boot problem after kernel upgrade

tut · 2008-10-24 07:08:41

Yesterday I upgraded the kernel to 2.2.27 via pacman, now I cannot boot anymore.
I get the following message:

ERROR: Failed to parse block device name for 'dev/disk/by-uuid/3e6..... unknown.
ERROR: root fs cannot be detected. Try using the rootfstype= kernel parameter.
Waiting for devices to settle...done.

Root device '/dev/disk/by-uuid/3e6.... doesn't exist, attempting to create it
ERROR: Failed to parse block device name for '/dev/disk/....
ERROR: Unable to create/detect root device '/dev/disk/....'
Dropping to a recoviery shell... type 'exit' to reboot

I booted with a live cd but could not mount my root, it seems that there is no /dev file for it.

brokenthorn · 2008-11-07 06:51:33

I am having the exact same problem.
Looking for more detail as to what could have caused this.
All I remember is that I did some jerking around with Pacman the other day and everything was fine but today after I booted up my laptop everything wasn't fine.

brokenthorn · 2008-11-07 07:56:22

OK. I booted up a LiveCD. Mounted my root partition under the LiveCD, bind mounted /dev, then mounted /proc, /boot and /sys. After that I chrooted into the new root, edited etc/mkinitcpio.conf, added jfs and reiserfs to the list of modules to include, ran mkinitcpio -g /boot/linux26.img -k `uname -r`, where uname -r is the kernel release version of the Archlinux kernel I was running (Note: uname -r will give you the release version of the kernel you are running currently, be it LiveCD or other system). I was last running 2.6.27-ARCH, but you can find out for yourself by looking into lib/modules/.

Rebooting now. If I don't come back, then it worked.

tut · 2008-11-07 07:59:05

I finally ended up with reinstalling arch. I don't know where exately the problem was. Downgrading didn't help becuase the modules in /lib/modules/ were already upgraded to 2.6.26.
I tried the following - perhaps one of these works for you:
- try to boot the fallback image
- add pci=nomsi to the kernel line in grub
- if you give the disks by uuid, try to replace this by /dev/sdXY

- boot with arch-live and create new initrd-image:

mount /dev/sdXY /mnt (sdXY ist deine Root-Partition)
mount /dev/sdXY /mnt/boot (wenn du eine eigene Partition für /boot hast)
mount -o bind /dev /mnt/dev
mount -o bind /sys /mnt/sys
mount -o bind /proc /mnt/proc
chroot /mnt
mkinitcpio -g /boot/kernel26.img

and reboot

- if that doesn't work, same (until chroot /mount ) and then do a kernel downgrade:
pacman -U /var/cache/pacman/pkg/kernel26-2.6.26***.pkg.tar.gz

so, thats all I tried but as I said none of this worked for me. But if you have your /home on a seperate partition, than a reinstall should cause no problems. I also saved my /etc for not loosing my configs

brokenthorn · 2008-11-07 08:29:50

I can see why it couldn't have worked for you. You probably needed to specify -k too.

Anyways, thanks for info but I already fixed it and didn't have to reinstall .

jacko · 2008-11-07 16:08:51

I finally ended up with reinstalling arch

you should never have to re-install over a failed upgrade. As brokenthorn suggested, man mkinitcpio might have helped you out some.

-k kernelversion
Use kernelversion. Default is the current running kernel.

when you mnt your install from a liveCD, the kernel that is being used is from the liveCD. You need to change this behavior before generating a kernel img for your install.

some more info http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Mkinitcpio#Manually specifically last line of the 'manually' section!

wonder · 2008-11-07 16:13:05

did you tried to modify in menu.lst root entry? try to put there /dev/sdX instead UUID. also post /etc/mkinitcpio.conf

Last edited by wonder (2008-11-07 16:13:58)

brokenthorn · 2008-11-07 16:21:53

wonder wrote:

did you tried to modify in menu.lst root entry? try to put there /dev/sdX instead UUID. also post /etc/mkinitcpio.conf

That's not a valid fix for this problem.
Besides, he already "fixed" it.

wonder · 2008-11-07 22:29:19

it is a valid fix when you don't have in mkinitcipio.conf udev hook and you specify modules for your chipset

tut · 2008-11-08 08:35:29

ok, thanks for your advice. But why didn't you post that a bit earlier? I tried for hours fixing the problem... and because I didn't succeed at all I finally re-insalled arch, because I need a working environment and can't wait for weeks until someone replies to my question But for the next time I'll think of your remarks.

Arch Linux

#1 2008-10-24 07:08:41

boot problem after kernel upgrade

#2 2008-11-07 06:51:33

Re: boot problem after kernel upgrade

#3 2008-11-07 07:56:22

Re: boot problem after kernel upgrade

#4 2008-11-07 07:59:05

Re: boot problem after kernel upgrade

#5 2008-11-07 08:29:50

Re: boot problem after kernel upgrade

#6 2008-11-07 16:08:51

Re: boot problem after kernel upgrade

#7 2008-11-07 16:13:05

Re: boot problem after kernel upgrade

#8 2008-11-07 16:21:53

Re: boot problem after kernel upgrade

#9 2008-11-07 22:29:19

Re: boot problem after kernel upgrade

#10 2008-11-08 08:35:29

Re: boot problem after kernel upgrade

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