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Recovery via chroot

If your install no longer boots but you have access to another Linux system (booted from another USB drive, or another machine), you can chroot into your install to fix it.

Find your partition​

lsblk -f

Look for the ext4 partition: nvme0n1p3 for an M.2 install, or sdXN for a USB drive.

Chroot into an M.2 install​

sudo mkdir -p /mnt/ps5root
sudo mount /dev/nvme0n1p3 /mnt/ps5root

sudo mount --bind /dev  /mnt/ps5root/dev
sudo mount --bind /proc /mnt/ps5root/proc
sudo mount --bind /sys  /mnt/ps5root/sys
sudo mount --bind /run  /mnt/ps5root/run

sudo chroot /mnt/ps5root

# Make your fixes here, then:
exit

sudo umount /mnt/ps5root/{run,dev,proc,sys}
sudo umount /mnt/ps5root

Common fixes inside the chroot​

  • Reinstall the kernel: dpkg -i /tmp/linux-ps5_*.deb

  • Create a user (for example when Ubuntu went black before setup finished):

    adduser <username>
    usermod -aG sudo <username>

  • Fix home folder permissions: chown -R <user>:<user> /home/<user>

Reinstall the kernel on a USB drive​

If your external USB drive no longer boots, reinstall the kernel .deb through a chroot. Replace sdXN with the root filesystem partition and use the kernel package you want to install.

sudo mkdir -p /mnt/usb
sudo mount /dev/sdXN /mnt/usb

sudo mount --bind /dev      /mnt/usb/dev
sudo mount --bind /dev/pts  /mnt/usb/dev/pts
sudo mount --bind /proc     /mnt/usb/proc
sudo mount --bind /sys      /mnt/usb/sys
sudo mount --bind /run      /mnt/usb/run

sudo cp ./linux-ps5_7.0.10_amd64.deb /mnt/usb/tmp/

sudo chroot /mnt/usb /bin/bash

cd /tmp
dpkg -i linux-ps5_7.0.10_amd64.deb

When you're done, exit the chroot and unmount everything in reverse order, as in the M.2 example above.