Arch Linux

whyte

Member

Registered: 2006-04-15

Posts: 10

lilo driving me insane. -Value expected for 'initrd'-?

Hi, I'm fairly new to arch but have managed to get the whole system installed with everything i need. All was well until I updated with "pacman -Syu" and rebooted. I got something like this:

Kernel Pacnic: VFS unable to mount blah blah : please append a correct "root=" option

And since then I have been booting into a knoppix cd to try and sort it out. I have been mounting all the filesystems and configuring lilo using this guide:

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Res … oot_loader

And this is my lilo.conf:

#
# /etc/lilo.conf
#

boot=/dev/sda
# This line often fixes L40 errors on bootup
# disk=/dev/hda bios=0x80

default=arch
timeout=50
lba32
prompt

image=/boot/vmlinuz26
        label=arch
        initrd=/boot/initrd26.img
        root=/dev/sda3
    read-only

image=/boot/vmlinuz26
        label=arch-fallback
        root=/dev/sda3
        initrd=/boot/initrd26-full.img
        read-only

When I run /sbin/lilo I get this error message:

Value expected for 'initrd' at or above line 10 in file '/etc/lilo.conf

I have searched all around the net but i can't find anything out. I have been unable to log into arch for 3 days, i'm going a bit crazy. Someone please help me out!

EDIT - I somehow got lilo to install. But now I get this:

 mounting /dev/root on /new_root failed 
 pivot_root: no such file or directory 
 

And then I get left at a busy box prompt. I have tried this:

mkinitrd full --show
Checking Input...
    Building full initrd for Arch standard kernel
      (includes all possible modules)
Setting up Parameters...
    /lib/modules/2.6.16-ARCH found
Creating Initial RAM Disk...
ide-core
aec62xx
alim15x3
amd74xx
atiixp
cmd64x
cs5530
cy82c693
generic
hpt34x
hpt366
it821x
ns87415
pdc202xx_new
pdc202xx_old
piix
rz1000
sc1200
serverworks
siimage
sis5513
slc90e66
triflex
trm290
via82cxxx
ide-disk
cdrom
ide-cd
ide-floppy
sd_mod
qla1280
scsi_transport_sas
lpfc
ultrastor
dmx3191d
sg
st
qlogicfas408
qlogicfas
eata
qlogicfc
sr_mod
BusLogic
pas16
wd7000
a100u2w
3w-9xxx
sym53c416
dc395x
tmscsim
g_NCR5380_mmio
fdomain
u14-34f
dtc
gdth
initio
in2000
3w-xxxx
parport
imm
ipr
ips
aacraid
nsp32
t128
raid_class
libata
pdc_adma
ahci
aic7xxx
aic79xx
aha1542
aha152x
atp870u
sym53c8xx
megaraid
g_NCR5380
osst
NCR53c406a
ata_piix
megaraid_mm
megaraid_sas
megaraid_mbox
dpt_i2o
mptbase
mptscsih
mptctl
mptsas
mptspi
mptfc
cpqarray
sx8
cciss
DAC960
sata_sil
sata_sis
sata_sx4
sata_svw
sata_uli
sata_via
sata_vsc
sata_mv
sata_nv
sata_sil24
sata_promise
sata_qstor
md-mod
multipath
raid0
raid1
xor
raid5
raid6
raid10
linear
aes-i586
dm-mod
dm-mirror
dm-multipath
dm-emc
dm-zero
dm-round-robin
dm-crypt
dm-snapshot
usbcore
ehci-hcd
ohci-hcd
uhci-hcd
usb-storage
usbhid
ieee1394
ohci1394
sbp2
jbd
ext3
jfs
reiserfs
xfs

But I get the same result every time.  :cry:

rayjgu3

Member

From: Chicago IL usa

Registered: 2004-07-04

Posts: 695

Re: lilo driving me insane. -Value expected for 'initrd'-?

whyte wrote

 mounting /dev/root on /new_root failed
 pivot_root: no such file or directory

id be looking at /etcfstab
unless you made up some udev rule  ill bet you dont have a /dev/root

give grub a try see if it will work
boot it up a few times then try reinstaling lilo see if you get same error?

whyte

Member

Registered: 2006-04-15

Posts: 10

Re: lilo driving me insane. -Value expected for 'initrd'-?

I can't get grub to install unfortunately. I have reinstalled and reconfigured lilo a few times to no avail. You are right, I don't have a /dev/root in my /etc/fstab.

#
# /etc/fstab: static file system information
#
# <file>        <dir>         <type>    <options>          <dump> <pass>
usbfs                  /proc/bus/usb usbfs     defaults            0      0
none                   /dev/pts      devpts    defaults            0      0
none                   /dev/shm      tmpfs     defaults            0      0

/dev/cdrom             /mnt/cd   iso9660   ro,user,noauto,unhide   0      0
/dev/dvd               /mnt/dvd  udf       ro,user,noauto,unhide   0      0
/dev/fd0               /mnt/fl   vfat      user,noauto             0      0

/dev/sda3 / ext3 defaults 0 1
/dev/sda1 /boot ext2 defaults 0 1
/dev/sda2 swap swap defaults 0 0

I have absolutely no idea what to do. Would installing a different kernel help at all?

whyte

Member

Registered: 2006-04-15

Posts: 10

Re: lilo driving me insane. -Value expected for 'initrd'-?

Thanks hinterface, but still no luck. If I change to root=/dev/sda1 I just get this again:

Kernel Pacnic: VFS unable to mount blah blah : please append a correct "root=" option

With root=/dev/sda3 it goes right through boot and loads all that initrd stuff, then craps out with this:

 mounting /dev/root on /new_root failed 
 pivot_root: no such file or directory 

(and a "busybox" prompt)

I'm starting to think I wont be able to get this sorted. Is there anything else I can try? I have been all over the wiki and searching the forums for days and nothing has worked.

skeeter

Member

From: Morristown TN

Registered: 2003-02-01

Posts: 77

Re: lilo driving me insane. -Value expected for 'initrd'-?

Could it possibly be that you need the "root=/dev/sdxx" statement before the "initrd=xxx" statement?  I know when I had to redo my system I cheated by not letting Arch auto setup my HDD and chose to go w/only a "/" and "swap" and that eliminated my problems. Let us know if you find the "cure". I'd be interested to know your solution. Good Luck!

---

Skeeter

Rule #1:  There are NO RULES!

whyte

Member

Registered: 2006-04-15

Posts: 10

Re: lilo driving me insane. -Value expected for 'initrd'-?

I tried every suggestion in this thread, in other threads and the wiki and nothing worked. I gave in and decided to install sourcemage from scratch and guess what? It didn't boot in almost the same manner (it just hung at detecting sata drives this time).

I did find a solution though - the option "acpi=off" lets me boot sourcemage and I'm guessing that was the problem with Arch. If only I could go back in time and try it...... (i really wish i had).

Thanks for the suggestions though people!

rayjgu3

Member

From: Chicago IL usa

Registered: 2004-07-04

Posts: 695

Re: lilo driving me insane. -Value expected for 'initrd'-?

you still can
just make a small partiton a base install is only like under 1gb
just to try it or if you have the space make like a 5 gb partition load it up
& multiboot
just a thought

whyte

Member

Registered: 2006-04-15

Posts: 10

Re: lilo driving me insane. -Value expected for 'initrd'-?

Source Mage was ok but a royal pain in the arse to update and configure, so I whipped out the archlinux install cd and did an FTP install. I used grub as a bootloader and put the "acpi=off" option in the config file. Now it boots without a hitch.