Arch Linux

theapodan

Member

From: Virginia, USA

Registered: 2008-10-21

Posts: 116

[solved] Root fs cannot be found on new install - initramfs seems ok

I did an ftp install of arch, and everything appeared to go smoothly until I rebooted.

I get a message saying that my root fs cannot be detected, and a kernel panic.   The root fs is on /dev/sda1, and is formatted jfs. The sata controller is an nvidia nforce. The error suggests specifying a rootfstype. (I tried that, as well as explicitly passing root=/dev/sda1 at the lilo prompt)

During the install, I installed lilo as my bootloader, since the grub install failed with an error (I'm unfamiliar with grub)

In lilo.conf, I've got:

boot=/dev/sda
default=arch
timeout=50
lba32
prompt
compact

image=/boot/vmlinuz26
    label=arch
    root=/dev/sda1
    initrd=/boot/kernel26.img
    read-only

In mkinitcpio.conf, I've got

MODULES=""
BINARIES=""
FILES=""
HOOKS="base udev autodetect pata scsi sata filesystems"

I assume that my problem is being caused by udev not being able to sort out what modules the kernel needs to find the root fs on /dev/sda1.

I would've also assumed that my problem will be fixed by specifying which modules the kernel needs in the MODULES line, however, having looked at the modules included in kernel26.img, it looks like this should be able to access /dev/sda1. 

....
/lib/modules
/lib/modules/2.6.29-ARCH
/lib/modules/2.6.29-ARCH/kernel
/lib/modules/2.6.29-ARCH/kernel/drivers
/lib/modules/2.6.29-ARCH/kernel/drivers/scsi
/lib/modules/2.6.29-ARCH/kernel/drivers/scsi/scsi_mod.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.29-ARCH/kernel/drivers/ata
/lib/modules/2.6.29-ARCH/kernel/drivers/ata/libata.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.29-ARCH/kernel/drivers/ata/pata_acpi.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.29-ARCH/kernel/drivers/ata/pata_amd.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.29-ARCH/kernel/drivers/ata/ata_generic.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.29-ARCH/kernel/drivers/scsi/sd_mod.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.29-ARCH/kernel/drivers/cdrom
/lib/modules/2.6.29-ARCH/kernel/drivers/cdrom/cdrom.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.29-ARCH/kernel/drivers/scsi/sr_mod.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.29-ARCH/kernel/drivers/ata/sata_nv.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.29-ARCH/kernel/fs
/lib/modules/2.6.29-ARCH/kernel/fs/jfs
/lib/modules/2.6.29-ARCH/kernel/fs/jfs/jfs.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.29-ARCH/kernel/fs/reiserfs
/lib/modules/2.6.29-ARCH/kernel/fs/reiserfs/reiserfs.ko
/hooks/filesystems
/lib/modules/2.6.29-ARCH/modules.dep
/lib/modules/2.6.29-ARCH/modules.alias
/lib/modules/2.6.29-ARCH/modules.symbols

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Robert.

Last edited by theapodan (2009-05-31 23:11:32)

Peasantoid

Member

Registered: 2009-04-26

Posts: 928

Website

Re: [solved] Root fs cannot be found on new install - initramfs seems ok

Have you regenerated your initramfs yet? Should be something like `mkinitcpio -p kernel26`.

# Wait... you can't boot your Arch... Try chrooting in from your working OS.

Last edited by Peasantoid (2009-05-31 21:31:51)

theapodan

Member

From: Virginia, USA

Registered: 2008-10-21

Posts: 116

Re: [solved] Root fs cannot be found on new install - initramfs seems ok

The initramfs was generated during the install.  I haven't changed any options in mkinitcpio.conf.  Do I need to generate it again?

PS: The fallback initramfs doesn't work either.

Peasantoid

Member

Registered: 2009-04-26

Posts: 928

Website

Re: [solved] Root fs cannot be found on new install - initramfs seems ok

Yes, you should probably regenerate it. chroot into your Arch install, run `depmod -a` as root, then `mkinitcpio -p kernel26`. You might not have to do depmod, but I'd try it anyway.

theapodan

Member

From: Virginia, USA

Registered: 2008-10-21

Posts: 116

Re: [solved] Root fs cannot be found on new install - initramfs seems ok

That worked, although while I was at it, I did add jfs and sata_nv to the MODULES section.

So right now I'm typing this in firefox in xfce on Arch!

Thanks a bunch Peasant!

Robert.

Peasantoid

Member

Registered: 2009-04-26

Posts: 928

Website

Re: [solved] Root fs cannot be found on new install - initramfs seems ok

No problem, glad to see you got this fixed.