UUID: How to search for?

julian516 · Posted: Mon Nov 16, 2025 12:03 am Post subject: UUID: How to search for?

I have a problem with a new Ubuntu 9.10 installation. When my system boots it tells me it is waiting on a UUID and the message seems to indicate the swap file. This goes by too quickly for me to capture the message or the complete UUID. But I have a fragment, which is "6e4e13b5"

Now I do not have a UUID with that sequence according to bilkd. It is not in fstab. Similarly Gparted does not show it if I use "information" to look at the UUIDs for each partition on the system.

But something someplace holds a UUID value that starts with "6e4e13b5" And it seems to think it is needed as Ubuntu 9.10 boots, apparently in order to mount the swap file.

Brute force it may be, but can someone show me how to set up a search of my entire directory structure such that I will find the string "6e4e13b5" if it is there? Note this is part of a longer UUID string. I would like to know where this particular UUID resides.

I have been trying to understand man pages for grep, fgrep, etc and I'm afraid I don't get it. If you can help I would appreciate it.

And if you can point me to a book or article that explains how to do searches of this sort, thank you!

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Ubuntu 9.10
Mandriva 2025 KDE
siduxKDE/antiX

Germ · Posted: Mon Nov 16, 2025 12:48 am Post subject:

If I were you I would edit fstab and put the actual dev name in there instead of UUID. That's the first thing I do on a new install.

see what this gives you:

julian516 · Posted: Mon Nov 16, 2025 3:50 am Post subject:

OK Germ, we have it! I did cat /etc/fstab earlier and somehow missed the fact that the same swapfile was listed twice with two different UUIDs. Absolutely no idea how that happened excepting that I had unusual difficulty with the Ubuntu 9.10 installer this time around.

And I guess I have a vision problem? Smile

Thank you so much for your suggestions. I just restarted and for the first time with 9.10 I did not get a fleeting message that the system was waiting on UUID 6e4e13b5 .... swap ..., which makes perfect sense given the two UUIDs for the same partition.

This is my first tangle with UUIDs. You might have the right idea, I must say.

_________________
Ubuntu 9.10
Mandriva 2025 KDE
siduxKDE/antiX

Germ · Posted: Mon Nov 16, 2025 1:04 pm Post subject:

Glad you got it sorted. Smile

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Laptop: Mandriva 2025 PowerPack - 2.6.33.5-0.2mnb
Desktop: Mandriva 2025 Free - kernel 2.6.33.2-1mib

tlmiller · Posted: Mon Nov 16, 2025 3:41 pm Post subject:

I HATE distros using UUID for swap. For all other partitions, I don't mind, but it irritates me to no end with swap. Most distros don't give you an option to NOT reformat your swap partition when installing, so if I install 3 distros to test onto a pc, then after installing the 3rd, I have to go back and fix OS 1 & 2's fstab because they've got swap all outta whack. I actually did that this weekend, buntu was giving me errors because of swap having the wronig UUID.

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Debian Squeeze, Arch, Kubuntu mostly. Some Mandriva. Some Windows.
Desktops: shadowdragon, medusa
Laptops: bluedrake, banelord, sandwyrm, aardvark.

Lord.DragonFly.of.Dawn · Posted: Mon Nov 16, 2025 5:31 pm Post subject:

unless timing is an ussue i tend to use the label feature.

that way i can move partitions, reformat, etc and as long as i keep the file system labels correct everything keeps working.

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PuppyLinux, CloneZilla, PartedMagic, DBAN - rescue thumbdrives
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julian516 · Posted: Mon Nov 16, 2025 10:38 pm Post subject:

I have run into timiller's problem in the past and it drove me nuts because I did not understand what was happening at all. So if I understand correctly would using labels rather than UUIDs make this easier?

_________________
Ubuntu 9.10
Mandriva 2025 KDE
siduxKDE/antiX

Lord.DragonFly.of.Dawn · Posted: Tue Nov 17, 2025 12:08 am Post subject:

in certain circumstances, yes

mostly /dev/sdxy is even easier.

_________________
ArchLinux x86_64 - Custom Built Desktop
ArchLinux x86_64 - Compaq CQ50 Laptop
ArchLinux i686 - Acer Aspire One Netbook
ArchLinux i686 - Dell Presario ze2000 (w/ shattered LCD)

PuppyLinux, CloneZilla, PartedMagic, DBAN - rescue thumbdrives
Windows 7 (x86_64 desktop alternate boot)

anticapitalista · Member Joined: 13 Jan 2025 Posts: 185 Location: Greece

I think labels are the way to go especially if you have sata and pata drives (to avoid dev/sdxy or /dev/hdxy problems)

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sidux

tlmiller · Posted: Tue Nov 17, 2025 12:43 am Post subject:

I like using /dev/sdxy for swap, and I do use uuid= for all other drives.

_________________
Debian Squeeze, Arch, Kubuntu mostly. Some Mandriva. Some Windows.
Desktops: shadowdragon, medusa
Laptops: bluedrake, banelord, sandwyrm, aardvark.

Lord.DragonFly.of.Dawn · Posted: Tue Nov 17, 2025 1:11 am Post subject:

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