[Solved] kernel 2.6.27 - Root device not found (2.6.28 too)

4s|m3tr|ko0 · 2008-10-16 18:46:16

since the last kernel update, my ArchLinux won't boot anymore, as it seems to be unable to find the root partition "/dev/sda5". The exact output is:

:: Loading root filesystem module...
Attempting to create root device '/dev/sda5'
ERROR: Failed to parse block device name for '/dev/sda5'
unknown
ERROR: root fs cannot be detected. Try using the rootfstype= kernel parameter.
Waiting for devices to settle...done.

Root device '/dev/sda5' doesn't exist, attempting to create it
ERROR: Failed to parse block device name for '/dev/sda5'
ERROR: Unable to create/detect root device '/dev/sda5'
Dropping to a recovery shell... type 'exit' to reboot
NOTE: klibc contains no 'ls' binary, use 'echo *' instead

If the device '/dev/sda5' gets created while you are here,
try adding 'rootdelay=8' or higher to the kernel command-line
ramfs$

What I have tried:
1.- I have booted with an old Ubuntu LiveCD, and /dev/sda5 seems to be working and healthy, as it mounted flawlessly while in Ubuntu.

2.- I have also found that not even /dev/sda is created from the fallback recovery shell so, obviously, there is no root device to create.

3.- None of the suggested kernel command-line parameters worked: 'rootfstype=ext3' and/or 'rootdelay=8'(I mean, using them separately or both in the same kernel GRUB line) didn't give any positive result, or any behavior change.

And now, two questions:
1.- How can I fix this?

2.- If it's not possible, how can I downgrade the kernel from a LiveCD? I suppose this is possible by booting an ArchLinux LiveCD, chrooting my '/dev/sda5' finding a 2.26.X kernel pacman package and installing, but I'm almost iliterate in kernel issues, and some help would be nice.

Thank you all in advance!

EDIT: Oh, I have also waited for some time to see if the hard disk gets ready after the failed booting proccess but it seems it doesn't, so 'rootdelay=8' wouldn't help anyway, just to give some more details about the problem.

Last edited by 4s|m3tr|ko0 (2009-01-21 10:14:32)

utore · 2008-10-16 23:04:08

I have the same problem on my laptop.

I upgraded my laptop and went away for an hour. After leaving my laptop on, the screen was black and wouldn't respond. Restarting gave me the above error.

I'm wary to upgrade my desktop.

Mr.Elendig · 2008-10-17 00:28:17

I would start with rebuilding the intcpio. Read the "Reinstalling grub" wiki page on how to set up a chroot (you need to bind /dev, /sys/ and /proc), set up and enter the chroot, and regenerate the images with mkinitcpio. (see the mkinitcpio wiki page for usage options and mkinitcpio.conf tweaking)

wsiddall · 2008-10-17 02:56:25

Hey all,
I originally had problems with upgrading my udev and now that I got that fixed, there were new updates for the kernel. When I did the upgrade and restarted, I ran into this problem.
So far, I've tried rebuilding mkinitcpio using the new config file and using the old one, adding ext3 to my modules list, only using the basic modules and hooks needed, adding rootfstype to my kernel load line in GRUB, trying to find new updates to any system packages... all with no success. I've even gone as far as adding more error checks into the filesystem module init script with nothing of use.

I'm starting to run out of ideas, so if anyone's got any that I haven't tried yet, it would be of great help.

Thanks

4s|m3tr|ko0 · 2008-10-17 17:11:55

Nice! regererating initcpio chrooting from a LiveCD worked for me, just point out that since I loaded the LiveCD's kernel, I had to specify the kernel version manually with the mkinitcpio -k <KERNELVERSION>. Otherwise, the module needed to support the sata controller of my chipset (sata_nv) weren't loaded. If anyone needs some more specific help about this operation, please feel free to ask.

Thanks for your help.

PS: I don't know exactly what was wrong on the initcpio that was auto-generated while updating kernel package, but at least for me, this method resulted.

PS2: Since there are still people experiencing the same problems booting that I did right on this thread, should I flag it as [solved]?

Last edited by 4s|m3tr|ko0 (2008-10-17 17:15:51)

tigrmesh · 2008-10-17 17:14:30

Yes

ballon · 2008-10-21 09:34:54

4s|m3tr|ko0 wrote:

Nice! regererating initcpio chrooting from a LiveCD worked for me, just point out that since I loaded the LiveCD's kernel, I had to specify the kernel version manually with the mkinitcpio -k <KERNELVERSION>. Otherwise, the module needed to support the sata controller of my chipset (sata_nv) weren't loaded. If anyone needs some more specific help about this operation, please feel free to ask.
Thanks for your help.
PS: I don't know exactly what was wrong on the initcpio that was auto-generated while updating kernel package, but at least for me, this method resulted.
PS2: Since there are still people experiencing the same problems booting that I did right on this thread, should I flag it as [solved]?

It seems like my problems can be the same, however I haven't managed to solve it myself so if you can be more detailed that would be nice.

4s|m3tr|ko0 · 2008-10-22 00:56:05

ballon wrote:

It seems like my problems can be the same, however I haven't managed to solve it myself so if you can be more detailed that would be nice.

Of course I can, it's quite easy.

First of all, you have to boot from an Archlinux install CD, to have an usable environment. Once you have booted, I will assume a couple of things to make the examples, which are:

"/dev/sda2" is the root partition where the system is currently installed but not booting.
"/dev/sda1" is the boot partition (not needed if you don't have a separated boot partition, obviously).
"/mnt/myarch" is the directory where sda1 will be mounted on the live session.
The kernel version on sda2 is "2.6.27-ARCH", you can find which kernel versions are installed on sda2 by checking the directory names under "/lib/modules/"

Next you have to mount your root partition on any directory and mount the "boot" partition if you have one too:

mkdir /mnt/myarch #Creates the mount directory on the live session, you can use /mnt/ so this command is not neccesary
mount -t auto /dev/sda2     /mnt/myarch         #Mount the root partition on the live session
mount -t auto /dev/sda1     /mnt/myarch/boot    #Mount the boot partition, if you have to

Now, you'll have to bind three system directories to their true locations on the root partition:

mount -t proc   proc      /mnt/myarch/proc
mount -t sysfs  sys       /mnt/myarch/sys
mount -o bind   /dev      /mnt/myarch/dev

Next step is to use the command "chroot <target> <consolebin>" to "move" the system root to the <target> directory, using the <consolebin> command interpreter:

chroot /mnt/myarch/ /bin/bash

Now, you will be using your system just like if you had actually booted from your hard disk, but running the kernel from the liveCD, so the only remaining step is to generate the initcpio image.

In the example for this step, I will run the mkinitcpio twice, the first one to check that it's correctly generated, and the second to install it, using the parameter "-g". Another thing to keep in mind is that even before chrooting, the liveCD kernel is still running, so you will have tu use the "-k <kernelversion>" parameter to manually specify the kernel to use. Otherwise, mkinitcpio won't be able to find the correct modules to use:

mkinitcpio -k 2.6.27-ARCH       #This will simulate the generation, if it runs fine, run the next command
mkinitcpio -g /boot/kernel26.img  -k 2.6.27-ARCH    #This will actually generate the image

And that's all, this should regenerate a default image. More info about mkinitcpio: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Mkinitcpio

Hope this heps

PS: Sweden, nice country .

Last edited by 4s|m3tr|ko0 (2009-01-21 10:15:11)

ballon · 2008-10-22 06:54:03

Thanks, I tried doing that earlier but it didn't help. Eventually I gave up and reinstalled instead...

vor_lord · 2008-10-23 08:32:17

FYI: you need to specify an argument to the -g option for the image file you want to create, i.e.:

mkinitcpio -k 2.6.27-ARCH       #This will simulate the generation, if it runs fine, run the next command
mkinitcpio -g /boot/kernel26.img -k 2.6.27-ARCH    #This will actually generate the image

Here goes -- going to try and boot with the new image *crosses fingers*

edit: Well now I have a different problem (kernel panic with replace: command not found) but I saw a thread that looked liked what I am getting now so I will see where that one went.

edit2: solved

Last edited by vor_lord (2008-10-24 04:33:02)

4s|m3tr|ko0 · 2009-01-21 10:13:58

vor_lord wrote:

FYI: you need to specify an argument to the -g option for the image file you want to create, i.e...

You're right, editing...
BTW, I have been reported the same problems when installing 2.6.28.

Last edited by 4s|m3tr|ko0 (2009-01-21 11:59:26)

kousi · 2009-01-22 21:13:12

I have the same trouble on my laptop Dell XPS M1210. I chrooted, did the mkinitpcio process multiple times with no luck. I have a SATA hard drive. I removed the non-sata hooks, I tried using just the piix module... I tried multiple variations with no luck, it just wouldn't see my hard drive. I ended up reinstalling arch but I'd still be interested in an answer for this... Thanks in advance.

Hiz · 2009-01-22 23:14:50

I had exactry same problem. and i fixed it somehow. The my point is I installed kernel26-2.6.28-3-i686.pkg.tar.gz
on 16th Jan.
and this versin 2.6.28 was working great until today. but after i installed kernel26-2.6.28.1-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
the problem occur.
Since then I cant get back to kernel26-2.6.28-3-i686.pkg.tar.gz. Only 2.6.27 works now.

What is the actual problem?

Hiz · 2009-01-23 16:22:54

kousi wrote:

I have the same trouble on my laptop Dell XPS M1210. I chrooted, did the mkinitpcio process multiple times with no luck. I have a SATA hard drive. I removed the non-sata hooks, I tried using just the piix module... I tried multiple variations with no luck, it just wouldn't see my hard drive. I ended up reinstalling arch but I'd still be interested in an answer for this... Thanks in advance.

I undersatnd like this. I(we?) had this problem because I edited /etc/mkinitcpio.conf file for some reason. speacially here.

# The following modules are loaded before any boot hooks are
# run.  Advanced users may wish to specify all system modules
# in this array.  For instance:
#     MODULES="piix ide_disk reiserfs"
MODULES="pata_acpi pata_via ata_generic"

if you edit or disable this part for some reason, you cant get some modules next time you build kernel.
Even so, I had 1 option that i can solve this problem that is to stop using UUID to boot from partition.
you might need to check /boot/grub/menu.lst and /etc/fstab here you can replace to /dev/sda? instead of UUID=1231313-123123-1231-3-1231231-312 bula bukla.
Then your linux can find your boot partition. (I hope) now I can install kernel 2.6.28
I am not sure for everything. but I understood like this, If i am wrong or need more words to explain this problem. I would like to hear your advice,

ty!

kousi · 2009-01-28 17:06:03

When it failed the first time, and when I first did the chroot process I had not edited the mkinitpcio.conf at all. It failed the same as with my other variations.

Also every time I booted I checked /dev/ and there was no listing for sda* nor hda*

Last edited by kousi (2009-01-28 17:07:09)

yvonney · 2009-02-01 04:38:35

yep, me too, a similar problem though I get very early iomem and prefetch lines as part of the early freeze up so I boot with acpi=off and then I get the: 'Failed to parse block device name for' etc. error. I'm thinking not to go thru the possible fixes here as it's an old Dell inspiron 2500 with a broken CDR and therefore I turn off the secondary in the bios.

I've done a few reinstalls from the cd though upon updating JUST the kernel (my last install attempt) I get the iomem and prefetch thing after about 1 second of the boot... then the rest after I turn off acpi.

All started about 10 days ago with latest .28 kernels I believe.

Last edited by yvonney (2009-02-01 04:39:11)

Golliwogg · 2009-02-08 04:10:56

I am having this exact same issue, except after issuing a new image rebuild with

mkinitcpio -k 2.6.28-ARCH -p kernel26 -g /boot/kernel26.img

whilst in the chroot environment doesn't work. I have also edited down my HOOKS and MODULES in mkinitcopio.conf to bare minimum hoping this would help.

I have a fresh install attempting to upgrade the kernel leaves me unable to boot.

I have also attempted to switch from uuid to normal (dev/sd**) format with no luck. It seems as if after loading the filesystem module from the init image, it cannot find the root drive.

Any other ideas?

For replication, I am sure installing a fresh stable pacman and issuing a

pacman -S kernel26

would provide replication for this issue.

I haven't posted any .conf files as my build is unable to access the internet via the LiveCD due to the r8169 module and my network cards (which was fixed in my HD build by compiling and inserting r8168). I will, however beable to access the drive via windows in order to post configuration files (all default) if need be.

yvonney · 2009-02-08 08:08:54

I've learned a whole bunch. That downgrading kernel IS the fix for me as the 2.6.28 version I've tried (except the latest couple) have definately been the reason.

Cool thing is that in a round about way I learned how to install arch in new ways, from hard drive and usb and then after realizing that it was the kernel.... that downgrading is easy (wiki) enough and a very good skill all round to haveleading to other pacman skills.

Not much time...sorry for not saying much!
They seem to be getting tons of machine specific bugs out of the kernel updates as it goes. Saw the notes at the kernel home pags, changelogs.
puppy linux as a boot thing and a partitioning thing was useful.... I had a 4 day curve with it due to the wakeup2 floppy boot versions. One of my replies goes into it a bit. don't have time to ATTEMPT to detail....sorry!

Last edited by yvonney (2009-02-10 09:36:03)

Golliwogg · 2009-02-10 00:43:22

I will downgrade my kernel as well and wait for a proper release of the next kernel to employ the newest catalyst drivers (why did I have to try out ATI again!!! heh).

yvonney · 2009-02-10 09:35:32

Great! yes, there's some very cool ways of using pacman with AUR / ABS that learning the downgrade process made clearer for me. All on the wiki...isn't it amazingly helpful!!!

Last edited by yvonney (2009-02-10 09:36:51)

tinhtruong · 2009-02-18 14:25:21

4s|m3tr|ko0 wrote:

ballon wrote:
It seems like my problems can be the same, however I haven't managed to solve it myself so if you can be more detailed that would be nice.
Of course I can, it's quite easy.

First of all, you have to boot from an Archlinux install CD, to have an usable environment. Once you have booted, I will assume a couple of things to make the examples, which are:
"/dev/sda2" is the root partition where the system is currently installed but not booting.
"/dev/sda1" is the boot partition (not needed if you don't have a separated boot partition, obviously).
"/mnt/myarch" is the directory where sda1 will be mounted on the live session.
The kernel version on sda2 is "2.6.27-ARCH", you can find which kernel versions are installed on sda2 by checking the directory names under "/lib/modules/"
Next you have to mount your root partition on any directory and mount the "boot" partition if you have one too:
mkdir /mnt/myarch #Creates the mount directory on the live session, you can use /mnt/ so this command is not neccesary
mount -t auto /dev/sda2     /mnt/myarch         #Mount the root partition on the live session
mount -t auto /dev/sda1     /mnt/myarch/boot    #Mount the boot partition, if you have to
Now, you'll have to bind three system directories to their true locations on the root partition:
mount -t proc   proc      /mnt/myarch/proc
mount -t sysfs  sys       /mnt/myarch/sys
mount -o bind   /dev      /mnt/myarch/dev
Next step is to use the command "chroot <target> <consolebin>" to "move" the system root to the <target> directory, using the <consolebin> command interpreter:
chroot /mnt/myarch/ /bin/bash
Now, you will be using your system just like if you had actually booted from your hard disk, but running the kernel from the liveCD, so the only remaining step is to generate the initcpio image.
In the example for this step, I will run the mkinitcpio twice, the first one to check that it's correctly generated, and the second to install it, using the parameter "-g". Another thing to keep in mind is that even before chrooting, the liveCD kernel is still running, so you will have tu use the "-k <kernelversion>" parameter to manually specify the kernel to use. Otherwise, mkinitcpio won't be able to find the correct modules to use:
mkinitcpio -k 2.6.27-ARCH       #This will simulate the generation, if it runs fine, run the next command
mkinitcpio -g /boot/kernel26.img  -k 2.6.27-ARCH    #This will actually generate the image
And that's all, this should regenerate a default image. More info about mkinitcpio: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Mkinitcpio
Hope this heps
PS: Sweden, nice country .

I follow this guide and I saved my Arch installation. I don't know why the HOOKS array in my mkinitcpio.conf just contains "base" :-?
So, just before regenerate the ramdisk image I edit my /etc/mkinitcpio.conf and add all the neccessary hooks and generate. I can bring my Arch box back to life

yvonney · 2009-02-21 04:11:38

This turned out to be an AMAZING fix for me...

Adding this to the grub boot line upon boot.

pci=noacpi nobiospnp noapic nolapic

I am now able to use the 2009.02 installer.

I write a bit about this at the end here:

http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php? … 20#p502920

Ranguvar · 2009-02-21 19:19:28

Try to find out if you can not use some of those - some of those can hurt performance IIRC.

elbeem · 2009-03-08 11:54:37

I have the same issue. I tried everything in this thread, but it still wont boot. How do I downgrade the kernel when my computer ain't booting?

yvonney · 2009-03-08 18:38:35

My whole kernel downgrade need (before I found the grub boot string that worked) was because I could use 2.6.27 or later (thereabouts) on the old hobbling Dell laptop. hehehe

After being very lucky doing a kernel upgrade, exactly, line for line like how the wiki says to. (everything was where expected and all commands worked) ... then I added kernel26 and (for me) madwifi to the ignor packages in pacman.conf so it would update every thing else... Did that after downgrading of course.

a few weeks later I did a full reinstall with 2009.02 .... same issues...that's when I discovered that even though there appeared not no be a combination for me there actually was. Try other grub boot commands and one thing I missed initially was editing the correct line.

Maybe you could try it with a live boot of 2009.02 and manaully edit the grub boot lines on every try. the hitting the 'e' for edit and 'e' and 'b' I think it was. You probably know all that. I guess you're doing the boot string on the grub boot of your installed system.

Sorry I can't be more help at all.

Last edited by yvonney (2009-03-08 18:39:41)

Arch Linux

#1 2008-10-16 18:46:16

[Solved] kernel 2.6.27 - Root device not found (2.6.28 too)

#2 2008-10-16 23:04:08

Re: [Solved] kernel 2.6.27 - Root device not found (2.6.28 too)

#3 2008-10-17 00:28:17

Re: [Solved] kernel 2.6.27 - Root device not found (2.6.28 too)

#4 2008-10-17 02:56:25

Re: [Solved] kernel 2.6.27 - Root device not found (2.6.28 too)

#5 2008-10-17 17:11:55

Re: [Solved] kernel 2.6.27 - Root device not found (2.6.28 too)

#6 2008-10-17 17:14:30

Re: [Solved] kernel 2.6.27 - Root device not found (2.6.28 too)

#7 2008-10-21 09:34:54

Re: [Solved] kernel 2.6.27 - Root device not found (2.6.28 too)

#8 2008-10-22 00:56:05

Re: [Solved] kernel 2.6.27 - Root device not found (2.6.28 too)

#9 2008-10-22 06:54:03

Re: [Solved] kernel 2.6.27 - Root device not found (2.6.28 too)

#10 2008-10-23 08:32:17

Re: [Solved] kernel 2.6.27 - Root device not found (2.6.28 too)

#11 2009-01-21 10:13:58

Re: [Solved] kernel 2.6.27 - Root device not found (2.6.28 too)

#12 2009-01-22 21:13:12

Re: [Solved] kernel 2.6.27 - Root device not found (2.6.28 too)

#13 2009-01-22 23:14:50

Re: [Solved] kernel 2.6.27 - Root device not found (2.6.28 too)

#14 2009-01-23 16:22:54

Re: [Solved] kernel 2.6.27 - Root device not found (2.6.28 too)

#15 2009-01-28 17:06:03

Re: [Solved] kernel 2.6.27 - Root device not found (2.6.28 too)

#16 2009-02-01 04:38:35

Re: [Solved] kernel 2.6.27 - Root device not found (2.6.28 too)

#17 2009-02-08 04:10:56

Re: [Solved] kernel 2.6.27 - Root device not found (2.6.28 too)

#18 2009-02-08 08:08:54

Re: [Solved] kernel 2.6.27 - Root device not found (2.6.28 too)

#19 2009-02-10 00:43:22

Re: [Solved] kernel 2.6.27 - Root device not found (2.6.28 too)

#20 2009-02-10 09:35:32

Re: [Solved] kernel 2.6.27 - Root device not found (2.6.28 too)

#21 2009-02-18 14:25:21

Re: [Solved] kernel 2.6.27 - Root device not found (2.6.28 too)

#22 2009-02-21 04:11:38

Re: [Solved] kernel 2.6.27 - Root device not found (2.6.28 too)

#23 2009-02-21 19:19:28

Re: [Solved] kernel 2.6.27 - Root device not found (2.6.28 too)

#24 2009-03-08 11:54:37

Re: [Solved] kernel 2.6.27 - Root device not found (2.6.28 too)

#25 2009-03-08 18:38:35

Re: [Solved] kernel 2.6.27 - Root device not found (2.6.28 too)

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