Arch Linux

tanjeff

Member

Registered: 2007-03-15

Posts: 15

mkinitcpio produces unbootable images

When updating/installing a kernel (e.g. kernel26 or kernel26rt) mkinitcpio builds up an image. These images do not boot. At boot time, grub boots the kernel and the ramdisk is startet, but it leads to a kernel panic. The last interesting messages are :

:: Running Hook [filesystems]
:: Loading root filesystem module...
Attempting to create root device '/dev/sda5'
/bin/mknod "/dev/root" b 8 5
/init: 1: cannot open /dev/root: No such device or address

Waiting for devices to settle...done.
:: Initramfs Completed - control passing to kinit
IP-Config: no devices to configure
Waiting 0s before mounting root device...
kinit: Unable to mount root fs on device dev(8,5)
kinit: init not found!
Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!

It seems that the Ramdisk startet properly. But I wonder that it trys to create the node "/dev/root" after it sayed that "/dev/sda5" is to be created. sda5 is the device containing my rootfs. My system is up-to-date, I even re-installed all(!) packages. I merged all pacsave and pacnew files I found in /etc/. I have an older image (same version, but built earlier) which boots just fine.

So, I'm able to use my system, but I want to try the kernel26rt package as I want to do audio stuff with my computer. Further a kernel update would be impossible at the moment.

Please tell me what Information you need to understand the problem better. Any help and hints are welcome.

ScriptDevil

Member

From: In Front of My PC

Registered: 2006-04-06

Posts: 253

Re: mkinitcpio produces unbootable images

do you have your filesystem's module in /etc/mkinitcpio.conf?

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Be yourself, because you are all that you can be

tanjeff

Member

Registered: 2007-03-15

Posts: 15

Re: mkinitcpio produces unbootable images

No, and I never had. The MODULES array at my laptops config is empty and all works just fine. However, I tried adding ext3 to the MODULES list, but nothing changes.

I currently try to understand what exactly the InitRamdisk does, is there a way to extract a cpio archive into a directory? "cpio -i < kernel26.img" copied the files from the ramdisk happily to my system, replacing some executables I assume that's why one shouldn't work as root (I did since installing kernel and instrumenting the mkinitrd script required root previlegues). I re-installed all packages so that the system should be ok now. So is there a way to inspect cpio archives?

bender02

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2007-02-04

Posts: 1,328

Re: mkinitcpio produces unbootable images

Yes, you can just extract cpio (almost like you did , this is the command I use: "zcat /boot/kernel26.img| cpio -iv --no-absolute-filenames" as you've found out, you need to be *very* careful with cpio

Then next, do what you've probably wanted to do: have a look at what modules are present in initramfs, mainly make sure that the modules for your harddrive are there. Next thing, I think that nodes in initramfs are created on the run via udev.

EDIT: added the --no-absolute-filenames ... the main point of the command.

Last edited by bender02 (2008-05-12 13:50:16)

roadt

Member

Registered: 2007-10-18

Posts: 25

Re: mkinitcpio produces unbootable images

I met the same issue.

the boot stoped at 
ramfs$
check the dev file
ramfs$ echo dev/*
none of disk device is recognised.
i also check the kernel26.img,    ext3 module is packed. (my root partition is ext3 ).
strang.. the problem still exist..

roadt

Member

Registered: 2007-10-18

Posts: 25

Re: mkinitcpio produces unbootable images

oh,  it's solveed  to upgrade all core package.  "P -Su"

last time , i only update the kernel26 package. "P -Sy kernel26"

but, it's strange.  why the kernel boot sequence will depend other package in core?

bender02

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2007-02-04

Posts: 1,328

Re: mkinitcpio produces unbootable images

Just look at the kernel26 package dependencies. The fact that it *depends* on some other stuff should give you an idea that it's not a good thing to update *just* the kernel, you should update the rest of the stuff that goes with it (various scripts, etc), like mkinitcpio, coreutils, etc.

roadt

Member

Registered: 2007-10-18

Posts: 25

Re: mkinitcpio produces unbootable images

yeah,   you're right.  tks bender02.