Unable to find root device - after updating

Pluribootent · 2012-02-07 20:46:12

Hi.

Im running arch on a small eeepc. After the update I cant boot. I dont know what happened.

It says:

Booting the kernel.
:: Starting udevd...
done.
:: Running Hook [udev]
:: Triggering uevents...done.
Waiting 10 seconds for device /dev/sda1 ...
ERROR: Unable to find root device '/dev/sda1'.
You are being dropped to a recovery shell
       Type 'exit' to try and continue booting
sh: can't access tty: job control turned off
[rootfs /]#

I think this is a tricky one - any suggestions?

Thanks for any help in advance!

lifeafter2am · 2012-02-07 20:48:06

Whats your partition layout?

Pluribootent · 2012-02-07 21:06:01

/dev/sda1 is /
/dev/sdb2 is swap

I had UUIDs in my fstab and changed them to /dev/sda1 but it didnt help.
I guess I ruined my initramfs or smth?

pineapple-biku · 2012-02-17 11:03:45

I had this problem, through a few other forum posts and some wiki articles I was able to solve it this way:

I booted into an arch installation CD and mounted my root partition under /mnt/arch.

I then used the wiki page on change root and ran the following commands:

cd /mnt/arch
mount -t proc proc proc/
mount -t sysfs sys sys/
mount -o bind /dev dev/

Now, my /boot is NOT a separate partition. If yours is a separate partition I believe you must mount that separately.

I then issued the chroot command and configured my network:

chroot . /bin/bash
dhcpcd eth0

I'm not sure if all of these commands are required, but I didn't feel like continuously rebooting/chrooting, so I did them all at once and it fixed the issue we both were having:

pacman -Syy
pacman -Syu
pacman -S udev
pacman -S mkinitcpio
mkinitcpio -p linux
reboot

Remove the CD or USB drive and ta-da! Now, I'll be honest and admit that I don't fully understand this fix, but I hope it helps. Some of the posts also suggested doing a "pacman -S linux", however that was not necessary for me.

jny · 2012-02-17 11:18:57

Thank you pineapple-biku! This worked for me (on Parabola)!

Lowra · 2012-02-17 11:50:39

Since the last linux upgrade, I'm experiencing exactly the same issue, but pineapple-biku's instructions are not working in my case.

I use an SSD with GUID partition table, and my partition layout is:
/dev/sda1 => /boot
/dev/sda2 => /
/dev/sda3 => /home

Here's the output of what I had the last time I did pacman -Syu, and just now, when I tried pineapple-biku's instructions:

[root@ubuntu /]# pacman -S mkinitcpio
warning: mkinitcpio-0.8.2-2 is up to date -- reinstalling
resolving dependencies...
looking for inter-conflicts...

Targets (1): mkinitcpio-0.8.2-2

Total Installed Size:   0.13 MiB
Net Upgrade Size:       0.00 MiB

Proceed with installation? [Y/n] y
(1/1) checking package integrity                                                 [##############################################] 100%
(1/1) loading package files                                                      [##############################################] 100%
(1/1) checking for file conflicts                                                [##############################################] 100%
warning: could not get filesystem information for /cdrom: No such file or directory
warning: could not get filesystem information for /rofs: No such file or directory
warning: could not get filesystem information for /cow: No such file or directory
warning: could not get filesystem information for /run/lock: No such file or directory
warning: could not get filesystem information for /run/shm: No such file or directory
warning: could not get filesystem information for /home/ubuntu/.gvfs: No such file or directory
warning: could not get filesystem information for /media/35EE-1E0E: No such file or directory
(1/1) checking available disk space                                              [##############################################] 100%
(1/1) upgrading mkinitcpio                                                       [##############################################] 100%

[root@ubuntu /]# mkinitcpio -p linux
==> Building image from preset: 'default'
  -> -k /boot/vmlinuz-linux -c /etc/mkinitcpio.conf -g /boot/initramfs-linux.img
==> Starting build: 3.2.6-2-ARCH
  -> Parsing hook: [base]
  -> Parsing hook: [udev]
  -> Parsing hook: [autodetect]
libkmod: index_mm_open: open(/lib/modules/3.2.6-2-ARCH/modules.dep.bin, O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC): No such file or directory
  -> Parsing hook: [pata]
  -> Parsing hook: [scsi]
  -> Parsing hook: [sata]
  -> Parsing hook: [filesystems]
  -> Parsing hook: [usbinput]
==> WARNING: No modules were added to the image. This is probably not what you want.
==> Creating gzip initcpio image: /boot/initramfs-linux.img
==> Image generation successful
==> Building image from preset: 'fallback'
  -> -k /boot/vmlinuz-linux -c /etc/mkinitcpio.conf -g /boot/initramfs-linux-fallback.img -S autodetect
==> Starting build: 3.2.6-2-ARCH
  -> Parsing hook: [base]
  -> Parsing hook: [udev]
  -> Parsing hook: [pata]
==> ERROR: module not found: `pata_cypress'
==> ERROR: module not found: `pata_cs5536'
==> ERROR: module not found: `pata_atiixp'
==> ERROR: module not found: `pata_hpt3x3'
==> ERROR: module not found: `pata_triflex'
==> ERROR: module not found: `pata_ns87410'
==> ERROR: module not found: `pata_pcmcia'
==> ERROR: module not found: `pata_it821x'
==> ERROR: module not found: `pata_sl82c105'
==> ERROR: module not found: `pata_efar'
==> ERROR: module not found: `pata_sc1200'
==> ERROR: module not found: `pata_sis'
==> ERROR: module not found: `pata_rz1000'
==> ERROR: module not found: `pata_ali'
==> ERROR: module not found: `pata_hpt366'
==> ERROR: module not found: `pata_artop'
==> ERROR: module not found: `pata_ns87415'
==> ERROR: module not found: `pata_amd'
==> ERROR: module not found: `pata_arasan_cf'
==> ERROR: module not found: `pata_ninja32'
==> ERROR: module not found: `pata_legacy'
==> ERROR: module not found: `pata_jmicron'
==> ERROR: module not found: `pata_hpt37x'
==> ERROR: module not found: `pata_cs5520'
==> ERROR: module not found: `pata_via'
==> ERROR: module not found: `pata_cmd64x'
==> ERROR: module not found: `pata_rdc'
==> ERROR: module not found: `pata_acpi'
==> ERROR: module not found: `pata_radisys'
==> ERROR: module not found: `pata_pdc202xx_old'
==> ERROR: module not found: `pata_opti'
==> ERROR: module not found: `pata_marvell'
==> ERROR: module not found: `pata_atp867x'
==> ERROR: module not found: `pata_sil680'
==> ERROR: module not found: `pata_mpiix'
==> ERROR: module not found: `pata_hpt3x2n'
==> ERROR: module not found: `pata_netcell'
==> ERROR: module not found: `pata_cs5530'
==> ERROR: module not found: `pata_cmd640'
==> ERROR: module not found: `pata_sch'
==> ERROR: module not found: `pata_oldpiix'
==> ERROR: module not found: `pata_optidma'
==> ERROR: module not found: `pata_pdc2027x'
==> ERROR: module not found: `pata_piccolo'
==> ERROR: module not found: `pata_it8213'
==> ERROR: module not found: `pata_serverworks'
==> ERROR: module not found: `ata_generic'
==> ERROR: module not found: `ata_piix'
  -> Parsing hook: [scsi]
  -> Parsing hook: [sata]
  -> Parsing hook: [filesystems]
  -> Parsing hook: [usbinput]
==> WARNING: No modules were added to the image. This is probably not what you want.
==> Creating gzip initcpio image: /boot/initramfs-linux-fallback.img
==> WARNING: errors were encountered during the build. The image may not be complete.
==> Image generation successful

Hoping I could fix this ASAP, thanks

Update: Fallback isn't working either, as I expected, and I can't downgrade since I ran pacman -Scc a few days ago to gain some valuable space.
Update 2: Installed linux-lts through chroot, added the correct entries on my syslinux.cfg, it boots fine on lts kernel. It's a working temporary solution, but it's better than nothing

Last edited by Lowra (2012-02-17 13:45:04)

woah · 2012-02-17 17:35:32

thanks pineapple-biku, this also worked for me.

not sure why this is happening to everyone with the latest updates

Roken · 2012-02-18 00:41:51

Another "Thank You". I had the same issue tonight, and was ready to restore a backup then try to figure out what updates to avoid. I'd already chrooted to check my boot confirguration, and trid various live permutations at teh grub (or in my case burg) prompt, but this solution fixed it.

As a slight clarification, I have a separate boot partition. Part of the mounting process in such a scenario MUST include mount /dev/whatever /boot after chrooting to your Arch install and before pacman -S udev.

brozo · 2012-02-18 11:48:24

I had the same issue on my Virtualbox Arch installation. I am now afraid to upgrade my actual installation because of this. Does anyone know which package causes this problem and if it is getting fixed soon?

Roken · 2012-02-18 11:57:30

brozo wrote:

I had the same issue on my Virtualbox Arch installation. I am now afraid to upgrade my actual installation because of this. Does anyone know which package causes this problem and if it is getting fixed soon?

If you want to avoid the problem you should hold back on the kernel upgrade. That seems to be the root of the problem.

pablokal · 2012-02-18 14:04:00

sorry post on the wrong place

Last edited by pablokal (2012-02-18 14:04:59)

creation · 2012-02-20 19:08:58

Thanks pineapple-biku that sorted it out for me as well!

konos5 · 2012-02-23 16:21:11

Thanks a lot pineapple-biku!
Had the exact same problem and worked perfectly!

Roken · 2012-02-23 16:59:42

Just a quick update on this. After installing the ck kernel the problem re-appeared. To fix I only needed to chroot and mkinitcpio. Re-installation of udev and mkinitcpio doesn't seem necessary.

citral · 2012-02-24 00:03:55

For me it did not seem to help, just as in Lowra's case. I can second that linux-lts is a work-around.

I saw no mkinitcpio errors during recompiling. I use a LUKS and LVM setup.

I will stick to LTS for now.

Edit:
Concerning this regression, I can verify with downgrading,
linux-3.2.5-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz >> Works
linux-3.2.6-2-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz >> Fails

Last edited by citral (2012-02-24 00:19:19)

Jristz · 2012-02-24 00:16:04

you can try this:
using a non Luks, lvm, ext4, nilfs2,btrfs partition for rot

since in other forum an user haver this tipe of issue

and fix them using a ext3 partition instead of a ext4

falconindy · 2012-02-24 01:06:08

citral wrote:

For me it did not seem to help, just as in Lowra's case. I can second that linux-lts is a work-around.
I saw no mkinitcpio errors during recompiling. I use a LUKS and LVM setup.
I will stick to LTS for now.
Edit:
Concerning this regression, I can verify with downgrading,
linux-3.2.5-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz >> Works
linux-3.2.6-2-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz >> Fails

Feel free to post your pacman.log ....

Avant-texte · 2012-02-24 07:57:53

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=136221
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=1060681
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=135819
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=135339
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=135690
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=135020
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=135018
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=1062549
...etc...

There are a few variations, but is is pretty common. The solution tends to be straightforward.

foggy · 2012-04-03 11:59:17

I had the same problem and tried rebuilding my image several times (felt like at least 100 times).

Putting "usbinput" before "udev" in the hooks in /etc/mkinitcpio.conf was the solution in my case.
Thought I share it, because it does not seem straightforward for me.

Before the update, I had "usbinput" after "autodetect". Also, the error message showed zero indication, that usbinput is the hook that caused the problems, but instead complained about a missing "mount" command.

EDIT: Also, boot feels A LOT slower now... Anyone else experiencing this? Could be just my imagination though.

Last edited by foggy (2012-04-03 12:01:22)

foggy · 2012-04-03 13:11:02

Ok, what the hell is going on?

If I (re)generate the image without any changes to any config files from within my normal arch installation, boot will fail as described.
If I (re)generate the image without any changes to any config files from the live-cd chroot-environment, boot will succeed.

My previous statement about the usbinput-hook still holds true, however.

Any ideas? There are no errors on generating the image whatsoever.

foggy · 2012-04-03 16:14:44

I ran into https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/29162.

I removed /usr/lib/cw from my PATH before running mkinitcpio and things work flawlessly again.

albinou · 2012-04-08 09:42:52

I just run into the same problem. However, I had to edit /etc/mkinitcpio.conf and add the support for lvm2 :

HOOKS="base udev autodetect pata scsi sata lvm2 filesystems usbinput fsck"

The source of the problem may be with the hook autodetect. And maybe, this hook was correctly working with the older kernel of the live CD, hence the comment of foggy.

Hope this helps.

alphazo · 2012-04-08 13:24:43

I was about the upgrade and then saw this post which scared me. Do you think I'm going to run into any problem with the following configuration?

- /boot on ext2 partition
- LUKS Encrypted home and root on a LVM partition
- Independent encrypted swap
- I generally use ck kernel

/etc/mkinitcpio.conf

HOOKS="base udev autodetect pata scsi sata keymap encrypt lvm2 filesystems usbinput fsck"

/etc/fstab

/dev/mapper/vgroup-home /home ext4 defaults,nodiratime,noatime 0 1
/dev/mapper/vgroup-root / ext4 defaults,nodiratime,noatime 0 1
/dev/sda1 /boot ext2 defaults,nodiratime,noatime 0 1
/dev/mapper/enc-swap swap swap defaults 0 0

/boot/grub/menu.lst

title  Arch Linux-CK (Core2)
root   (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-linux-ck root=/dev/mapper/vgroup-root cryptdevice=/dev/sda3:vgroup ro pcie_aspm=force i915.i915_enable_rc6=1 elevator=bfq ipv6.disable=1
initrd /initramfs-linux-ck.img

Thanks
Alphazo

Last edited by alphazo (2012-04-08 13:26:53)

alphazo · 2012-04-08 14:14:00

All right folks... Everything went fine with both linux 3.3.1-1 and linux-ck-corex 3.3.1-2 and the LUKS/dm-crypt/LVM configuration described in the previous post.

The only harmless error I encountered was:

==> ERROR: file not found: `/usr/lib/modprobe.d/usb-load-ehci-first.conf'

when using the new mkinitcpio 0.8.6-2. Although it didn't prevent me to boot and use the PC.

[EDIT] Well my Atheros wireless card is not working. Bug is known. I'm reverting back to 3.2.14.

Last edited by alphazo (2012-04-09 20:02:09)

Offa · 2012-04-27 10:34:36

pineapple-biku wrote:

I had this problem, through a few other forum posts and some wiki articles I was able to solve it this way:
*SNIP*
I'm not sure if all of these commands are required, but I didn't feel like continuously rebooting/chrooting, so I did them all at once and it fixed the issue we both were having:
pacman -Syy
pacman -Syu
pacman -S udev
pacman -S mkinitcpio
mkinitcpio -p linux
reboot
Remove the CD or USB drive and ta-da! Now, I'll be honest and admit that I don't fully understand this fix, but I hope it helps. Some of the posts also suggested doing a "pacman -S linux", however that was not necessary for me.

Just to increase the general understanding of these issues:

The reason you did not need to do "pacman -S linux" is because you already did the important part of it: You did "mkinitcpio -p linux" to recreate the initrd file.

In general, always make sure mkinitcpio is updated before updating the kernel.

Last edited by Offa (2012-04-27 10:36:48)

Arch Linux

#1 2012-02-07 20:46:12

Unable to find root device - after updating

#2 2012-02-07 20:48:06

Re: Unable to find root device - after updating

#3 2012-02-07 21:06:01

Re: Unable to find root device - after updating

#4 2012-02-17 11:03:45

Re: Unable to find root device - after updating

#5 2012-02-17 11:18:57

Re: Unable to find root device - after updating

#6 2012-02-17 11:50:39

Re: Unable to find root device - after updating

#7 2012-02-17 17:35:32

Re: Unable to find root device - after updating

#8 2012-02-18 00:41:51

Re: Unable to find root device - after updating

#9 2012-02-18 11:48:24

Re: Unable to find root device - after updating

#10 2012-02-18 11:57:30

Re: Unable to find root device - after updating

#11 2012-02-18 14:04:00

Re: Unable to find root device - after updating

#12 2012-02-20 19:08:58

Re: Unable to find root device - after updating

#13 2012-02-23 16:21:11

Re: Unable to find root device - after updating

#14 2012-02-23 16:59:42

Re: Unable to find root device - after updating

#15 2012-02-24 00:03:55

Re: Unable to find root device - after updating

#16 2012-02-24 00:16:04

Re: Unable to find root device - after updating

#17 2012-02-24 01:06:08

Re: Unable to find root device - after updating

#18 2012-02-24 07:57:53

Re: Unable to find root device - after updating

#19 2012-04-03 11:59:17

Re: Unable to find root device - after updating

#20 2012-04-03 13:11:02

Re: Unable to find root device - after updating

#21 2012-04-03 16:14:44

Re: Unable to find root device - after updating

#22 2012-04-08 09:42:52

Re: Unable to find root device - after updating

#23 2012-04-08 13:24:43

Re: Unable to find root device - after updating

#24 2012-04-08 14:14:00

Re: Unable to find root device - after updating

#25 2012-04-27 10:34:36

Re: Unable to find root device - after updating

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