Arch Linux

sfabius

Member

Registered: 2007-07-07

Posts: 153

install cd won't boot: "Cannot find booted cdrom device"

I have arch (exclusively) on three other machines and am trying to install it on a new Toshiba Portege R500, dual boot with WinXP.

On boot, I end up with a kernel panic message. Here are some relevant lines leading up to the problem:

:: Waiting for usb devices to settle...
scsi 4:0:0:0: CD-ROM     MATSHITA DVD-RAM UJ-844S   1.10 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0
Driver 'sr' needs updating - please use bus_type methods
sr0: scsi3-mmc drive: 24x/24x writer dvd-ram cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray
Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20
:: Scanning for boot cdrom device...
Failed to mount /dev/cd/cdrom-sr0
Failed to mount /dev/cd/cdrw-sr0
Failed to mount /dev/cd/dvd-sr0
ERROR: cannot find booted cdrom device, cannot continue...
Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!

I have sucessfully booted linux from CD when using systemrescuecd in order to make my partitions.

In searching I found this post and this one, both of which address similar issues but not exactly the same. The first is the most promising but provides no solutions.

Help would be appreciated.

KresentPhresh

Member

Registered: 2008-08-25

Posts: 6

Re: install cd won't boot: "Cannot find booted cdrom device"

I'm getting the exact same error, it's failing while scanning for boot cdrom devices - I'm wondering if this has to do with the fact that I'm not actually booting from the CD-ROM for the Archlinux Installation even though I'm installing using the files for the CD-ROM ISO version of the distro.

I basically copied files from the ISO onto a USB Thumb Drive with GRUB installed on it, and GRUB has its own menu of different Linux Distros so you can automatically choose one to install via Net-Inst. I successfully got GRUB to open the ArchLinux installer and it looks like everything was fine on that end, but it fails while looking for the bootable CD-ROM.

I understand there's a USB-BOOT Version of the installer that I could have used instead of the CD-BOOT version, but when I downloaded it, for some reason the file wasn't working correctly for reasons I'm still not certain of, but before I try and fix THAT problem, I'm just looking for verification that my issue is simply because I was using the wrong installer. Any ideas?

sfabius

Member

Registered: 2007-07-07

Posts: 153

Re: install cd won't boot: "Cannot find booted cdrom device"

I think your problem probably is that you are not actually using a CD -- if you are getting the EXACT same errors. Those errors show that arch is looking for /dev/sr0 (that's what cdrom-sr0 etc. are all linked to), and it's not finding it. In your case, you really don't have the CD. In my case, the CD is physically present but for some reason arch can't find it.

I'm hoping someone with more knowledge will be able to give me a boot command that gets around this somehow.

KresentPhresh

Member

Registered: 2008-08-25

Posts: 6

Re: install cd won't boot: "Cannot find booted cdrom device"

That's what I was assuming, I figured either way it might help you out to know MY circumstance. I'm downloading the files right now, I guess .IMG files aren't exactly browsable on my machine (I'll figure something out) - I just gotta get a couple necessary files for GRUB off of it. It's a practice I've been doing with several different distros, this just happens to be the first I've come across that actually came back saying, "You're not REALLY running this off a CD, so, FAIL." Caught me off guard.

sfabius

Member

Registered: 2007-07-07

Posts: 153

Re: install cd won't boot: "Cannot find booted cdrom device"

Update: I've been googling various angles on this and have had a few clues in looking for the cdrom name (matshita). Most of these posts mention the piix module or compliling it into the kernel. From a cursory look around it looks like arch has this in the kernel already, though.

Are there any grub kernel options I should try to pass? Perhaps my searching skills are lacking but I haven't been able to find a list of potentially useful ones for the arch install cd.

If I can't figure this out any more I guess I will try using a usb install and file a bug.

KresentPhresh

Member

Registered: 2008-08-25

Posts: 6

Re: install cd won't boot: "Cannot find booted cdrom device"

I've got an update, too - Every single version of the 2008.06-ftp-i686 IMG file for USB Sticks comes up with "No Mountable File Systems." I can open other .IMG files just fine, but this seems to be a problem on not just one version, but THREE different copies of the same file, two of which I downloaded from HTTP mirrors, the other I torrented.

...So, uh, I'm lost right now as to why I'm getting this error, is the last version known to have this bug? A search on the forum turned nothing up for this error, so my apologies if I'm overlooking something really stupid.

KresentPhresh

Member

Registered: 2008-08-25

Posts: 6

Re: install cd won't boot: "Cannot find booted cdrom device"

In addition, the 2008.06-core-i686.img yields the same error. The ISO files open just fine, I've got plenty of other random .IMG files that open just fine, so, I dunno. I know the instructions involve DDing directly to the USB Stick, so I'll give this a shot as well, but this is sort of adverse - I'd prefer to be able to browse the .IMG file, I don't know why my MacBook can't support the FileSystem it's in.

EDIT: I'm going to put my issue in a new post, cuz I don't really understand what's going on with this file but I've tried a number of things and I'm still having problems. Wasn't trying to hijack the thread for my issue, sorry.

Last edited by KresentPhresh (2008-08-26 18:59:11)

sfabius

Member

Registered: 2007-07-07

Posts: 153

Re: install cd won't boot: "Cannot find booted cdrom device"

There might be a workaround here.

But I could use a pointer: The workaround may be to enable CONFIG_PM_LEGACY. How can I do this for an install disk, or would it just be easier to use another installation method?

sfabius

Member

Registered: 2007-07-07

Posts: 153

Re: install cd won't boot: "Cannot find booted cdrom device"

OK I gave up and used a USB key to boot, and it worked. KresentPhresh, the *.img file worked just fine (from ibiblio).

TheAmigo

Member

Registered: 2008-04-08

Posts: 68

Re: install cd won't boot: "Cannot find booted cdrom device"

I get the same error, but a slightly different setup leading to it.

My hda died, so I put a new drive in and I'm trying to install from scratch.  Since I had linux on this box already, sda and sdb are a pair of 750G drives that I use in a RAID1 software mirror.  So my physical devices are:

hda: 160G PATA (probably had some crap on it before, will be re-partitioned and formatted)
hdb: dvd drive used for install
sda: 750G SATA
sdb: 750G SATA

Using 2008.06 ftp i686, I see:

sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 240121728 512-byte hardware sectors (122942 MB)
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO of FUA
 sda: sda1
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI disk
sd 2:0:1:0: [sdb] 1465149168 512-byte hardware sectors (750156 MB)
sd 2:0:1:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
sd 2:0:1:0: [sdb] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO for FUA
sd 2:0:1:0: [sdb] 1465149168 512-byte hardware sectors (750156 MB)
sd 2:0:1:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
sd 2:0:1:0: [sdb] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO for FUA
 sdb: unknown partition table
sd 2:0:1:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI disk
done.
:: Running Hook [boot-cd]
:: Waiting for usb devices to settle...
:: Scanning for boot cdrom device...
Failed to mount /dev/cd/*
ERROR: cannot find booted cdrom device, cannot continue...
Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!

Obviously I can't copy and paste (this isn't a VM), so there may be some typos in there.

There are a couple things that seem strange to me:
1) [strike]I don't have a 122GB device in the system, why does sda claim 122942 MB?[/strike] That's my 160G PATA drive, interesting
2) Why is sdb listed twice?
3) [strike]Where is my other 750G drive?  They're SATA, it's not like I got the jumpers wrong.[/strike] In my haste to install the new drive, I knocked one of the SATA power cables out... far too easy to do, that'd never happen with the older PATA-style power plugs

The unknown partition table on sdb is expected... I'm using the raw device for software RAID, not partitioned.

I'd try the USB flash drive route, but I don't have one and I need to get this server fixed today... for now, I'll try some older Arch CDs.

Last edited by TheAmigo (2008-09-20 23:28:47)

TheAmigo

Member

Registered: 2008-04-08

Posts: 68

Re: install cd won't boot: "Cannot find booted cdrom device"

More info:

Booting from a -core CD does the same thing as the -ftp CD (shown above).
Selecting "legacy IDE" from the grub menu is nearly identical.  The only difference I see is a couple messages about "usb 4-1: new low speed USB device...."
Adding break=y as a kernel parameter doesn't change anything.

Booting from a Knoppix 5.1.1 CD works just fine.

TheAmigo

Member

Registered: 2008-04-08

Posts: 68

Re: install cd won't boot: "Cannot find booted cdrom device"

Argh!!!!

Booting the Arch 2008.03 FTP i686 CD works fine.  But package selection fails because none of the mirrors have the "packages.txt" file anymore.

I'm going to be here all night trying to get Arch installed...

TheAmigo

Member

Registered: 2008-04-08

Posts: 68

Re: install cd won't boot: "Cannot find booted cdrom device"

Not one to give up easily, I tried the next step:  use the Arch 2008.03 Core i686 CD.  That boots fine, but the installer says it can't find the CD.  At a console, I can't find it either.  dmesg doesn't show any sign of the cdrom drive (the one it booted from).

One last thing to try: NFS
I mounted the Core ISO on another machine and shared it via NFS.  Booting the 2008.03 CD again, I was able to mount the NFS share and point setup at that location.

I now have a base Arch system up and running, but WOW was that hard!  I know this isn't typical, I have 6 other machines running Arch and none were difficult to install.

Ok, thanks for listening, I'm done talking to myself for now.

Ruckus

Member

Registered: 2007-02-17

Posts: 204

Re: install cd won't boot: "Cannot find booted cdrom device"

Argh!!!!

Booting the Arch 2008.03 FTP i686 CD works fine.  But package selection fails because none of the mirrors have the "packages.txt" file anymore.

I'm going to be here all night trying to get Arch installed...

Last night I downloaded the 2008.06 Core ISO, and it wouldn't boot, So I put in an old 2008.03 core CD and it booted, but the net install did not work because of the above mentioned error. To get around this, I just installed the core, and then updated pacman alone after I booted into the system for the first time, this worked, then continued updating as normal from there.