Arch Linux

Grenshad

Member

Registered: 2007-02-19

Posts: 22

system can't boot after last big update (rebuild core i guess)

Hello people, I'm in need of "decoding" some boot text screen to understand what goes wrong since the update.

It seems it can't loading root filesystem or something like that, I try without "label" in grub menu.lst (back to sdx), with the rootdelay=8 as it said, with only one hard drive (to avoid risks of sdx <-> sdy mess), and have the same result.

Any ideas about that ?
Thanks for reading

Edit : I also chrooted in from a live cd to rebuild kernel images (mkinitcpio), got no changes, then also reinstall the  kernel, no changes.

Last edited by Grenshad (2007-11-21 12:54:04)

Birdman

Member

From: Surrey, UK

Registered: 2006-01-11

Posts: 121

Re: system can't boot after last big update (rebuild core i guess)

Grenshad,

Sorry I can't help but just found your thread after having posted one of my own with the same problem. Your screen dump is very similar to what I am seeing. I have done the chroot reinstall the kernel stuff. I thought of changing the permanant device naming, but having seen that it does not work for you I think the solution is elsewhere.

I have tried to role back to the previous kernel but that also fails. There is clearly something funny happening here as we both have the same problem using the core repo.

Grenshad

Member

Registered: 2007-02-19

Posts: 22

Re: system can't boot after last big update (rebuild core i guess)

Yes, I also try with the previous kernel too. So I guess it's maybe not directly from the kernel, maybe some kernel dependencies, I don't know where to look cause I don't know exactly how it works (boot, kernelstuff). I try differents changes in mkinitcpio.conf (with some modules about ext2/3, ... some minimal number of hooks, ...) and making images without finding any clues. I also try with grub arguments like rootfstype=ext3 or earlymodules=piix (either if I'm not sure about their means). In the end I "yaourt -Sb kernel26" to rebuild kernel package but for the same result.

Finally I'm stuck with no more ideas for the moment. Seems a strange problem we have.

Last edited by Grenshad (2007-11-21 21:22:26)

ddoan

Member

Registered: 2007-10-26

Posts: 9

Re: system can't boot after last big update (rebuild core i guess)

Hi you both,

Maybe you could check your fstab... but that's just a guess since I'm not an expert ;-)

IMHO it's not a problem with your kernel since you can load it.... hm, but maybe I'm completely wrong ;-)

Last edited by ddoan (2007-11-22 11:25:13)

Grenshad

Member

Registered: 2007-02-19

Posts: 22

Re: system can't boot after last big update (rebuild core i guess)

Hi ddoan,

yeah every suggestions are welcome :-) I just try to replace my fstab with a clean one, with no more luck. But since I get a Arch 2007-08.2 CD, I can boot throught the CD with something like arch root=/dev/myrootpartition and have a partial system (like chroot from a live CD but faster to have). I think i'll try to install over existing arch but I don't know how to force the install menu of the Arch CD to install packages that are older than the installed ones. I'm RTFM now to guess how.

Grenshad

Member

Registered: 2007-02-19

Posts: 22

Re: system can't boot after last big update (rebuild core i guess)

Just reinstall from CD over existing installation, except grub which not look at the good place (just have to correct the new menu.lst), arch seems running, with some minor errors messages, probably caused by some new .conf files that i'll correct later.

So the mystery is alive, I wish some survivors to find an explanation to avoid reinstalling (remind me some windows way aka "i can't know what is in cause so i'm reinstalling").

bolero

Member

Registered: 2003-10-05

Posts: 60

Re: system can't boot after last big update (rebuild core i guess)

hmm now im worried about rebooting my server. Id rather not reboot my server and find out it wont boot with the last update. I guess ill have to find out sooner or later.

anadyr

Member

Registered: 2005-02-10

Posts: 225

Re: system can't boot after last big update (rebuild core i guess)

This problem has in my eyes to do something with GRUB. I am experiencing it now, after reinstalling it. This is what I found:

When GRUB starts, try to manually start your system with the commands in /boot/grub/menu.lst (the lines that start with root, kernel, initrd) after these lines, enter "boot". In my case the system starts fine. If I just press "Enter" in the GRUB menu, I get the "try rootsdelay=8" error.

It seems to be related to the installation of GRUB. What I describe here is after this installation of GRUB:
[root@bla ~]# grub-install '(hd0)'
Which is supposed to be wrong, because my /boot map is on a different partition
When I properly follow the information in the Archlinux wiki on GRUB I am supposed to do this:
[root@bla ~]# grub-install --root-directory=/boot '(hd0)'

But when I do that, I don't get a bootmenu in the first place.

edit: nevermind about this story, I had a typo in /boot/grub/menu.lst: hda5 instead of sda5

Last edited by anadyr (2007-11-27 12:51:40)

IsSuE

Member

Registered: 2006-04-29

Posts: 309

Re: system can't boot after last big update (rebuild core i guess)

i get the same error described here: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php? … 37#p303037

Grenshad

Member

Registered: 2007-02-19

Posts: 22

Re: system can't boot after last big update (rebuild core i guess)

I've also noticed that after reinstalling over, new grub was confused with the bios boot disks sort list (main SATA, main IDE, second IDE) and the "kernel" (?) disks sort list (which was morelike : main IDE, second IDE, main SATA). New installed grub was looking at sdc but the (hdX,X) line have to be corrected to point on hd0,X (instead of hd2,X). So, yes, I guess grub seems to have some difficulties to deal with SATA/IDE  and/or bios/kernel devices order list.

But it maybe have nothing to do (or not) with the initial cause of the "root filesystem cannot be detected" update problem.

Birdman

Member

From: Surrey, UK

Registered: 2006-01-11

Posts: 121

Re: system can't boot after last big update (rebuild core i guess)

This problem has in my eyes to do something with GRUB. I am experiencing it now, after reinstalling it.

I am not so sure about this. I use a boot floppy with lilo (updated via my old Slackware install) but also have a GRUB floppy as well. My system fails just as spectacularly using lilo as it does GRUB. As I have not had much time available to fix this I have resorted to an Ubuntu install from a recent LXF cover. I need a stable system because my wife does some work stuff on the linux box and I needed to have a working system for her. In the absence of any clear idea of what is wrong I have a broken arch system that I do not know what to do with

IsSuE

Member

Registered: 2006-04-29

Posts: 309

Re: system can't boot after last big update (rebuild core i guess)

well, i tried several new things: added all modules from mkinitcpio -M  to MODULES under mkinitcpio.conf = no go
tried various combinations of hooks: deletet scsi sata pata, only tried sata, only scsi and only pata = no go

i am getting to an end, i really dont know anything more i could try.

any help is appreciated

thx