arch will only boot in safe mode

jose1711 · 2007-06-15 20:06:14

hello,

i installed arch linux as a dualboot option for my parents. while i was home it was working flawlessly, but when i got back from work after a month or so, i found out it is unable to boot - only to safe mode which is not very usable though. they said they were only using windows. anyway here are some console messages:

Attempting to create root device /dev/sdb6
ERROR: Failed to parse block device name for /dev/sdb6
unknown
ERROR: root fs canot be detected. Try using the rootfstype= kernel parameter
Waiting for device to settle...done
Root device /dev/sdb6 doesn't exist, attempting to create it
... recovery shell...

i tried tab completion in grub for the line

kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 /dev/

and only got:

Possible files are: console null zero

Isn't that strange too?

Please, help me what to do. I have no idea what is wrong. Booted using a LiveCD, did fsck on both partitions, mounted them, they seem ok.

Thank you.

Jozef

Acid7711 · 2007-06-15 20:56:15

I remember reading something about this a while ago. Something like, grub's menu.lst had the root device listed as /dev/sdXX and fstab still listed it as /dev/hdXX That might be something easy to check.

Also, if it's been a while since you've been there, make sure that grub's menu.lst lists kernel26.img for the initrd entry. That might end up being the problem.

If neither of those are at fault, I'd compare the grub lines for the failsafe mode and the regular just to see if there are any major differences aside from what they should be. I think there was an option you could pass to the kernel if this happened. It might have been something left out of the kernel that the failsafe includes. Might have to take a peak at mkinitcpio.conf and see if there's anything that needs to be added?

Last edited by Acid7711 (2007-06-15 20:57:58)

brain0 · 2007-06-16 06:56:59

jose1711 wrote:

i installed arch linux as a dualboot option for my parents. while i was home it was working flawlessly, but when i got back from work after a month or so, i found out it is unable to boot - only to safe mode which is not very usable though. they said they were only using windows. anyway here are some console messages:
Attempting to create root device /dev/sdb6
ERROR: Failed to parse block device name for /dev/sdb6
unknown
ERROR: root fs canot be detected. Try using the rootfstype= kernel parameter
Waiting for device to settle...done
Root device /dev/sdb6 doesn't exist, attempting to create it
... recovery shell...

In the recovery shell, can you type 'cat /proc/modules' and post the output here? I only need the name in the first column, but please be precise and complete about it. Also, type 'echo /dev/sd*', 'echo /dev/hd*' and echo '/sys/block/*'.

i tried tab completion in grub for the line
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 /dev/
and only got:
Possible files are: console null zero
Isn't that strange too?

That is normal, there are only supposed to be these three files.

jose1711 · 2007-06-16 07:21:08

cat /proc/modules

sr_mod 14372 0 - Live 0xf8824000
cdrom 34080 1 sr_mod, Live 0xf884f000
sd_mod 16640 0 - Live 0xf881c000
ata_piix 11780 0 - Live 0xf880a000
ata_generic 5636 0 - Live 0xf8812000
pata_it821x 9100 0 - Live 0xf880e000
libata 102036 3 ata_piix, ata_generic, pata_it821, Live 0xff829000

echo /dev/sd*

/dev/sda /dev/sda1 /dev/sda2 /dev/sda5 /dev/sda6 /dev/sda7 /dev/sda8

echo /sys/block/*

/sys/block/loop0 /sys/block/loop1 /sys/block/loop2 /sys/block/loop3 /sys/block/loop4 /sys/block/loop5 /sys/block/loop6 /sys/block/loop7 /sys/block/ram0 /sys/block/ram1 /sys/block/ram10 /sys/block/ram11 /sys/block/ram12 /sys/block/ram13 /sys/block/ram14 /sys/block/ram15 /sys/block/ram2 /sys/block/ram3 /sys/block/ram4 /sys/block/ram5 /sys/block/ram6 /sys/block/ram7 /sys/block/ram8 /sys/block/ram9 /sys/block/sda /sys/block/sr0

brain0 · 2007-06-16 07:24:46

Okay, this helps I guess. As you can see, no sdb, but only sda is found. What kind of hard drives are connected here? Are they sata, ide?

jose1711 · 2007-06-16 09:19:27

i've got 2 physical harddrives, both being ide. but you know what? i realized i can no more see the second drive in windows (the partitions are listed as removable devices but it reports that no drive is inserted). perhaps this is related..

joe

desertViking · 2007-06-16 14:39:14

Apologies if this is a red herring, but I ran into a similar situation following an up grade. You don't say that you did an upgrade, but just in case, the step by step guide posted by aris002 helped me: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php? … 95#p202095

brain0 · 2007-06-17 06:44:54

desertViking wrote:

Apologies if this is a red herring, but I ran into a similar situation following an up grade. You don't say that you did an upgrade, but just in case, the step by step guide posted by aris002 helped me: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php? … 95#p202095

We have a slightly different situation here, be careful when messing with drivers: replacing the pata driver by the ide driver will change drive letters and make the fstab invalid. In the case of this thread, the system is in fact properly configured to use pata drivers.

jose1711 · 2007-06-17 06:56:32

any suggestions what to do next, please?

jose1711 · 2007-07-07 13:33:56

changed /dev/sdb1 do /dev/sda1 (that is why safe mode partially succeeded - it had sda1 defined). then i had to edit /etc/fstab accordingly and finally i can boot into Arch. seems i will really have to look into http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Per … ice_naming cause next time i boot the devices may be exchanged again.

thanks for your comments, everyone.

joe

Arch Linux

#1 2007-06-15 20:06:14

arch will only boot in safe mode

#2 2007-06-15 20:56:15

Re: arch will only boot in safe mode

#3 2007-06-16 06:56:59

Re: arch will only boot in safe mode

#4 2007-06-16 07:21:08

Re: arch will only boot in safe mode

#5 2007-06-16 07:24:46

Re: arch will only boot in safe mode

#6 2007-06-16 09:19:27

Re: arch will only boot in safe mode

#7 2007-06-16 14:39:14

Re: arch will only boot in safe mode

#8 2007-06-17 06:44:54

Re: arch will only boot in safe mode

#9 2007-06-17 06:56:32

Re: arch will only boot in safe mode

#10 2007-07-07 13:33:56

Re: arch will only boot in safe mode

Board footer