Arch Linux

jef

Member

Registered: 2006-01-26

Posts: 18

mkinitcpio problem

I just upgraded arch with pacman -Syu and now I get a kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0). I am using a sata drive and my filesystem is reiserfs on both boot and root partitions. Is there some way of easily fixing this problem? I read a bug post that you have to add modules="libata sata_sil reiserfs" to mkinitcpio-kernel26.conf file and rebuild the image. How do I rebuild the image? I am able to boot from an arch cd and mount the filesystem but I don't really know what to do now. Thanks.

tpowa

Developer

From: Lauingen , Germany

Registered: 2004-04-05

Posts: 2,328

Re: mkinitcpio problem

mkinitcpio-kernel26.conf is for fallback image,
/etc/mkinitcpio.conf is for the normal image.
you know what hardware modules you need?
then add the correct order to MODULES= in /etc/mkinitcpio.conf and rebuild the image:
mkinitcpio -k 2.6.18-ARCH -g /boot/kernel26.img

jef

Member

Registered: 2006-01-26

Posts: 18

Re: mkinitcpio problem

How do I know which modules to add? I just added libata sata_sil reiserfs but that's just based on the post I mentioned previously.

Also, I am booting from a 0.7.2 arch installation CD. I have mounted my root partition on /mnt/root and my boot partion on /mnt/boot. I tried the following command from the /mnt/root/etc directory:

/mnt/root/sbin/mkinitcpio -k 2.6.18-ARCH -g /mnt/boot/kernel26.img

I get the message:

mktemp: not found
Syntax error: Bad substitution

Thanks in advance for your patience.

tpowa

Developer

From: Lauingen , Germany

Registered: 2004-04-05

Posts: 2,328

Re: mkinitcpio problem

what do you pass to the kernel? please post your grub/lilo setup here
do you have 2 disk controllers?
what do you have in /etc/mkinitcpio.conf ?

jef

Member

Registered: 2006-01-26

Posts: 18

Re: mkinitcpio problem

what do you pass to the kernel? please post your grub/lilo setup here
do you have 2 disk controllers?
what do you have in /etc/mkinitcpio.conf ?

I believe I have one disk controller. Below are the essentials of my menu.lst and mkinitcpio.conf

menu.lst:
root (hd0,1)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda3 ro
initrd /initrd26.img

mkinitcpio.conf:
MODULES="libata sata_sil reiserfs"
BINARIES=""
FILES=""
HOOKS="base udev autodetect ide scsi sata filesystems"

gradgrind

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2005-10-06

Posts: 921

Re: mkinitcpio problem

in menu.lst you need

initrd /kernel26.img

initrd26.img is from the old initrd system (now deprecated), not from mkinitcpio.

---

larch: http://larch.berlios.de

Lone_Wolf

Administrator

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 13,074

Re: mkinitcpio problem

Guess you haven't read the output of pacman -Syu ...

Atm you are trying to boot the old initrd that is no longer supported.

in menu.lst change the initrd line and add a second entry for the fallback img :

This is part from my menu.lst

# (0) Arch Linux Mkinitcpio
title  Arch Linux
root   (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/hda2 vga=0x317 ro
initrd /boot/kernel26.img

# (1) AL fallback Mkinitcpio
title AL fallback
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/hda2 ro
initrd /boot/kernel26-fallback.img

--------------

kernel26.img and kernel26-fallback.img are updated when a new kernel is installed, so you should already have them.

---

Disliking systemd intensely, but not satisfied with alternatives so focusing on taming systemd.

clean chroot building not flexible enough ?
Try clean chroot manager by graysky

jef

Member

Registered: 2006-01-26

Posts: 18

Re: mkinitcpio problem

Ahhh, I see! Boots up perfectly now! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

phrakture

Arch Overlord

From: behind you

Registered: 2003-10-29

Posts: 7,879

Website

Re: mkinitcpio problem

I get the message:

mktemp: not found
Syntax error: Bad substitution

Good to know, I must have missed that one - looks like mkinitcpio needs to depend on mktemp.

---

http://phraktured.net

jef

Member

Registered: 2006-01-26

Posts: 18

Re: mkinitcpio problem

So, I just updated my laptop and the same thing happened, only this time I changed the line in my grub file to

initrd /kernel26.img

Any ideas what could be causing this? I upgraded another machine with no problem and the only change I had to make was to my grub menu.lst file but the laptop is giving a kernel panic just like the first machine I upgraded was doing before I changed the grub file. Thanks again.

Jef

jef

Member

Registered: 2006-01-26

Posts: 18

Re: mkinitcpio problem

Here is the exact error message I get when I try to boot:

No filesystem could mount root, tried:
Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0)

tpowa

Developer

From: Lauingen , Germany

Registered: 2004-04-05

Posts: 2,328

Re: mkinitcpio problem

to solve such issues please post more information, we all know when vfs cannot be mounted it ends in a kernel panic, we need the output above to see where stuff fails.

vacant

Member

From: downstairs

Registered: 2004-11-05

Posts: 816

Re: mkinitcpio problem

I suppose this laptop boots with kernel26-fallback.img?

If so, you can follow what I did:

mkinitcpio  -M
Modules autodetected:
cdrom
ide-cd
ide-core
ide-disk
generic
via82cxxx
via-ircc
mii
via-rhine
usbcore
ehci-hcd
uhci-hcd
usbhid
irda
ext2
reiserfs

So since I don't boot from usb or network etc, I edited the following into /etc/mkinitcpio.conf

MODULES="ide-core ide-disk generic via82cxxx reiserfs"

which means I just have

HOOKS="base udev"

then

mkinitcpio -g /boot/kernel26.img

gives me a small ram image to boot with.