Arch Linux

Bes

Member

Registered: 2007-06-20

Posts: 79

[SOLVED] HELP!!! Arch won't boot now :(

Hi

I can't get Arch to boot any more on my system- I did a full system upgrade (pacman -Syu last night) and all seemed well... turned off, now tried to turn on today and get this... (THis system has been up and running for about 6 months now)

Attempting to create root deice /dev/sda9
ERROR: Failed to parse blcok devlice name for /dev/sda9
unknown
ERROR root fs cannot be detected. Try using the rootfstype=kernel parameter.
Waiting for devices to settle... Done

Root device '/dev/sda9' doesn't exist, attempting to create it
ERROR Failed to parse block device name for /dev/sda9
ERROR unale to create/detect root device '/dev/sda9'
Dropping to a recovery shell.... type 'exit' to reboot
NOTE: klibc contains no 'ls' binary use echo * instead

If the device 'dev/sda9' gets created while you are here, try adding 'rootdelay=8' or higher to the kernel command line
ramfs$

Please help I am totally stuck- never seen anything like this before

Thanks!

Edit: Just wondering, could it be the update did a kernel upgrade or something and broke something in/ around GRUB or something like that?

Last edited by Bes (2008-03-07 09:10:59)

fwojciec

Member

Registered: 2007-05-20

Posts: 1,411

Re: [SOLVED] HELP!!! Arch won't boot now :(

Have you tried booting with the fallback boot image?

Bes

Member

Registered: 2007-06-20

Posts: 79

Re: [SOLVED] HELP!!! Arch won't boot now :(

Sorry forgot to say- same issue witth fallback

Mr Green

Forum Fellow

From: U.K.

Registered: 2003-12-21

Posts: 5,896

Website

Re: [SOLVED] HELP!!! Arch won't boot now :(

get out your arch cd or a livecd and chroot in see if you can find out more pacman logs etc.....

---

Mr Green

fwojciec

Member

Registered: 2007-05-20

Posts: 1,411

Re: [SOLVED] HELP!!! Arch won't boot now :(

Another piece of information that would be helpful would be what filesystem you're using on the root partition.  As far as Mr. Green's suggestion is concerned -- here's a wiki article that outlines the procedure http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Kernel_Panics

hokasch

Member

Registered: 2007-09-23

Posts: 1,461

Re: [SOLVED] HELP!!! Arch won't boot now :(

When there was a kernel update, the initramfs gets regenerated.  If you by chance messed around with your mkinitcpio.conf recently, maybe you screwed something there (that was the case for me when I saw that message the last time...)?

Last edited by hokasch (2008-03-04 18:59:49)

Bes

Member

Registered: 2007-06-20

Posts: 79

Re: [SOLVED] HELP!!! Arch won't boot now :(

ok guys have to run out now... thanks for the tips... will follow up later

Oh and I cannot find my Arch disk anywhere. Will I be ok just downloading a fresh one? (becuase of version changes etc)

fwojciec

Member

Registered: 2007-05-20

Posts: 1,411

Re: [SOLVED] HELP!!! Arch won't boot now :(

Will I be ok just downloading a fresh one? (becuase of version changes etc)

That should be no problem at all.

synthead

Member

Registered: 2006-05-09

Posts: 1,337

Re: [SOLVED] HELP!!! Arch won't boot now :(

Hi

I can't get Arch to boot any more on my system- I did a full system upgrade (pacman -Syu last night) and all seemed well... turned off, now tried to turn on today and get this... (THis system has been up and running for about 6 months now)

Attempting to create root deice /dev/sda9
ERROR: Failed to parse blcok devlice name for /dev/sda9
unknown
ERROR root fs cannot be detected. Try using the rootfstype=kernel parameter.
Waiting for devices to settle... Done

Root device '/dev/sda9' doesn't exist, attempting to create it
ERROR Failed to parse block device name for /dev/sda9
ERROR unale to create/detect root device '/dev/sda9'
Dropping to a recovery shell.... type 'exit' to reboot
NOTE: klibc contains no 'ls' binary use echo * instead

If the device 'dev/sda9' gets created while you are here, try adding 'rootdelay=8' or higher to the kernel command line
ramfs$

Please help I am totally stuck- never seen anything like this before

Thanks!

Edit: Just wondering, could it be the update did a kernel upgrade or something and broke something in/ around GRUB or something like that?

I am having the same problem.  My fallback image works though.

McQueen

Member

From: Arizona

Registered: 2006-03-20

Posts: 387

Re: [SOLVED] HELP!!! Arch won't boot now :(

I am having the same problem.  My fallback image works though.

+1

---

/path/to/Truth

synthead

Member

Registered: 2006-05-09

Posts: 1,337

Re: [SOLVED] HELP!!! Arch won't boot now :(

Got it.  I just reinstalled the "kernel26" package - that was it.

Bes

Member

Registered: 2007-06-20

Posts: 79

Re: [SOLVED] HELP!!! Arch won't boot now :(

Hi all,

A little confused in relation to the boot partition bit of the Wiki... I assume GRUB's location is my boot partition? I am not sure what parition it is though.... How could I check? I know SDA9 will be my root partition

Cheers

Last edited by Bes (2008-03-06 13:49:56)

tigrmesh

IRC Op

From: Florida, US

Registered: 2007-12-11

Posts: 794

Re: [SOLVED] HELP!!! Arch won't boot now :(

A little confused in relation to the boot partition bit of the Wiki... I assume GRUB's location is my boot partition? I am not sure what parition it is though....

If you didn't create a separate partition for it, the boot directory will be on your root partition.

Bes

Member

Registered: 2007-06-20

Posts: 79

Re: [SOLVED] HELP!!! Arch won't boot now :(

Hi there,

Ok I follow the guide, but when I try to roll back the kernel, I get this:

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Kernel_Panics

error: cannot remove file /boot/: read only file system

I am root@none user

Bes

Member

Registered: 2007-06-20

Posts: 79

Re: [SOLVED] HELP!!! Arch won't boot now :(

The problem seems to be that eventhough I am mounting my boot partition /dev/sda1 and /dev/sda9 which is my OS partition as per the wiki, for some odd reason, /boot seems to resemble my Windows XP install?!!

Bes

Member

Registered: 2007-06-20

Posts: 79

Re: [SOLVED] HELP!!! Arch won't boot now :(

so /dev/sda1 is 100% my boot partition according to the FDisk util, It says boot in one of the cols) but seems to just be a Windows installation?!

If I do the wiki without this option,I get a warning about the boot partition being present but not mounted, and the kernel rollback succeeds, but when I reboot, I get exactly the same as before!

fwojciec

Member

Registered: 2007-05-20

Posts: 1,411

Re: [SOLVED] HELP!!! Arch won't boot now :(

so /dev/sda1 is 100% my boot partition according to the FDisk util, It says boot in one of the cols) but seems to just be a Windows installation?!

If I do the wiki without this option,I get a warning about the boot partition being present but not mounted, and the kernel rollback succeeds, but when I reboot, I get exactly the same as before!

In the context of booting Linux the "boot" partition is not necessarily the one that has a "boot" flag set in the partition table (Windows partitions require that the boot flag is set, btw) -- boot partition, in this context, is the one which is mounted as /boot in your linux system.  If you don't have a separate /boot partition (you wouldn't have one unless you explicitly created one during installation) your system would boot from the partition on which your Arch is installed.

cactus.ed

Member

From: The lonesome crowded west

Registered: 2007-08-11

Posts: 32

Re: [SOLVED] HELP!!! Arch won't boot now :(

You don't by chance have two different hdd controllers? In my experience, there are three big things that cause this error:
1) mkinitcpio.conf does not contain your filesystem type;
2) mkinitcpio.conf does not contain hdd controller module;
3) hdd controllers are initialized in a different order each boot, therefore "/dev/sda9" can be on a different disk each boot;

#1 and #2 are simple fixes, just specify the correct modules in mkinitcpio.conf;
I suspect #3 in your case. Simple fix is to reference the root partition by label or uuid in /boot/grub/menu.conf;

If it were me, I would debug by doing the following:
1) Change /boot/grub/menu.list to reference root partition by label or uuid;
2) Find out which modules are needed by your hardware/filesystems and include it in mkinitcpio.conf -- order can make a difference!!;
3) Re-setup grub to the MBR - this may help with disk order issues;

Let me know if you find the problem;

-nate

Bes

Member

Registered: 2007-06-20

Posts: 79

Re: [SOLVED] HELP!!! Arch won't boot now :(

Ok guys worked it out now- I had to mount sda5 as the boot partition (and not the flagged boot parition) to get it to work

Thanks very much for all the help..

Just as a side note, what should I do in regards to further updates now? I don't want the system to go pop again when the kernel upgrade is applied... should I wait for another new release and then try the upgrade again?

Thanks

Last edited by Bes (2008-03-06 23:17:54)

delor

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2008-02-02

Posts: 62

Website

Re: [SOLVED] HELP!!! Arch won't boot now :(

My way to solve it:
Boot Arch CD.
Run 'arch root=/dev/sda2'.
Run 'pacman -S kernel26'.
Reboot.

marxav

Member

From: Gatineau, PQ, Canada

Registered: 2006-09-24

Posts: 386

Re: [SOLVED] HELP!!! Arch won't boot now :(

My way to solve it:
Boot Arch CD.
Run 'arch root=/dev/sda2'.
Run 'pacman -S kernel26'.
Reboot.

This did not work for me (: .  This looks like a recurring problem (http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php? … 69#p372069)

yvonney

Member

Registered: 2008-06-11

Posts: 671

Re: [SOLVED] HELP!!! Arch won't boot now :(

FIXED....

Funny as this one one of my VERY first ARCH lessons way back when I was really into getting an external USB drive to boot ARCH.... hahahaha   READ: I knew'd this all along..... doh!!!!!!!!!

http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=63033  see a little over half way down I think in that post.

the bios and grub simply conflict.

Setting the drive as the HD in the laptop bios MAKES it grub (hd0.0) !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Heck, I learn SO SO SO much and am SOSoSoSoSo grateful for all the help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

um, now ... to do yesterday, today!

jt512

Member

Registered: 2009-02-19

Posts: 262

Re: [SOLVED] HELP!!! Arch won't boot now :(

Hi

I can't get Arch to boot any more on my system- I did a full system upgrade (pacman -Syu last night) and all seemed well... turned off, now tried to turn on today and get this... (THis system has been up and running for about 6 months now)

Attempting to create root deice /dev/sda9
ERROR: Failed to parse blcok devlice name for /dev/sda9
unknown
ERROR root fs cannot be detected. Try using the rootfstype=kernel parameter.
Waiting for devices to settle... Done

Root device '/dev/sda9' doesn't exist, attempting to create it
ERROR Failed to parse block device name for /dev/sda9
ERROR unale to create/detect root device '/dev/sda9'
Dropping to a recovery shell.... type 'exit' to reboot
NOTE: klibc contains no 'ls' binary use echo * instead

If the device 'dev/sda9' gets created while you are here, try adding 'rootdelay=8' or higher to the kernel command line
ramfs$

Please help I am totally stuck- never seen anything like this before

Thanks!

Edit: Just wondering, could it be the update did a kernel upgrade or something and broke something in/ around GRUB or something like that?

I had similar errors under regular and fallback images when trying to boot a few weeks ago, but it wasn't caused by a system update; rather, I had stupidly installed some x86_64 packages on my 32-bit machine.  To fix the system I had to re-edit my fstab and grub/menu.lst files, and reinstall grub.

Jay