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Plaxon

Member

Registered: 2025-01-14

Posts: 12

Unable to mount root partition when booting on zen kernel

Hello everyone,

I've come to see you because I've been having this problem since this morning and I can't find any solution. I've installed the linux-zen kernel but unfortunately when I try to boot on it for some unknown reason it can't find the partition. The UUID is correct and when I boot on the “normal” kernel it works fine, but it looks for the root partition in the same place, the uuid being the same.

I don't know if this has anything to do with it, but yesterday I also wanted to put labels on my fstab after installing the zen kernel. But for some unknown reason, when using labels, it couldn't see the home and efi partitions, so I had to switch back to a classic fstab with uuids.

I'll post some pictures of the command output, and thank you all in advance.

The error message in question : https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/ … a5a8cce04&
The contents of fstab : https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/ … 251bd0e68&
The contents of refind.conf : https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/ … c5cea7230&
The output of blkid: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/ … 650ab465e&
The output of ls /boot : https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/ … 62e255527&

mackin_cheese

Member

Registered: 2025-01-07

Posts: 477

Re: Unable to mount root partition when booting on zen kernel

Did you install the linux zen headers as well?

Plaxon

Member

Registered: 2025-01-14

Posts: 12

Re: Unable to mount root partition when booting on zen kernel

I was convinced that it was and I was right to check because it wasn't the case it's a bit silly of me ...
Now they're installed, https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/ … 4af7a39aa&

but alas the problem doesn't come from there because I always get the same message when I boot linux-zen

loqs

Member

Registered: 2014-03-06

Posts: 18,868

Re: Unable to mount root partition when booting on zen kernel

warning: /lib/modules/6.12.10-zen1-1-zen/modules.devname not found - ignoring

Indicates the running kernel does not match the initrd. What is the output of `uname -a` from the emergency shell?

Plaxon

Member

Registered: 2025-01-14

Posts: 12

Re: Unable to mount root partition when booting on zen kernel

Unfortunately, when I'm in this emergency shell, I can't access the keyboard, which simply won't respond.

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 13,724

Re: Unable to mount root partition when booting on zen kernel

This is because you're loading the wrong initramfs, refind is notorious for this. Your config is almost certainly invalid, so you're likely loading the autodetected entry leading to this.

On your menu entry, you give the volume which appears to be vfat, but then you're saying the kernel and initramfs are in /boot *on that volume*? Not where you mount things, but on that volume? No.

Plaxon

Member

Registered: 2025-01-14

Posts: 12

Re: Unable to mount root partition when booting on zen kernel

Indeed I uncommented in refind.conf the value scan_all_linux_kernels I passed to true thinking that it could only help me ... Maybe it had the opposite effect ...?

I'm sorry, I'm using a translator to talk to you and I didn't understand the question ... I can help you answer it by providing you with the output of some command though ...

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 13,724

Re: Unable to mount root partition when booting on zen kernel

There is no question that needs to be answered. Fix the paths in your config and it should work.

Plaxon

Member

Registered: 2025-01-14

Posts: 12

Re: Unable to mount root partition when booting on zen kernel

Okay, my mistake.

I don't mind correcting the paths, but they all seem to be right. I've checked and checked, but I can't see where the error is: the path to initramfs is the right one, and so is the name of the file.

I know there must be something I'm not seeing, but I don't know what it is

Here's a view of the two files: refind.conf and, next to it, the folder where initramfs is located (in /boot). Everything looks fine, but I can't figure out what to fix https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/ … 08bb3706b&

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 13,724

Re: Unable to mount root partition when booting on zen kernel

What you're not understanding is how filesystems work and mounting works. You're accessing the volume 3307-CE60. Now on that volume, where is the kernel and initramfs? Not how are you accessing it when mounted somewhere, but where is it on that volume?

Plaxon

Member

Registered: 2025-01-14

Posts: 12

Re: Unable to mount root partition when booting on zen kernel

I think I'm confusing myself with this problem. I think you've already given me the answer, now I just need to take the time to understand things.

I'm going to take a little break and try to reread your answers with a clear head. Come back to you soon.

Last edited by Plaxon (2025-01-20 17:02:46)

Plaxon

Member

Registered: 2025-01-14

Posts: 12

Re: Unable to mount root partition when booting on zen kernel

I must be confusing where the files are mounted and where they are located on the disks. Since I'm confusing the two, it's hard to answer your question with any certainty.

Right now I'd like to say that the files we're looking for that are in volume 3307-CE60 are in /boot, so I've redone the capture to be sure of what we're talking about. https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/ … 4cb6ecd6b&    https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/ … 6f7509676&

If this answer isn't correct, then for me the files are located on the disk in /dev/nvme0n1p2, but in editing this message I realize that I'm confusing all these things.

Last edited by Plaxon (2025-01-20 17:56:17)

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 13,724

Re: Unable to mount root partition when booting on zen kernel

Right now I'd like to say that the files we're looking for that are in volume 3307-CE60 are in /boot

This is where you're getting confused. You're mounting the partition to /boot, the files are not at /boot. If you mounted the partition to /mnt/Plaxon/randomstuff/, you'd access the files there instead. That doesn't mean the files are there, that's simply where you're plugging them into the filesystem for access.

Let's make this a little more concrete. If the kernel was at /boot/vmlinuz-linux-zen on 3307-CE60, then mounting it to /boot would result in /boot/boot/vmlinuz-linux-zen. Mounting it to /mnt/Plaxon/randomstuff/ would result in /mnt/Plaxon/randomstuff/boot/vmlinuz-linux-zen. This isn't where things are, they are on the root of that partition.

Last edited by Scimmia (2025-01-20 18:05:32)

Plaxon

Member

Registered: 2025-01-14

Posts: 12

Re: Unable to mount root partition when booting on zen kernel

The person I'm teaming up with to find out more about this problem has found the solution: he saw in the refind documentation that you had to uncomment extra_kernel_version_strings, he added linux-zen and it worked, but only partly.

You've put your finger on the gaps we've got and I'd like to understand what you're trying to get me to understand so that we can make progress, because clearly we seem to have installed the files in different places, which is creating problems.

Thank you for your patience and your explanations. Understanding all this will enable us to make progress!

We seem to have installed the initramfs etc. files in /boot (which is at the root).
But they're also installed in EFI/BOOT, which I think (it's just a hypothesis on my part) work because they're in the partitions indicated from the start in refind.conf.

These two images show that there is clearly some confusion: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/ … 10531ea58&   https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/ … 39d87f49c&

One of the two partitions, the one on EFI, runs linux-zen.
The one we've been talking about since the beginning, which seems to be on /boot, is not.

I've understood that there were shortcomings on our part, now we need to clearly identify which ones, because even with your explanations, having installed the same things twice has confused us more than anything else.

And finally, we need to find out why extra_kernel_version_strings seems to have partially solved the problem.