Help please system won't boot

leberyo · 2010-02-03 00:55:33

I upgraded my system today and after restarting it gives a message "root device 'dev/disk/by-uuid/....' doesn't exist, attempting to create it
error: failed to parse block device data for 'dev/disks/by-uuid/...'
error: unable to detect or create root device '.....'
you are being dropped to a recovery shell.

Today's upgrade was big, it upgraded udev and the kernel. Anyone have an idea what the problem might be?

Last edited by leberyo (2010-02-03 01:04:43)

graysky · 2010-02-03 00:57:41

Hmm... boot with your live cd and edit your /etc/fstab to use /dev/sdxy format rather than uuids. I've never understood why uuid's have been so popular...

leberyo · 2010-02-03 00:58:49

I already tried that, any other idea?

davidm · 2010-02-03 01:06:38

Sorry if this seems silly but everyone makes mistakes.... Is your /etc/fstab, etc correct i.e. - do you have a leading "/" before the dev? I ask because the error message you posted doesn't show this.

Last edited by davidm (2010-02-03 01:08:06)

leberyo · 2010-02-03 01:07:15

yes /dev/sda1 etc.

davidm · 2010-02-03 01:10:02

hmm, maybe go ahead and just post your /etc/fstab and the output of 'fdisk -l' and someone may see something that might help.

leberyo · 2010-02-03 01:23:28

Here is my fstab:

#
# /etc/fstab: static file system information
#
# <file system> <dir> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
devpts /dev/pts devpts defaults 0 0
shm /dev/shm tmpfs nodev,nosuid 0 0

#/dev/cdrom /media/cd auto ro,user,noauto,unhide 0 0
#/dev/dvd /media/dvd auto ro,user,noauto,unhide 0 0
#/dev/fd0 /media/fl auto user,noauto 0 0

#UUID=8C6085FC6085ED70 /mnt/windows ntfs-3g defaults,noatime 0 0
/dev/sda2 /boot ext3 defaults 0 1
/dev/sda3 / ext4 defaults,noatime 0 1
/dev/sda5 /tmp ext4 defaults,nosuid,nodev 0 1
/dev/sda6 /var ext4 defaults,nosuid,nodev 0 1
/dev/sda7 /usr ext4 defaults,noatime,rw,nodev 0 1
/dev/sda8 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/sda9 /home ext4 defaults,noatime,nosuid,nodev 0 1

fdisk -l doesn't output anything. I'm using Mint Linux livecd at the moment...

leberyo · 2010-02-03 02:38:08

You know I also removed lvm2 and mdam packages because I didn't think I needed them. Lvm2 is the large volume manager and mdam was the package that handles raid I think. Could that be the reason?

leberyo · 2010-02-03 07:12:34

LVM2=logical volume manager, I thought it was large volume manager. I'm thinking this is what's not letting me boot, me deleting this package. But how can I re-add this package when I can't boot into the system at all???

Parter · 2010-02-03 07:44:31

I had the same problem when I complied 2.6.32-7 manually. I just went back to -5

leberyo · 2010-02-03 07:46:06

How can I go back???

SBL · 2010-02-03 08:16:20

Have you tried pacman -S lvm2?

Last edited by SBL (2010-02-03 08:20:59)

liquibyte · 2010-02-03 12:22:53

Can you mount your drive with the live medium? I always check for hardware issues before anything else just in case. If you can mount it, you should be able to fix the issue with a chroot and the appropriate commands. The wiki will be your friend here more than I can though. I'm sure someone else would be able to tell you exactly what to do but I can point you the the page: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Chroot

unranked · 2010-02-03 12:50:42

Just a tip, but -if you have one- what's the content of /boot/grub/menu.lst ?

RaisedFist · 2010-02-03 13:47:15

@unranked: He said fdisk -l doesn't show anything, so there's something wrong... and if he can't see the partitions, then he can't mount /boot, right?

unranked · 2010-02-03 14:03:35

Yes, you are totally right.
But how was he able to post his /etc/fstab, if he can't see the partitions ? So I thought maybe he can post his menu.lst too..
Anyway, sorry if I misunderstood something.

RaisedFist · 2010-02-03 14:33:06

hah!! I missed that... leberyo, so you're able to mount your / (root) partition? if so, do a ls -al /dev and see what's in there

leberyo · 2010-02-03 15:26:06

I'm using a mint Linux livecd that's how I mount the disks. I honestly don't think there's anything wrong with the disks. I did a ls -l /'dev/disks/by-uuid in mint and all the disks are there.

tavianator · 2010-02-03 17:01:12

From the livecd, mount the root filesystem under /mnt. Then do "mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev" and finally "chroot /mnt". You should now be inside your arch system, and able to run "pacman -S lvm mdadm".

leberyo · 2010-02-03 20:28:07

How do I mount the root file system? "mount /dev/sda3 /mnt" something like that?

Did that, it says pacman command not found. Probably because I've split my filesystem into different partitions. Would Pacman be under /usr which is sda7 for me.

Last edited by leberyo (2010-02-03 20:37:00)

leberyo · 2010-02-03 20:41:36

I remounted my different partitions and was able to re-install lvm2 and mdadm. I still get the same boot error. I've read elsewhere that the new udev is the problem. How can I restore the previous udev?

Last edited by leberyo (2010-02-03 20:46:33)

leberyo · 2010-02-03 20:55:26

Wow this is becoming painful. Tried to install the old udev that's in my pacman cache, it now gives me another error;

error: failed to prepare transaction (conflicting files)
udev: /lib/udev/rules.d/64-md-raid.rules exist in filesystem

....no packages were upgraded

How can I fix this?

You fix by also downgrading mdadm package. Downgraded both mdadm and udev to one prior versions and still the same boot error..

Last edited by leberyo (2010-02-03 20:58:51)

leberyo · 2010-02-03 21:07:54

Downgraded kernel, udev, mdadm still boot error !!!

liquibyte · 2010-02-03 21:26:56

leberyo wrote:

Wow this is becoming painful. Tried to install the old udev that's in my pacman cache, it now gives me another error;
error: failed to prepare transaction (conflicting files)
udev: /lib/udev/rules.d/64-md-raid.rules exist in filesystem
....no packages were upgraded
How can I fix this?
You fix by also downgrading mdadm package. Downgraded both mdadm and udev to one prior versions and still the same boot error..

pacman's -f option will force the install in this case.

grandmouse · 2010-02-03 22:14:07

try modules="... ext3 ext4" in /etc/mkinitcpio (line 7) and
mkinitcpio -p kernel26

Arch Linux

#1 2010-02-03 00:55:33

Help please system won't boot

#2 2010-02-03 00:57:41

Re: Help please system won't boot

#3 2010-02-03 00:58:49

Re: Help please system won't boot

#4 2010-02-03 01:06:38

Re: Help please system won't boot

#5 2010-02-03 01:07:15

Re: Help please system won't boot

#6 2010-02-03 01:10:02

Re: Help please system won't boot

#7 2010-02-03 01:23:28

Re: Help please system won't boot

#8 2010-02-03 02:38:08

Re: Help please system won't boot

#9 2010-02-03 07:12:34

Re: Help please system won't boot

#10 2010-02-03 07:44:31

Re: Help please system won't boot

#11 2010-02-03 07:46:06

Re: Help please system won't boot

#12 2010-02-03 08:16:20

Re: Help please system won't boot

#13 2010-02-03 12:22:53

Re: Help please system won't boot

#14 2010-02-03 12:50:42

Re: Help please system won't boot

#15 2010-02-03 13:47:15

Re: Help please system won't boot

#16 2010-02-03 14:03:35

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#17 2010-02-03 14:33:06

Re: Help please system won't boot

#18 2010-02-03 15:26:06

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#19 2010-02-03 17:01:12

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#20 2010-02-03 20:28:07

Re: Help please system won't boot

#21 2010-02-03 20:41:36

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#22 2010-02-03 20:55:26

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#23 2010-02-03 21:07:54

Re: Help please system won't boot

#24 2010-02-03 21:26:56

Re: Help please system won't boot

#25 2010-02-03 22:14:07

Re: Help please system won't boot

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