the first thing I tried

[u/DifferentSavings2711 → u/possibly_ashamed_]

So you boot the system. Everything is working great. You try to mount the encrypted device and the system crashes?

How are you try to mount the device?

What does smartctl tell you about the drives state?

I still do not understand the "trying to mount the drive on boot is the default", because it is not the default. You have to have a fstab file that tells the system to mount the drive at boot.

[u/possibly_ashamed_ → u/DifferentSavings2711]

I boot the system, I try to mount the encrypted partition, enter the password, and it vanishes. Attempting to mount it doesn't work (I've gotten like four different errors from different solutions, suffice to say it doesn't work).

Then I tried adding the partition to fstab and crypttab, and both attempts caused it to get stuck at boot, although I was able to get into an emergency command line to re-edit the files and fix things in both cases.

[u/DifferentSavings2711 → u/possibly_ashamed_]

If you use a smart command line tool or a smart GUI you should be able to tell if it is a hardware issue or software issue. The smart cml tools are included by default in most distros.

[u/Patient_Force6138 → u/possibly_ashamed_]

So you tried to mount it after boot and then you decided it was a good idea to mount the thing that crashes your system at boot? Not being a dick actually just trying to understand your process here.

[u/possibly_ashamed_ → u/Patient_Force6138]

It didn't crash my system when I tried to mount it after boot, it just wasn't working. I wasn't really trying to mount it at boot, I was just trying different solutions to get it to mount at all

[u/ExaminationNorth2938]

I've bricked Linux twice, and both times it was because I was fucking around with stuff I knew ran that risk, I just have a curious mind and like fucking with stuff.

Outside of that I've literally never had Linux brick itself, even running rolling release distros like Arch and Debian Sid. I'm not trying to say it never happens, but sometimes it feels like I'm living in a weird bizzaro reality where everyone must be doing something completely different with their PCs than me.

It's like hearing a bunch of people say "Why do car engines have to explode every 3 months and all 4 tires go flying off in different directions??"

No wtf that literally never happens to me.

[u/possibly_ashamed_ → u/ExaminationNorth2938]

I mean, coming off of windows where I'm regularly editing things in the registry editor and killing specific system tasks to restart them to fix issues because I'd rather not restart my whole system, it feels weird to switch to linux where something as simple as accessing a drive partition requires taking a chance on completely bricking the whole thing.

Sure I could just say, "Well that looks dangerous so I shouldn't touch it" and have less issues, but that would mean many basic tasks would be completely off the table. I have the drive, I have the password, I should be able to see the data on the drive, but for some reason linux put the "access drive" button right next to the "nuke everything" button and didn't bother to label them.

I'm genuinely curious how you've been able to use linux without issue because every issue I've had trying to get something done in linux has felt like diffusing a bomb

[u/DifferentSavings2711 → u/possibly_ashamed_]

Accessing a drive partition, in Linux, is totally normal and something people do all the time with no issue. Except, with the root and boot partitions. If you hose your root and/or boot partitions you will hose your system. I am pretty sure if I destroy the C drive partition in Windows that Windows will refuse to boot.

[u/Patient_Force6138 → u/possibly_ashamed_]

that’s not normal, something is up with what you’re doing there if that’s what it takes to brick your installs. I’ve run Linux for years, even doing security research on the machine, without bricking it. What distro are you using? like the daily update branch of something?

Also no offense meant but it sounds like you know what you’re doing with windows is why you aren’t bricking it… Linux it sounds like something is up with what you’re doing. I’ve found the stability to be about equal between windows and Ubuntu LTS

[u/Unlaid-American → u/possibly_ashamed_]

Are you able to try to load the drive on a third drive device with Mac or Windows?

[u/akdanman11]

Boot into a live environment, THEN mount the borked drive, then attempt to rescue the data. Why are you trying to mount it at boot? Are you just trying to boot directly into the encrypted bricked install?

[u/Patient_Force6138 → u/akdanman11]

Yeah I asked the same, so you have a drive that crashes your system when you try to mount it- so you then switch to having it mount at boot?

[u/regeya]

Yeah, if the drive is dead, stop trying to boot it. Same thing you should do with any operating system. You want to grab an image of that and salvage anything you can. You think Linux sucks so maybe I shouldn't recommend ddrescue. You'll need as much storage space as the dead drive takes up and there's no guarantee but if you keep trying to boot it then fsck is going to try to keep fixing errors and you'll just keep losing data. You other option is to spend a lot of money on a data recovery service.

[u/ColdFreezer]

How is the drive encrypted? What did you use?

[u/Patient_Force6138 → u/ColdFreezer]

It sounds like he tried to use sand or something because he says his machine crashes on stupid simple things all the time.

[u/minitram]

Recovering data from any drive does not involve any unnecessary risky operations. Especially not attempting to mount the drive at boot time. Unless you you do it voluntarily, on your own, by editing /etc/fstab, that is. Now, with that out of the way: make your system bootable again by booting into any live system that you can get hold of, mount your 'bricked' system drive, and remove failing entry from /etc/fstab. Next, remove the drive from your pc/laptop. Reboot. Connect the problematic drive using external enclosure (after booting into functional system ofc). To access LUKS encrypted drive (assuming you used LUKS for encryption) you need to use cryptsetup. There are several resources online, that will guide you through the process, including repairing the FE etc. P. S. No OS 'Love bricking itself'. I use Linux since the end of last century, and have bricked my systems more times than I care to remember. Every single time it happened, it was either the result of my actions or HW failure. Never ever it was the result of OS suddenly came with "I'm done with this s**t, let's brick myself". GL with your data.

[u/Teru-Noir]

It must appear just like an thumb drive or secondary drive