On Mon, 29 Jun 2026 12:33:30 -0500, o1bigtenor wrote in message
<CAPpdf598Ydco-kRWzYwSU9SW=PBitNcF37e8kLcS=13tf12f8A@???>:

>
> If it is this is why I cannot boot what I call my trial box.

..try boot it off a live-USB, liveCD or installer image, then
chroot in as root to fix your trial box to get it booting again.

..if you suspect fs damage, first do a fsck, then prep the chroot
with e.g. mount -v /dev/sdz9 /mnt &&mount -vt proc proc /mnt/proc \
&&mount -vt sysfs sys /mnt/sys &&mount -vt /devtmpfs /mnt/dev \
&&mount -vt devpts /mnt/dev/pts (or somesuch, it's been a while...)
and then mount -v in your missing parts of ...

> I've been running these separate partitions
> /
> /boot
> /usr
> /usr/local
> swap
> /var
> /home

...your trial box and if all those mounts succeed, chroot
in and fix your trial box, which is very unlikely to have
/dev/sdz9 mounted as /...

..if any of those mounts fails, umount everything with
umount -vflR $(mount |grep /mnt |cut -d" " -f3 |tac ),
and start over heeding any error message advice.

..once you're done fixing your trial box and exited your
chroot, umount everything with:
umount -vflR $(mount |grep /mnt |cut -d" " -f3 |tac )


> for some almost 20 years.
> Have had a lot of issues keeping /usr large enough (think this box is
> at 25 GB).

..my Mail tree is 25GB...

--
..med vennlig hilsen = with Kind Regards from Arnt Karlsen
...with a number of polar bear hunters in his ancestry...
Scenarios always come in sets of three:
best case, worst case, and just in case.