Arch Linux

algorythm

Member

From: /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/FIN

Registered: 2009-07-17

Posts: 181

Root device /dev/sda1 doesn't exist

I got something like this when I booted today (at the stage of initializing kernel):

Root device '/dev/sda1' doesn't exist, attempting to create it

ERROR: Failed to parse block device ids

ERROR: Unable to detect or create root device'

I did try the normal kernel (I currently use kernel26-ice), but haven't tried those xen0 and selinux kernels though. Also I tried changing /dev/sda1 to hda1 in menu.lst and fstab, but no luck .

E: Will try this one once I have time: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ins … .27t_exist

Other help is still of course greatly appreciated .

Last edited by algorythm (2009-10-11 11:21:56)

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“Talent you can bloom. Instinct you can polish.”  — Haikyuu!! (adapted)
“If everybody thought alike, no one would be thinking very much.”  — Walter Lippmann (adapted)
“The important thing is to be able, at any moment, to sacrifice what we are for what we could become.”  — Charles Dubois

algorythm

Member

From: /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/FIN

Registered: 2009-07-17

Posts: 181

Re: Root device /dev/sda1 doesn't exist

Gosh, I just got it working after booting a few times.. .

Now I'm pretty scared to boot again, though I should get back and running after booting a few times .

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“Talent you can bloom. Instinct you can polish.”  — Haikyuu!! (adapted)
“If everybody thought alike, no one would be thinking very much.”  — Walter Lippmann (adapted)
“The important thing is to be able, at any moment, to sacrifice what we are for what we could become.”  — Charles Dubois

bender02

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2007-02-04

Posts: 1,328

Re: Root device /dev/sda1 doesn't exist

If it sometimes work and sometimes not, maybe your device node gets created too late (this should not be the case when you use initcpio, but you never know...) If that's the case, you can use 'rootdelay=<n>' (replace <n> with a number) as a boot parameter to kernel in grub to wait for <n> seconds before the init process tries to mount the root filesystem. I personally use rootdelay=1, maybe I can remove it since it's been a long time ago when I put it there.

algorythm

Member

From: /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/FIN

Registered: 2009-07-17

Posts: 181

Re: Root device /dev/sda1 doesn't exist

Yeah, thanks but I even used rootdelay=90 by then.

The problem turned out to be that I didn't have the "sata" or "filesystems" hook on my (/etc/)mkinitcpio.conf, so it wouldn't have been possible to recognize any other partitions or any filesystems either (at least with my machine).

So how I booted correctly (with the first time btw) was that I booted the -fallback kernel that DOES have (all) the hook(s) I needed in the kernel26(-ice)-fallback.img.

So I had these hooks before this:

base udev fbsplash autodetect pata scsi sata uresume filesystems

During this:

base udev uresume

And now after this:

base udev sata uresume filesystems

Cheers!

Last edited by algorythm (2009-10-14 15:51:15)

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“Talent you can bloom. Instinct you can polish.”  — Haikyuu!! (adapted)
“If everybody thought alike, no one would be thinking very much.”  — Walter Lippmann (adapted)
“The important thing is to be able, at any moment, to sacrifice what we are for what we could become.”  — Charles Dubois