Arch Linux

MickeyRat

Member

Registered: 2011-11-15

Posts: 153

[SOLVED] Boot not finding the root device

This is an old Acer Revo with an atom processor, 4GB RAM and BIOS boot with syslinux   After an update last night, it's not finding the root device (/dev/sda1).  It waits 10 seconds for /dev/sda1 and doesn't find it then drops into the emergency shell.

The partition is there and I've run fsck on it from a system rescue disk.  No problems there.

Using an arch install disk, I used arch-chroot to get into the system.  That all worked.  I ran another pacman -Syu, did a syslinux -i -a -m and mkinitcpio -P.  The /boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg looked okay but, it didn't fix the problem.

From the emergency shell I took a look at dmesg.  There is an error there.

Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=../vmlimuz-linux root=/dev/sda1 rw initrd=../intel-ucode.img,../initramfs-linux.img
Unknown command line parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=../vmlinuz-linux

I'm no expert on the kernel command line but, I don't see why that parameer would be a problem.  I also see the timeouts on the SATA link.

qc timeout (cmd 0xec)
failed to IDENTIFY (I/O error, err mask=0x04)

Those errors occur for 3.0 Gbps, and 1.5 Gbps.

I do keep 3 versions of everything that gets updated so I can revert things if I have to.  I can also do a reinstall but, I'd really prefer to fix it.  I just don't know what else to try,

Last edited by MickeyRat (2021-11-14 18:20:12)

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Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.
- Oscar Wilde

froli

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2008-06-17

Posts: 455

Re: [SOLVED] Boot not finding the root device

Instead of using the path /dev/sda1 try with the UUID of your root partition instead. You can find the UUID by running blkid as root.

Then, in your bootloader config, replace the root=/dev/sda1 by root="UUID=your-UUID"

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archlinux on Macbook Pro 10,1

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,206

Re: [SOLVED] Boot not finding the root device

Why are you using .. ? Normally this is from the view of your ESP assuming  an UEFI boot so your paths should be /vmlinuz-linux ,or maybe not, post that syslinux.cfg. Also in general /dev/sdX are unstable identifiers: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Persis … ice_naming

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: The Wirral

Registered: 2014-02-20

Posts: 9,003

Website

Re: [SOLVED] Boot not finding the root device

Why are you using .. ?

That does appear to be the correct syntax: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Syslinux#Configuration

assuming  an UEFI boot

The OP is using a non-UEFI system.

@OP: do these commands show the same kernel version?

file /boot/vmlinuz-linux
lsinitcpio -a /boot/initramfs-linux.img

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Jin, Jîyan, Azadî

ua4000

Member

Registered: 2015-10-14

Posts: 558

Re: [SOLVED] Boot not finding the root device

you have linux kernel     5.15.2, and hardware is maybe  NVIDIA ION ?
then you have this bug: Broken AHCI on NVIDIA ION (MCP79) https://www.spinics.net/lists/linux-pci/msg114668.html

workaround: pick an 5.14 kernel, or linux-lte, and wait until the bug is fixed.

MickeyRat

Member

Registered: 2011-11-15

Posts: 153

Re: [SOLVED] Boot not finding the root device

@ua4000 had the right answer.  I did have kernel version 5.15.2.  I downgraded the kernel to 5.14.16  and it's working now.  Thanks to all that replied.  Marking thread as solved.

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Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.
- Oscar Wilde