Arch Linux

gabeos

Member

Registered: 2010-12-18

Posts: 4

Unable to determine maj/min number of root device after kernel upgrade

Hi all,
 
   So after installing, I played around for a bit trying to get a proprietary wireless driver working, realized I didn't want to have to do this every time I started fresh and got a different (ath9k) device. Once it's working, I started in on try to get the latest catalyst drivers working, but ran into errors of the type below (paraphrased).

Module not found: /lib/modules/2.6.33-ARCH/build/... not found.

Looking in the /lib/modules/ directory, I found 2.6.33-ARCH/ only contained the firmware for the previously mentioned wireless driver. Realizing I had (dumb noob mistake, humble apologies) forgotten to reboot after updating to 2.6.36. So, I deleted the 2.6.33-ARCH directory, thinking it to be unnecessary, and rebooted.

Now, when starting up, in the "Running Hook [udev]" stage, I get the following error:

Root device '/dev/sdb4' doesn't exist. Attempting to create it.
ERROR: Unable to determine major/minor number of root device '/dev/sdb4'.

Then drops me to a recovery shell., /bin/sh can't access tty; job control turned off.
And leaves me at a [ramfs /]# prompt at which I am unable to type...

If there is no easy solution, I'm perfectly amenable to starting with a fresh install, but i'd be interested to know what happened. I learned a lot the first and second times around, maybe I can cement it in and wean myself off the beginner's installation guide the third time

Thanks for any help

Last edited by gabeos (2010-12-18 04:27:17)

chpln

Member

From: Australia

Registered: 2009-09-17

Posts: 361

Re: Unable to determine maj/min number of root device after kernel upgrade

Do you have multiple drives in that machine?  If so, I suspect the devices have changed order.  Ideally you will never use /dev/[hs]d* on a machine with multiple drives, as the ordering (and therefore the device name) is subject to change.  See https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pe … ice_naming

Skyalmian

Member

Registered: 2009-06-28

Posts: 121

Re: Unable to determine maj/min number of root device after kernel upgrade

There is another thread that is on this same subject started within the last 24 hours here.

gabeos

Member

Registered: 2010-12-18

Posts: 4

Re: Unable to determine maj/min number of root device after kernel upgrade

Thanks for the replies, all. That was the one part of the filesystem set up that I kind of skipped over, assuming the default would be fine. I guess you can't be too careful. Anyway, I couldn't get to a useful shell so I just re-installed. Gets easier every time