Arch won't boot, FS not detected, Kernel Panic.

jacko · 2008-04-15 19:48:58

Ok so here is the situation. I have arch linux installed on sda1, which is a sata drive, samsung. Seems lately I been having problems getting arch to boot because it doesn't know what type filesystem my root device has. It goes on and tells me that I can use the kernel parameter rootfstype= to solve the issue, but yet when I try this, it does nothing. I stop getting the error, about unknown FS type, but arch still won't boot. Init fails...

I have tried everything on these forums to fix the problem and not one thing in general has solved the issue. What seems to be most consistent about this problem, is it takes me at least 20 - 30 times of rebooting before it will finally go through and boot. But, even then this is not foolproof. Last night I tried at least 30+ times of rebooting, powering off and still it would not boot.

So after reading the forums some more I found an article somewhat related to my problem and it was suggested that I add my root FS type as a module and then remove the filesystem hook in mkinitcpio.conf. I tried this approach and at the same time downgraded to 2.6.24.2-1 kernel26 so mkinitcpio would generate the new image. Then I rebooted and arch loaded just fine. So then I rebooted and again, unknown fs type on root device error.

So I retraced my steps and tried the same process again, only this time when I rebooted I got same problem. So as it seems, nothing I did to mkinitcpio.conf did anything to alleviate my problem.

As of right now, I managed to get the fallback image to work(but fallback does not load all the time, just this last time I tried it it worked), but I am scared to death to turn off my machine because I know it's not gonna reboot without a lot of hassle.

So can anyone help me diagnose this problem? What can I do to get the kernel to boot and mount the root device with ext3 and pass init on boot up? I am completely lost when it comes to this...

here is my mkinitcpio.conf

# vim:set ft=sh
# MODULES
# The following modules are loaded before any boot hooks are
# run.  Advanced users may wish to specify all system modules
# in this array.  For instance:
#     MODULES="piix ide_disk reiserfs"
MODULES="ext3 pata_amd ata_generic sata_nv"

# BINARIES
# This setting includes, into the CPIO image, and additional
# binaries a given user may wish.  This is run first, so may
# be used to override the actual binaries used in a given hook.
# (Existing files are NOT overwritten is already added)
# BINARIES are dependancy parsed, so you may safely ignore libraries
BINARIES=""

# FILES
# This setting is similar to BINARIES above, however, files are added
# as-is and are not parsed in anyway.  This is useful for config files.
# Some users may wish to include modprobe.conf for custom module options,
# like so:
#    FILES="/etc/modprobe.conf"
FILES=""

# HOOKS
# This is the most important setting in this file.  The HOOKS control the
# modules and scripts added to the image, and what happens at boot time.
# Order is important, and it is recommended that you do not change the
# order in which HOOKS are added.  Run 'mkinitcpio -H <hook name>' for
# help on a given hook.
# 'base' is _required_ unless you know precisely what you are doing.
# 'udev' is _required_ in order to automatically load modules
# 'modload' may be used in place of 'udev', but is not recommended
# 'filesystems' is _required_ unless you specify your fs modules in MODULES
# Examples:
#    This setup specifies all modules in the MODULES setting above.
#    No raid, lvm2, or encrypted root is needed.
#    HOOKS="base"
#
#    This setup will autodetect all modules for your system and should
#    work as a sane default
#    HOOKS="base udev autodetect pata scsi sata filesystems"
#
#    This is identical to the above, except the old ide subsystem is
#    used for IDE devices instead of the new pata subsystem.
#    HOOKS="base udev autodetect ide scsi sata filesystems"
#
#    This setup will generate a 'full' image which supports most systems.
#    No autodetection is done.
#    HOOKS="base udev pata scsi sata usb filesystems"
#
#    This setup assembles an pata raid array with an encrypted root FS.
#    Note: See 'mkinitcpio -H raid' for more information on raid devices.
#    HOOKS="base udev pata raid encrypt filesystems"
#
#    This setup loads an lvm2 volume group on a usb device.
#    HOOKS="base udev usb lvm2 filesystems"
HOOKS="base udev autodetect pata sata"

here is my fallback.conf

# vim:set ft=sh
# MODULES
# The following modules are loaded before any boot hooks are
# run.  Advanced users may wish to specify all system modules
# in this array.  For instance:
#     MODULES="piix ide_disk reiserfs"
# BusLogic is added to support VMWARE arch booting in fallback image
MODULES="BusLogic"

# BINARIES
# This setting includes, into the CPIO image, and additional
# binaries a given user may wish.  This is run first, so may
# be used to override the actual binaries used in a given hook.
# (Existing files are NOT overwritten is already added)
# BINARIES are dependancy parsed, so you may safely ignore libraries
#BINARIES=""

# FILES
# This setting is similar to BINARIES above, however, files are added
# as-is and are not parsed in anyway.  This is useful for config files.
# Some users may wish to include modprobe.conf for custom module options,
# like so:
#    FILES="/etc/modprobe.conf"
FILES=""

# HOOKS
# This is the most important setting in this file.  The HOOKS control the
# modules and scripts added to the image, and what happens at boot time.
# Order is important, and it is recommended that you do not change the
# order in which HOOKS are added.  Run 'mkinitcpio -H <hook name>' for
# help on a given hook.
# 'base' is _required_ unless you know precisely what you are doing.
# 'udev' is _required_ in order to automatically load modules
# 'modload' may be used in place of 'udev', but is not recommended
# 'filesystems' is _required_ unless you specify your fs modules in MODULES
# Examples:
#    This setup specifies all modules in the MODULES setting above.
#    No raid, lvm, or encrypted root is needed.
#    HOOKS="base"
#
#    This setup will autodetect all modules for your system and should
#    work as a sane default
#    HOOKS="base udev autodetect ide scsi sata filesystems"
#
#    This setup will generate a 'full' image which supports most systems.
#    No autodetection is done.
#    HOOKS="base udev ide scsi sata usb filesystems"
#
#    This setup assembles an ide raid array with an encrypted root FS.
#    Note: See 'mkinitcpio -H raid' for more information on raid devices.
#    HOOKS="base udev ide filesystems raid encrypt"
#
#    This setup loads an LVM volume group on a usb device.
#    HOOKS="base udev usb filesystems lvm"
HOOKS="base udev ide pata scsi sata usbinput raid filesystems"

modules I need

sudo mkinitcpio -M
Password: 
Modules autodetected:
ata_generic
libata
pata_acpi
pata_amd
sata_nv
cdrom
ide-core
amd74xx
generic
forcedeth
sd_mod
sr_mod
usbcore
ehci-hcd
ohci-hcd
jbd
ext3

Last edited by jacko (2008-04-15 19:53:35)

Ramses de Norre · 2008-04-15 20:02:16

I had a similar issue (I think, can you post the exact error the kernel panics with to check?) and it seemed grub or the kernel had difficulties with finding my root device which was specified as a device node in /dev. The solution for me was to change the root parameter in my kernel line in grub's menu.lst to root=/dev/disk/by-label/<label>, I'm sure UUID and such will work fine too. After doing that I haven't encountered a single such kernel panic. More info about persistent device naming can be found here.

jacko · 2008-04-15 20:22:09

thank you, I have taken up your advice and switched to UUID persistent device naming. But, I am still hesitant to reboot. Does anyone else have a comment before I try this?

Arch Linux

#1 2008-04-15 19:48:58

Arch won't boot, FS not detected, Kernel Panic.

#2 2008-04-15 20:02:16

Re: Arch won't boot, FS not detected, Kernel Panic.

#3 2008-04-15 20:22:09

Re: Arch won't boot, FS not detected, Kernel Panic.

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