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#1 2012-04-14 17:27:41

wLee
Member
From: Amsterdam, NL
Registered: 2008-12-06
Posts: 33

[SOLVED] Fresh install won't boot - error 21 and number of root device

I think I was not very clear in my explanation of the problem and didn't provide enough information, so I edited y original post fro yesterday. Hopefully someone sees my mistake and can tell me what I can do to get it right.

The problem is my pc with a fresh install does not boot, not the base kernel and not the fallback image.
My pc is an Asus Eee pc 900A and the Arch iso is downloaded last fridaynight and dd if= on a usb memorystick.

Basically it gives two errors, the first is at first boot after install:
Error 1:

Booting 'Arch Linux' 
root (hd1,1) 
Error 21: Selected disk does not exist

The second error appears if root changed to (hd0,0), wich I tried because grub> find /boot/grub/stage1 answers (hd0,0).
Error 2:

:: Loading Initramfs
:: Starting udevd...
done.
Waiting 10 seconds for device /dev/sdb1 ...
Root device '/dev/sdb1/ doesn't exist. Attempting to create it.
ERROR: Unable to determine major/minor number of root device '/dev/sdb1/'.
You are being dropped to a recovery shell

After reading every topic I could find concerning this I tried the following:
- Ad 'quiet' to the kernel line in the menu.lst = Did not boot.
- Ad rootfstype=ext2 to the kernel line in the menu.lst = Did not boot.
- Labeled the drives in fstab and menu.lst to workaround possible partition switches = Did not boot.
- Removed 'autodetect' from /etc/mkinitcpio = Did not work.
- Mount, chroot, pacman -Syu or -S udev or -S mkinitcpio or whatever gives the following error:

failed to commit transaction (conflicting files)
util-linux: /bin/mountpoint exists in filesystem
util-linux: /usr/share/man/man1/mountpoint.1.gz exists in filesystem
filesystem: /etc/mtab exists in filesystem
errors occured, no packages were upgraded.

- Pacman -S filesystem --force replies:

error: could not determine filesysem mount points
error: not enought free disk space

These are my /etc/fstab and /boot/grub/menu.lst

# 
# /etc/fstab: static file system information
#
# <file system>	<dir>	<type>	<options>	<dump>	<pass>
tmpfs		/tmp	tmpfs	nodev,nosuid	0	0
/dev/sdb1 / ext2 defaults,noatime 0 1
/dev/sdb2 /home ext2 defaults,noatime 0 1
# (0) Arch Linux
title  Arch Linux
root   (hd1,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-linux root=/dev/sdb1 ro
initrd /boot/initramfs-linux.img

Any help will be highly appreciated ofcourse smile

Last edited by wLee (2012-04-19 17:51:53)

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#2 2012-04-15 16:22:01

wLee
Member
From: Amsterdam, NL
Registered: 2008-12-06
Posts: 33

Re: [SOLVED] Fresh install won't boot - error 21 and number of root device

Now I also see that this is posted in the wrong place, it probably sould be in "Installation".
I'm sorry for that, absolutely no problem if this gets moved or closed. I'll post again in the rigtht forums if needed.

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#3 2012-04-16 19:49:22

wLee
Member
From: Amsterdam, NL
Registered: 2008-12-06
Posts: 33

Re: [SOLVED] Fresh install won't boot - error 21 and number of root device

Info update, downloaded the older Arch iso 2010.05 and installed that hoping it would boot, but got the exact same Error 21: Selected disk does not exist.

Up untill now, I did manual partitioning, now with 2010 iso also used the auto partitioning.
Both ending with the same error as everytime before.

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#4 2012-04-17 18:11:47

Pres
Member
Registered: 2011-09-12
Posts: 423

Re: [SOLVED] Fresh install won't boot - error 21 and number of root device

Assuming you have just one hard drive since it's a netbook right? (hd0,0) should be correct for grub. Not sure why you were using (hd1,1).

It's saying /dev/sdb1 doesn't exist (maybe should be /dev/sda1?). Using UUIDs to identify partitions is much better anyways (since the /dev/sd* identifiers can change, which might be what happened here):

ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid

Also, any reason you haven't tried the netinstall CD?

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#5 2012-04-18 19:09:42

wLee
Member
From: Amsterdam, NL
Registered: 2008-12-06
Posts: 33

Re: [SOLVED] Fresh install won't boot - error 21 and number of root device

You're right Pres, it has only one harddrive and (hd1,1) is what it's called at install.
(hd0,0) Should be right as far as I understand. That's what I use in menu.lst anyway, but have to manually change it.

Sda is given to the usb memorystick I use for installation.
I reinstalled just now using UUIDs, but no difference.
I'm going to do the netinstall tomorrow. Never done that and am curious to do so. Will let you know.

Thanks!

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#6 2012-04-18 21:56:51

DSpider
Member
From: Romania
Registered: 2009-08-23
Posts: 2,273

Re: [SOLVED] Fresh install won't boot - error 21 and number of root device

The second error appears if root changed to (hd0,0), wich I tried because grub> find /boot/grub/stage1 answers (hd0,0).
Error 2:

:: Loading Initramfs
:: Starting udevd...
done.
Waiting 10 seconds for device /dev/sdb1 ...
Root device '/dev/sdb1/ doesn't exist. Attempting to create it.
ERROR: Unable to determine major/minor number of root device '/dev/sdb1/'.
You are being dropped to a recovery shell

This's good. Keep using "root (hd0,0)" because now it's going somewhere (:: Loading Initramfs, :: Starting udevd). But, like Pres said, you need to change sdb1 to sda1 or better yet, use "root=UUID=7f4cef7e-7e..."

Like this:

# (0) Arch Linux
title  Arch Linux
root   (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-linux root=UUID=7f4cef7e-7ee2-489a-b759-d52ba23b692c ro quiet
initrd /boot/initramfs-linux.img

http://eaglegordon.hubpages.com/hub/Fin … Ds-numbers

Last edited by DSpider (2012-04-18 22:04:24)


"How to Succeed with Linux"

I have made a personal commitment not to reply in topics that start with a lowercase letter. Proper grammar and punctuation is a sign of respect, and if you do not show any, you will NOT receive any help (at least not from me).

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#7 2012-04-19 17:50:11

wLee
Member
From: Amsterdam, NL
Registered: 2008-12-06
Posts: 33

Re: [SOLVED] Fresh install won't boot - error 21 and number of root device

Installed again with UUIDs and (h0,0) but got the error

Decompressing Linux... Parsing ELF... done
Booting the kernel.
:: Stating udevd...
done.
:: Running Hook [udev]
:: Triggering uevents...done.
Root device 'UUID=d5a211b3-d914-4e5d-b109-0ba30ad0cff0' doesn't exist. Attempting to create it.
ERROR: Unable to determine major/minor number of root device 'UUID=d5a211b3-d914-4e5d-b109-0ba30ad0cff0'.
You are being dropped to a recovery shell
    Type 'exit' to try and continue booting
sh: can't ccess tty; job control turned off
[ramfs /]#

Then did a netinstall with UUID's + (hd0,0) and it boots.

I wonder if it really could be the difference between net / core install source that caused the problem. It sure looks like it.
The problem was with an Asus Eee pc 900A, I also have a Asus Eee pc 900 for which I can use an USB memorystick with core iso to install without any problems.

Anyway, thanks a lot for your help guys!

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