Mount the file system in Linux

Last update: October 02 2025

Before performing any operations in Rescue mode, you must mount the OS file system.If the disk with the system partition is attached to a hardware RAID controller, use the instructions for partitioning the disk without software RAID.If the system partition is in LVM, use the instructions for the system with LVM.

Mount the file system with infiltrate-root

Disk partitioning without software RAID

System without LVM

1. Boot the server in Rescue recovery and diagnostic mode.

2. Print information about the partitions on the disks:

   lsblk

   The response will show a list of disks with partitions.For example:

   NAME    MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
   sda       8:0    0   2.9G  0 disk
   └─sda1    8:1    0   2.9G  0 part
   sdb       8:16   0   160G  0 disk
   ├─sdb1    8:17   0 159.9G  0 part
   ├─sdb14   8:30   0     4M  0 part
   └─sdb15   8:31   0   106M  0 part

   Here sda1, sdb1, sdb14, sdb15 are partition names on the disks.

3. Select the system partition, usually the largest partition on the disk.In the example in step 2, this is the sdb1 partition.

4. Mount the file system:

   infiltrate-root /dev/<partition>

   Specify <partition> is the name of the partition on the disk you selected in step 3, in the example it is sdb1.

   The partition will be mounted in the /newroot directory.

5. If the infiltrate-root command does not work, mount the file system manually.

6. Perform recovery and diagnostic work.

7. Log out of the environment when finished.The file system will be unmounted automatically:

   exit

System with LVM

1. Boot the server in Rescue recovery and diagnostic mode.

2. Activate LVM:

   vgchange -ay

3. Print information about the partitions on the disks:

   lsblk

   The response will show a list of disks with partitions.For example:

   NAME            MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
   sda               8:0    0   2.9G  0 disk
   └─sda1            8:1    0   2.9G  0 part
   sdb               8:16   0   160G  0 disk
   ├─sdb1            8:17   0 159.9G  0 part
   │ ├─vg0-root    253:0    0   150G  0 lvm
   │ └─vg0-swap    253:1    0   9.9G  0 lvm
   ├─sdb14           8:30   0     4M  0 part
   └─sdb15           8:31   0   106M  0 part

   Here:

   • vg0 — volume group name;
   • root, swap — names of logical volumes in the group vg0.

4. Select the system partition, usually the largest partition on the disk.In the example in step 3, this is the root logical volume in the vg0 group .

5. Mount the file system:

   infiltrate-root /dev/<volume_group>/<logical_volume>

   Specify:

   • <volume_group> — the name of the volume group in which the logical volume with the root partition is located, in the example in step 4 it is vg0;
   • <logical_volume> — the name of the logical volume with the root partition you selected in step 4, in the example it is root.

   The partition will be mounted in the /newroot directory.

6. If the infiltrate-root command does not work, mount the file system manually.

7. Perform recovery and diagnostic work.

8. Deactivate LVM:

   vgchange -an

9. Log out of the environment when finished.The file system will be unmounted automatically:

   exit

Disk partitioning with software RAID

System without LVM

1. Boot the server in Rescue recovery and diagnostic mode.

2. Check if the system has detected RAID arrays, to do this, display the partition information on the disks:

   lsblk

   The response will show a list of disks with partitions.For example:

   NAME    MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE  MOUNTPOINT
   sda       8:0    0 447.1G  0 disk
   ├─sda1    8:1    0   500M  0 part
   │ └─md0   9:0    0   500M  0 raid1
   └─sda2    8:2    0 446.6G  0 part
     └─md1   9:1    0 446.6G  0 raid1
   sdb       8:16   0 447.1G  0 disk
   ├─sdb1    8:17   0   500M  0 part
   │ └─md0   9:0    0   500M  0 raid1
   └─sdb2    8:18   0 446.6G  0 part
     └─md1   9:1    0 446.6G  0 raid1

   Here md0, md1 are RAID names.

3. If there are RAIDs in the lsblk output in step 2, skip this step.If there are no RAIDs, run RAID build:

   mdadm --assemble --scan

4. Print information about the partitions on the disks:

   lsblk

   The response will show a list of disks with partitions.For example:

   NAME    MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE  MOUNTPOINT
   sda       8:0    0 447.1G  0 disk
   ├─sda1    8:1    0   500M  0 part
   │ └─md0   9:0    0   500M  0 raid1
   └─sda2    8:2    0 446.6G  0 part
     └─md1   9:1    0 446.6G  0 raid1
   sdb       8:16   0 447.1G  0 disk
   ├─sdb1    8:17   0   500M  0 part
   │ └─md0   9:0    0   500M  0 raid1
   └─sdb2    8:18   0 446.6G  0 part
     └─md1   9:1    0 446.6G  0 raid1

   Here md0, md1 are RAID names.

5. Select the system partition, usually the largest partition on the disk.In the example in step 4, this is RAID md1.

6. Mount the file system:

   infiltrate-root /dev/<raid_array>

   Specify <raid_array> is the name of the system partition you selected in step 5, in the example it is RAID md1.

   The partition will be mounted in the /newroot directory.

7. If the infiltrate-root command does not work, mount the file system manually.

8. Perform recovery and diagnostic work.

9. Log out of the environment when finished.The file system will be unmounted automatically:

   exit

System with LVM

1. Boot the server in Rescue recovery and diagnostic mode.

2. Check if the system has detected RAID arrays, to do this, display the partition information on the disks:

   lsblk

   The response will show a list of disks with partitions.For example:

   NAME    MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE  MOUNTPOINT
   sda       8:0    0 447.1G  0 disk
   ├─sda1    8:1    0   500M  0 part
   │ └─md0   9:0    0   500M  0 raid1
   └─sda2    8:2    0 446.6G  0 part
     └─md1   9:1    0 446.6G  0 raid1
   sdb       8:16   0 447.1G  0 disk
   ├─sdb1    8:17   0   500M  0 part
   │ └─md0   9:0    0   500M  0 raid1
   └─sdb2    8:18   0 446.6G  0 part
     └─md1   9:1    0 446.6G  0 raid1

   Here md0, md1 are RAID names.

3. If there are RAIDs in the lsblk output in step 2, skip this step.If there are no RAIDs, run RAID build:

   mdadm --assemble --scan

4. Print information about the partitions on the disks:

   lsblk

   The response will show a list of disks with partitions.For example:

   NAME    MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE  MOUNTPOINT
   sda       8:0    0 447.1G  0 disk
   ├─sda1    8:1    0   500M  0 part
   │ └─md0   9:0    0   500M  0 raid1
   └─sda2    8:2    0 446.6G  0 part
     └─md1   9:1    0 446.6G  0 raid1
   sdb       8:16   0 447.1G  0 disk
   ├─sdb1    8:17   0   500M  0 part
   │ └─md0   9:0    0   500M  0 raid1
   └─sdb2    8:18   0 446.6G  0 part
     └─md1   9:1    0 446.6G  0 raid1

   Here md0, md1 are RAID names.

5. Activate LVM:

   vgchange -ay

6. Print information about the partitions on the disks:

   lsblk

   The response will show a list of disks with partitions.For example:

   NAME                 MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE  MOUNTPOINT
   sda                    8:0    0 447.1G  0 disk
   ├─sda1                 8:1    0   500M  0 part
   │ └─md0                9:0    0   500M  0 raid1
   └─sda2                 8:2    0 446.6G  0 part
     └─md1                9:1    0 446.6G  0 raid1
       ├─vg0-root       253:0    0   428G  0 lvm   
       └─vg0-swap       253:1    0     8G  0 lvm
   sdb                    8:16   0 447.1G  0 disk
   ├─sdb1                 8:17   0   500M  0 part
   │ └─md0                9:0    0   500M  0 raid1
   └─sdb2                 8:18   0 446.6G  0 part
     └─md1                9:1    0 446.6G  0 raid1
       ├─vg0-root       253:0    0   428G  0 lvm
       └─vg0-swap       253:1    0     8G  0 lvm

   Here:

   • vg0 — volume group name;
   • root, swap — names of logical volumes in the group vg0.

7. Select the system partition, usually the largest partition on the disk.In the example in step 6, this is the root logical volume in the vg0 group .

8. Mount the file system:

   infiltrate-root /dev/<volume_group>/<logical_volume>

   Specify:

   • <volume_group> — the name of the volume group in which the logical volume with the root partition is located, in the example at step 7 it is vg0;
   • <logical_volume> — the name of the logical volume you selected in step 7, in the example it is root.

   The partition will be mounted in the /newroot directory.

9. If the infiltrate-root command does not work, mount the file system manually.

10. Perform recovery and diagnostic work.

11. Deactivate LVM:

    vgchange -an

12. Log out of the environment when finished.The file system will be unmounted automatically:

    exit

Mount the file system manually

Disk partitioning without software RAID

System without LVM

1. Boot the server in Rescue recovery and diagnostic mode.

2. Print information about the partitions on the disks:

   lsblk

   The response will show a list of disks with partitions.For example:

   NAME    MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
   sda       8:0    0   2.9G  0 disk
   └─sda1    8:1    0   2.9G  0 part
   sdb       8:16   0   160G  0 disk
   ├─sdb1    8:17   0 159.9G  0 part
   ├─sdb14   8:30   0     4M  0 part
   └─sdb15   8:31   0   106M  0 part

   Here sda1, sdb1, sdb14, sdb15 are partition names on the disks.

3. Select the system partition, usually the largest partition on the disk.In the example in step 2, this is the sdb1 partition.

4. Mount the file system to the /mnt directory:

   mount /dev/<partition> /mnt

   Specify <partition> is the name of the system partition on the disk you selected in step 3, in the example it is sdb1.

5. Mount the service file systems:

   mount -t proc /proc /mnt/proc
   mount -t sysfs /sys /mnt/sys
   mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
   mount -t devpts /dev/pts /mnt/dev/pts

6. Connect to the environment:

   chroot /mnt /bin/bash

7. Export the PATH variable:

   export PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/sbin

8. Perform recovery and diagnostic work.

9. Exit the environment when the work is complete:

   exit

10. Unmount the service file systems:

    umount -t devpts /dev/pts /mnt/dev/pts
    umount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
    umount -t sysfs /sys /mnt/sys
    umount -t proc /proc /mnt/proc

11. Unmount the file system:

    umount /dev/<partition> /mnt

    Specify <partition> is the name of the system partition whose file system you mounted in step 4, in the example it is sdb1.

System with LVM

1. Boot the server in Rescue recovery and diagnostic mode.

2. Activate LVM:

   vgchange -ay

3. Print information about the partitions on the disks:

   lsblk

   The response will show a list of disks with partitions.For example:

   NAME            MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
   sda               8:0    0   2.9G  0 disk
   └─sda1            8:1    0   2.9G  0 part
   sdb               8:16   0   160G  0 disk
   ├─sdb1            8:17   0 159.9G  0 part
   │ ├─vg0-root    253:0    0   150G  0 lvm
   │ └─vg0-swap    253:1    0   9.9G  0 lvm
   ├─sdb14           8:30   0     4M  0 part
   └─sdb15           8:31   0   106M  0 part

   Here:

   • vg0 — volume group name;
   • root, swap — names of logical volumes in the group vg0.

4. Select the system partition, usually the largest partition on the disk.In the example in step 3, this is the root logical volume in the vg0 group .

5. Mount the file system to the /mnt directory:

   mount /dev/<volume_group>/<logical_volume> /mnt

   Specify:

   • <volume_group> — the name of the volume group in which the logical volume with the root partition is located, in the example in step 4 it is vg0;
   • <logical_volume> — the name of the logical volume with the root partition you selected in step 4, in the example it is root.

6. Mount the service file systems:

   mount -t proc /proc /mnt/proc
   mount -t sysfs /sys /mnt/sys
   mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
   mount -t devpts /dev/pts /mnt/dev/pts

7. Connect to the environment:

   chroot /mnt /bin/bash

8. Export the PATH variable:

   export PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/sbin

9. Perform recovery and diagnostic work.

10. Exit the environment when the work is complete:

    exit

11. Unmount the service file systems:

    umount -t devpts /dev/pts /mnt/dev/pts
    umount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
    umount -t sysfs /sys /mnt/sys
    umount -t proc /proc /mnt/proc

12. Unmount the file system:

    umount /dev/<volume_group>/<logical_volume> /mnt

    Specify:

    • <volume_group> — the name of the volume group you specified when mounting the file system in step 5, in the example it is vg0;
    • <logical_volume> — the name of the logical volume with the root partition whose file system you mounted in step 5, in the example it is root.

13. Deactivate LVM:

    vgchange -an

Disk partitioning with software RAID

System without LVM

1. Boot the server in Rescue recovery and diagnostic mode.

2. Check if the system has detected RAID arrays, to do this, display the partition information on the disks:

   lsblk

   The response will show a list of disks with partitions.For example:

   NAME    MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE  MOUNTPOINT
   sda       8:0    0 447.1G  0 disk
   ├─sda1    8:1    0   500M  0 part
   │ └─md0   9:0    0   500M  0 raid1
   └─sda2    8:2    0 446.6G  0 part
     └─md1   9:1    0 446.6G  0 raid1
   sdb       8:16   0 447.1G  0 disk
   ├─sdb1    8:17   0   500M  0 part
   │ └─md0   9:0    0   500M  0 raid1
   └─sdb2    8:18   0 446.6G  0 part
     └─md1   9:1    0 446.6G  0 raid1

   Here md0, md1 are RAID names.

3. If there are RAIDs in the lsblk output in step 2, skip this step.If there are no RAIDs, run RAID build:

   mdadm --assemble --scan

4. Print information about the partitions on the disks:

   lsblk

   The response will show a list of disks with partitions.For example:

   NAME    MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE  MOUNTPOINT
   sda       8:0    0 447.1G  0 disk
   ├─sda1    8:1    0   500M  0 part
   │ └─md0   9:0    0   500M  0 raid1
   └─sda2    8:2    0 446.6G  0 part
     └─md1   9:1    0 446.6G  0 raid1
   sdb       8:16   0 447.1G  0 disk
   ├─sdb1    8:17   0   500M  0 part
   │ └─md0   9:0    0   500M  0 raid1
   └─sdb2    8:18   0 446.6G  0 part
     └─md1   9:1    0 446.6G  0 raid1

   Here md0, md1 are RAID names.

5. Select the system partition, usually the largest partition on the disk.In the example in step 4, this is RAID md1.

6. Mount the file system to the /mnt directory:

   mount /dev/<raid_array> /mnt

   Here <raid_array> is the name of the system partition you selected in step 5, in the example it is RAID md1.

7. Mount the service file systems:

   mount -t proc /proc /mnt/proc
   mount -t sysfs /sys /mnt/sys
   mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
   mount -t devpts /dev/pts /mnt/dev/pts

8. Connect to the environment:

   chroot /mnt /bin/bash

9. Export the PATH variable:

   export PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/sbin

10. Perform recovery and diagnostic work.

11. Exit the environment when the work is complete:

    exit

12. Unmount the service file systems:

    umount -t devpts /dev/pts /mnt/dev/pts
    umount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
    umount -t sysfs /sys /mnt/sys
    umount -t proc /proc /mnt/proc

13. Unmount the file system:

    umount /dev/<raid_array> /mnt

    Here <raid_array> is the name of the system partition whose file system you mounted in step 6, in the example it is RAID md1.

System with LVM

1. Boot the server in Rescue recovery and diagnostic mode.

2. Check if the system has detected RAID arrays, to do this, display the partition information on the disks:

   lsblk

   The response will show a list of disks with partitions.For example:

   NAME    MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE  MOUNTPOINT
   sda       8:0    0 447.1G  0 disk
   ├─sda1    8:1    0   500M  0 part
   │ └─md0   9:0    0   500M  0 raid1
   └─sda2    8:2    0 446.6G  0 part
     └─md1   9:1    0 446.6G  0 raid1
   sdb       8:16   0 447.1G  0 disk
   ├─sdb1    8:17   0   500M  0 part
   │ └─md0   9:0    0   500M  0 raid1
   └─sdb2    8:18   0 446.6G  0 part
     └─md1   9:1    0 446.6G  0 raid1

   Here md0, md1 are RAID names.

3. If there are RAIDs in the lsblk output in step 2, skip this step.If there are no RAIDs, run RAID build:

   mdadm --assemble --scan

4. Print information about the partitions on the disks:

   lsblk

   The response will show a list of disks with partitions.For example:

   NAME    MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE  MOUNTPOINT
   sda       8:0    0 447.1G  0 disk
   ├─sda1    8:1    0   500M  0 part
   │ └─md0   9:0    0   500M  0 raid1
   └─sda2    8:2    0 446.6G  0 part
     └─md1   9:1    0 446.6G  0 raid1
   sdb       8:16   0 447.1G  0 disk
   ├─sdb1    8:17   0   500M  0 part
   │ └─md0   9:0    0   500M  0 raid1
   └─sdb2    8:18   0 446.6G  0 part
     └─md1   9:1    0 446.6G  0 raid1

   Here md0, md1 are RAID names.

5. Activate LVM:

   vgchange -ay

6. Print information about the partitions on the disks:

   lsblk

   The response will show a list of disks with partitions.For example:

   NAME                   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE  MOUNTPOINT
     sda                    8:0    0 447.1G  0 disk
     ├─sda1                 8:1    0   500M  0 part
     │ └─md0                9:0    0   500M  0 raid1
     └─sda2                 8:2    0 446.6G  0 part
       └─md1                9:1    0 446.6G  0 raid1
         ├─vg0-root       253:0    0   428G  0 lvm   
         └─vg0-swap       253:1    0     8G  0 lvm
     sdb                    8:16   0 447.1G  0 disk
     ├─sdb1                 8:17   0   500M  0 part
     │ └─md0                9:0    0   500M  0 raid1
     └─sdb2                 8:18   0 446.6G  0 part
       └─md1                9:1    0 446.6G  0 raid1
         ├─vg0-root       253:0    0   428G  0 lvm
         └─vg0-swap       253:1    0     8G  0 lvm

   Here:

   • vg0 — volume group name;
   • root, swap — names of logical volumes in the group vg0.

7. Select the system partition, usually the largest partition on the disk.In the example in step 6, this is the root logical volume in the vg0 group .

8. Mount the file system to the /mnt directory:

   mount /dev/<volume_group>/<logical_volume> /mnt

   Specify:

   • <volume_group> — the name of the volume group in which the logical volume with the root partition is located, in the example at step 7 it is vg0;
   • <logical_volume> — the name of the logical volume with the root partition you selected in step 7, in the example it is root.

9. Mount the service file systems:

   mount -t proc /proc /mnt/proc
   mount -t sysfs /sys /mnt/sys
   mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
   mount -t devpts /dev/pts /mnt/dev/pts

10. Connect to the environment:

    chroot /mnt /bin/bash

11. Export the PATH variable:

    export PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/sbin

12. Perform recovery and diagnostic work.

13. Exit the environment when the work is complete:

    exit

14. Unmount the service file systems:

    umount -t devpts /dev/pts /mnt/dev/pts
    umount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
    umount -t sysfs /sys /mnt/sys
    umount -t proc /proc /mnt/proc

15. Unmount the file system:

    umount /dev/<volume_group>/<logical_volume> /mnt

    Specify:

    • <volume_group> — the name of the volume group you specified when mounting the file system in step 8, in the example it is vg0;
    • <logical_volume> — the name of the logical volume with the root partition whose file system you mounted in step 8, in the example it is root.

16. Deactivate LVM:

    vgchange -an