I'm using Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS and when I start my latpop, the screen stops at

[Failed] Failed to start Create Volatile Files and Directories.
See 'systemctl status systemd-temfiles-setup.service' for details
[ .... ]
[Failed] Failed to start Network Time Synchronisation.
See 'systemctl status systemd-timesyncd.service' for details
[...] 

I'm running the command shell from Ubuntu Recovery Mode.

1 Answer

You won't be able to use your usual command shell hence
1. Restart your Ubuntu in Recovery Mode. You can do so by choosing Open Ubuntu with Advanced Option from your Grub menu

2. For me, this issue occured because, I had wrongfully given access of some system files to username instead of my root
   There are other ways you you could get this issue so, definitely check out other resources as well.

Solution
0. You can check your ownership of / and /var folder

$ stat -c "%U %G" /
or,
$ stat -c "%U %G" /var/

You might be getting,
username username

1. Start with giving ownership back to root
   $ chown -R root:root /
   it'll take a few minutes

2. Remount.
   $ mount -o remount,rw /

3. Restart these services.

   • Tmpfiles-setup Services
     $ systemctl start systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service
   • Timesyncd Service
     $ systemctl start systemd-timesyncd.service

4. Reboot
   $ reboot

If this didn't solve the issue for you, you might want to look here and then here

I hope this helped. Be well!

1