[solved] System crashed during kernel upgrade.

pottzie · 2012-01-01 19:07:45

I have another post on this forum concerning problems I had when Chromium upgraded. https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=132667

i just ran a system upgrade and the kernel had finished downloading, and was about to install itself to the system, when the screen went black and the same series of errors that I get when (my guess) X crashes. All I could do was shut the box down and hope, but when I rebooted the boot loader couldn't load. The screen shows:

Decompressing linux
Booting the kernel
Starting Udev
running hook

Error-Unable to determine major/minor number of root device. 'dev/disk/by-uuid/3e0e3a7d-6c7a-4f39-898e-ee160aef6ce6'

I'm wondering whether I'm better off trying to go in with a live CD from another OS and access the hard drive that way, or just manning up and re installing from scratch. I hate to have to do that as this is the first serious problem I've had since installing Arch, it's been rock solid until now.

Guess this will teach me to back up my system occasionally!

Last edited by pottzie (2012-01-02 04:37:25)

loafer · 2012-01-01 19:37:03

You don't need to reinstall. See the chroot Wiki page:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Change_Root

The key thing is to keep backups.

Last edited by loafer (2012-01-01 19:39:24)

pottzie · 2012-01-01 22:38:53

Wow! I've REALLY got something messed up here! When I try to get a live Cd to load, something happens as the live CD tries to load. Tried using both a Fedora and Linux Mint Cd, and neither one could start. I just tried using a Gparted Cd, same thing. I get a splash screen saying which OS I'm trying to get, but as soon as it tries to do init, or set up vmlinuz (I'm guessing here, as all I see is several rows of 'dots,') and then my computer just goes back to another boot sequence. This happens over and over, no matter which oS I'm trying to load. Fedora did show "uncompression error, system halted."

This computer/motherboard combo has always been kind of 'strange,' as i have never been able to get it to boot without having to press #F1 before it would boot. Additionally, I have to reset the date after every boot as the bios falls back to 2003 as it's default. So whatever happened, it happened on what was already sort of an odd ball system.

Gregory Land · 2012-01-02 01:07:33

This computer/motherboard combo has always been kind of 'strange,' as i have never been able to get it to boot without having to press #F1 before it would boot. Additionally, I have to reset the date after every boot as the bios falls back to 2003 as it's default. So whatever happened, it happened on what was already sort of an odd ball system.

1) Probably will not help with your booting problem and you have probably already tried this but it sounds to me like a bad cmos battery. If the cmos battery goes dead or falls out of the system or was never installed for some crazy reason you would have a problem like that. If you haven't checked that already you may want to check out this link http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000239.htm. I personally would replace that first and then try the live distros again and see if they will start. i wouldn't think that would cause them to fail to start but worst case you just fix the F1 to boot problem.

2) It sounds like you nuked your kernel image when the system crashed btw. i ran into the same problem when i did a kernel update on an older system of mine the other day. i used this post to fix it. http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=132073. Now this does require you to be able to chroot to fix though. So thats a bit of a problem.

pottzie · 2012-01-02 04:37:03

You're right about the nuked kernel. I tried swapping the cmos battery several months ago, without anything changing after I did it.

As to the system meltdown...after letting the unit sit awhile and cool down (and taking the opportunity to blow the box out with an air compressor), I still couldn't get any live CD to work. But oddly enough, Arch's live cd had no problem! I don't know why, but as it was the only game in town, so to speak, I just went with a fresh install. So, it's solved, and I'll mark it that way.
Sort of like curing acne with a blowtorch, but it worked.

Arch Linux

#1 2012-01-01 19:07:45

[solved] System crashed during kernel upgrade.

#2 2012-01-01 19:37:03

Re: [solved] System crashed during kernel upgrade.

#3 2012-01-01 22:38:53

Re: [solved] System crashed during kernel upgrade.

#4 2012-01-02 01:07:33

Re: [solved] System crashed during kernel upgrade.

#5 2012-01-02 04:37:03

Re: [solved] System crashed during kernel upgrade.

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