Arch Linux

xirus

Member

Registered: 2002-12-01

Posts: 113

Kernel 2.6.25 doesn't boot: can't find root device

Hey,

Upgrading from 2.6.24 -> 2.6.25 didn't really work, some strange things happened...

It was some time ago since I upgraded so the following packages were updated:
udev, glibc, kernel-headers, nvidia, kernel26,mkinitcpio,klibc-udev,klibc-extras,klibc

I rebooted and it gave an error like this:
ERROR: Failed to parse block device name for '/dev/hda2'
unknown
ERROR: root fs cannot be detected: Try using ......
Fallback kernel gives the same error.

So it can't find that disk. I booted in knoppix, added the "pata" hook in mkinitcpio since that was not there yet
before it was:
HOOKS="base udev autodetect scsi sata filesystems"
I changed it to
HOOKS="base udev autodetect pata scsi sata filesystems"

Reinstalled the kernel (pacman -S kernel26), rebooted, didn't work. Back to knoppix, searched a bit and found out that pata changes devices into sda. So I changed my grub/menu.lst and fstab and rebooted. Still same error. Fallback kernel the same error.

Changed the pata hook into ide and changed the names back to hda. Rebooted and still the same error. Tried that configuration with sda, still the same error.

So I reverted all the installed packages to the old ones, including klibc-udev etc and I removed the ide hook, so it's HOOKS="base udev autodetect scsi sata filesystems" again.

Rebooted and still the same error!!!! After some testing in the grub bootmenu, I found a config that works: the fallback kernel and the sda naming scheme.

Does anyone have a clue what is going on here?? Why can't I use hda and the normal kernel anymore, even if I reverted all the new programs? Some config file or something? Udev that uses new names?

And any ideas why the new kernel doesn't work?

Thanks a lot!! If you need more information, please ask and I will provide it.

Grtz

kclive18

Member

From: Columbus, Ohio, USA

Registered: 2008-05-08

Posts: 219

Re: Kernel 2.6.25 doesn't boot: can't find root device

Could you please post your /boot/grub/menu.lst and /etc/fstab?  I remember doing my first ever install of Arch a few months ago and I had accidentally mixed up my root and swap partitions (they were numbered a bit out of order ).  You should make sure that GRUB is looking at the right partition.

Last edited by kclive18 (2008-06-24 17:11:42)

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kjon

Member

From: Temuco, Chile

Registered: 2008-04-16

Posts: 398

Re: Kernel 2.6.25 doesn't boot: can't find root device

Looks that you performed the changes, but did you *run* mkinitcpio -p kernel26 after modifying files?

Last edited by kjon (2008-06-24 18:34:02)

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They say that if you play a Win cd backward you hear satanic messages. That's nothing! 'cause if you play it forwards, it installs windows.

xirus

Member

Registered: 2002-12-01

Posts: 113

Re: Kernel 2.6.25 doesn't boot: can't find root device

to answer both questions:

menu.lst:

root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda2 vga=795 ro
initrd /boot/kernel26.img

root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda2 vga=795 ro
initrd /boot/kernel26-fallback.img

fstab:

/dev/sda2 / ext3 defaults 0 0

But those should be correct since it booted before.

About mkinitcpio -p kernel26, the output that gives me is the output pacman -S kernel26 gives and I also performed the mkinitcpio command manually as suggested in some other forum threads

When booting today (with 2.6.24 fallback and sda naming scheme), I got a kernel panic, he couldn't find the root device... Rebooting did the trick, then it could boot all of a sudden! Is it somehow possible that my disks are getting named randomly by udev or something?