new mkinitcpio problem

jef · 2006-09-30 09:21:32

I just updated my laptop with pacman -Syu and I'm getting a kernel panic when I try to boot. The same thing happened when I upgraded another machine, but changing the initrd line in my grub/menu.lst file fixed the problem. However, even after changing my initrd line to read as follows, I am still not able to boot:

initrd /kernel26.img

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)

Any ideas what might be causing the problem? I have no idea how to troubleshoot this problem. Thanks very much.

Jef

wam · 2006-09-30 09:38:38

see http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?t=25524

jef · 2006-09-30 10:49:01

OK, this is strange. When I boot into grub and press e, I see the following:

root (hd0,1)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/hda3 ro
initrd /initrd26.img

If I edit the third line to read:

initrd /kernel26.img

it boots fine.

However, when I look at /boot/grub/menu.lst it reads:

root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/hda3 ro
initrd /kernel26.img

What's going on here? Why the discrepency between what's in my menu.lst file and what I see on the screen when I boot into grub? Thanks.

tpowa · 2006-09-30 11:04:55

come on, with e on boot you change it for boot time, with editing menu.lst after boot it's for all time.

jef · 2006-09-30 11:48:58

I edited the file /boot/grub/menu.lst so that it reads:

root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/hda3 ro
initrd /kernel26.img

Then when I boot into grub and press e, the menu reads

root (hd0,1)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/hda3 ro
initrd /initrd26.img

Shouldn't the menu that gets displayed when I press 'e' at boot-time reflect what is in the menu.lst file? Isn't it showing the default boot options? It seems that changing the menu.lst file has no affect on what gets displayed at boot-time which seems odd to me.

tpowa · 2006-09-30 11:50:02

could it be that you have 2 disks in the pc and you installed grub 2 times?

jef · 2006-09-30 12:07:24

There is only a single disk in the laptop. But it's possible that I could have installed grub twice because I had to do some crazy stuff to get arch to install because my cd drive is not internal. I had to boot from a live cd and install arch "manually" over the Internet. I searched the drive for menu.lst to see if there were multiple copies but there is only one.

Thalassinus · 2006-10-03 20:30:04

I have one problem, please excuse me if my question is stupid.
Today in then afternoon I did pacman -Syu and system was updated. I also read pacman's outpud and some topics on this forum about upgrading issues, but I can't boot anyway.
My previous menu.lst:

title Arch Linux
root (hd0,3)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/hda3
initrd /boot/initrd26.img

My current menu.lst:

title Arch Linux
root (hd0,3)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/hda3
initrd /boot/kernel26.img

Problem is because kernel26.img, because I don't have it in my /boot folder. In my /boot folder are: initrd26.img, initrd26-full.img and nothing like kernel*.img.

Lone_Wolf · 2006-10-04 08:06:17

1. you may have a typo in the kernel line, it should be root=/dev/hda3

2. If you don't have kernel * .img files in /boot then something went wrong with the update.
try re-installing kernel26 with pacman, this should run mkinitcpio and create the images.

Thalassinus · 2006-10-04 12:40:12

I have root=/dev/hda3, but in my previous post I a made spelling mistake.
How to reinstall kernel26 with pacman if I can't boot my Arch? :oops:

Sigi · 2006-10-04 13:14:25

Take the ArchLinux install cd (or a LiveCD like archie), mount your hd, chroot into the /-dir of it and run

pacman -U /var/cache/pacman/pkg/kernel26*.tar.gz

There has to be a cached version of the kernel to do that, of course. Otherwise you have to download a kernel first.

Thalassinus · 2006-10-04 14:11:34

Sigi wrote:

There has to be a cached version of the kernel to do that, of course. Otherwise you have to download a kernel first.

How to cache kernel version? Sorry because I ask such noob questions, but I'm not familiar with kernel stuff.

Snowman · 2006-10-04 19:21:15

Thalassinus wrote:

Sigi wrote:
There has to be a cached version of the kernel to do that, of course. Otherwise you have to download a kernel first.
How to cache kernel version? Sorry because I ask such noob questions, but I'm not familiar with kernel stuff.

Sigi is talking about the package cache (/var/cache/pacman/pkg/). If you haven't cleaned the cache, you still have an old kernel package.

To boot your system, press

at the boot prompt. grub will let you edit your menu.lst. Change the:
initrd /kernel26.img
to:
initrd /initrd26.img
You should be able to boot with the old initrd image. Once your system is booted, run 'pacman -Syu' and make sure that everything is OK before rebooting (i.e. you have kernel 2.6.18 installed, initcpio image is present in /boot, menu.lst is OK)

Thalassinus · 2006-10-04 20:26:55

Thanks guys for your help. Finally I have solved my problem
First I booted my Arch with installation cd's kernel, then I did pacman -Syuf and then was everything allright.

Arch Linux

#1 2006-09-30 09:21:32

new mkinitcpio problem

#2 2006-09-30 09:38:38

Re: new mkinitcpio problem

#3 2006-09-30 10:49:01

Re: new mkinitcpio problem

#4 2006-09-30 11:04:55

Re: new mkinitcpio problem

#5 2006-09-30 11:48:58

Re: new mkinitcpio problem

#6 2006-09-30 11:50:02

Re: new mkinitcpio problem

#7 2006-09-30 12:07:24

Re: new mkinitcpio problem

#8 2006-10-03 20:30:04

Re: new mkinitcpio problem

#9 2006-10-04 08:06:17

Re: new mkinitcpio problem

#10 2006-10-04 12:40:12

Re: new mkinitcpio problem

#11 2006-10-04 13:14:25

Re: new mkinitcpio problem

#12 2006-10-04 14:11:34

Re: new mkinitcpio problem

#13 2006-10-04 19:21:15

Re: new mkinitcpio problem

#14 2006-10-04 20:26:55

Re: new mkinitcpio problem

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