I used Slackware with lilo for seven years, so without Arch I would still been there, using all the old tech.
]]>fphillips, thank you very much. I never really knew much about about what happens during the boot process. Very cool to get a better understanding of it while fixing this problem. I just wonder how it didn't fail until now. Apparantly I should have fixed the problems with the /dev/hda and /dev/sda confusion in my config files a long time ago. I also feel like I should have dumped lilo a long time ago too.
Thanks again.
]]>Btw, I thought that /dev/sda1 was the boot partition, but I do not have a seperate /boot partition. The /boot directory is on my root / partition so I messed up with trying to mount the /boot partition as /dev/sda1, which is my usbdrive.
]]>Also, I noticed you say that /boot partition is /dev/sda1, but the fstab above has it as /mnt/usbdrive, so you'll need to get that straight.
If /boot really has its own partition at /dev/sda1, then that should be specified as "root (hd0,0)" instead of (hd0,4) because that is where grub will use as its root to find its files (see the grub wiki article).
You will also need to list it in fstab, and change the paths in menu.lst to "/vmlinuz26" and "/kernel26.img". This is because they are at the top level of the /boot partition, rather than the /boot folder of the root partition.
]]>I just installed grub.
When I try to boot, I get this error message:
:: Loading root filesystem module...
Attempting to create root device '/dev/sda4'
ERROR: Failed to parse block device name for '/dev/sda4'
unknown
ERROR: root fs cannot be detected. Try using the rootfstype= kernel parameter.
Wating for devices to settle...done.
Root device '/dev/sda3' doesn't exist, attempting to create it
ERROR: Failed to parse block device name for '/dev/sda4'
ERROR: Unable to create/detect root device '/dev/sda4'
Dropping to a recovery shell... type 'exit' to reboot
NOTE: klibc contains no 'ls' binary, use 'echo *' instead
If the device '/dev/sda4' gets created while you are here,
try adding 'rootdelay≃8' or higher to the kernel command-line
ramfs$
everything is is the same... except my /boot/grub/menu.lst looks like this:
# Arch Linux
title Arch Linux [/boot/vmlinuz26]
root (hd0,3)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda4 ro
initrd /boot/kernel26.img
title Arch Linux Fallback
root (hd0,3)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26archck root=/dev/sda4 ro
initrd /boot/kernel26-fallback.img
# Windows
title Windows
rootnoverify (hd0,1)
makeactive
chainloader +1
No longer do I get stuck at 'Probing EDD'
]]>I think moving to grub is a good idea. There are fewer and fewer of us who remember about lilo, and lilo is all but unmaintained. The arch devs were thinking about dropping it, but decided to keep it as long as it still worked.
]]>I am now thinking of removing lilo and installing grub.
]]>Some more info would be helpful: mobo/system, disk type, whether you are up to date with Arch kernel and packages. It may just be that this kernel doesn't like your board. There is no configuration or modules this early in the kernel boot sequence, so I son't know what it could be.
The "edd=off" is a kernel parameter, so it would go into the append="" line in lilo.conf. It seems to complete though, so I don't think you need to do this.
http://www.mjmwired.net/kernel/Document … meters.txt
Thanks for the tip on the devfs.
What could possiblly between the BIOS and Lilo?
]]>The "Probing EDD" comes from LILO I believe, not kernel or BIOS, and LILO will usually give a code if it's installed wrong (like L99).
BTW, you can probably kill the devfs=nomount, since we use udev now and the kernel doesn't even contain devfs anymore.
]]>I am in the system again now with 'arch root=/dev/sda4' from the booloader disk.
my /etc/mkinitcpio.conf looks like so...
HOOKS="base udev autodetect ide filesystems"
So do this again:
mount /dev/sda4 /mnt
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot
mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
mount-t proc none /mnt/proc
mount -t sysfs none /mnt/sys
chroot /mnt
Edit lilo.conf, run lilo, and reboot. While you are in there check /etc/mkinitcpio.conf. The kernel panics, "unknown-block" and FILESYSTEM CHECK FAILED may mean that your HOOKS= array is incomplete.
]]>My lilo config says:
boot=/dev/hda (which is maybe why I am getting this Fatal: raid_setup: stat: ("/dev/hda") error? It tries to boot up /dev/hda4 as root from the lilo.conf. Should I try switching them to /dev/sda4?
I have been running Arch for quite awhile now, and nothing like this has ever happened. I installed it years ago.
I tried the wiki articals on Boot Recovery, almost all of them. Everytime I try to run lilo it gives me that same error.
Ok.. I got somewhere!!
I just went into my /etc/fstab and /etc/lilo.conf and switched all the /dev/hda to /dev/sda and I am now in the system without the FILESYSTEM CHECK FAIL error. I still cannot boot though. But... I can now copy my config files here...
Here is my lilo.conf
#
# /etc/lilo.conf
#
boot=/dev/sda
append="devfs=nomount"
# This line often fixes L40 errors on bootup
# disk=/dev/discs/disc0/disc bios=0x80
default=ArchLinux
timeout=50
lba32
prompt
image=/boot/vmlinuz26
label=ArchLinux
root=/dev/sda4
initrd=/boot/kernel26.img
read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz26archck
label=ArchFallback
root=/dev/sda4
initrd=/boot/kernel26-fallback.img
read-only
other=/dev/sda2
label=dos
# End of file
and here is my /etc/fstab
#
# /etc/fstab: static file system information
#
# <file system> <dir> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
none /dev/pts devpts defaults 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
tmpfs /tmp tmpfs defaults 0 0
usbfs /proc/bus/usb usbfs defaults 0 0
/dev/cdrom0 /mnt/cdrom iso9660 ro,user,noauto,unhide 0 0
/dev/cdrom1 /mnt/cdburn iso9660 rw,user,noauto,unhide 0 0
/dev/sda1 /mnt/usbdrive vfat defaults,user,noauto 0 0
/dev/sdb2 /mnt/ipod vfat noatime,noauto,user,umask=000,quiet,exec 0 0
/dev/sdc1 /mnt/camera vfat defaults,noauto,user 0 0
/dev/sda3 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/sda4 / ext3 defaults 0 1
any help would be very much appreciated.
]]>