[SOLVED] Probing EDD then system reboots ???

efourseven · 2009-06-17 12:54:35

I read the user who recently asked about this same problem, but i could not solve it.

What happens is, I try to boot and it, stops on Probing EDD and then reboots on me.

I put in the bootloader and did:

arch root=/dev/sda4 (my root partition) and it loaded up.
I tried a /sbin/lilo -v and it give me this error: Fatal: raid_setup: stat("/dev/hda")

I don't have a raid setup though... not sure what this means.

I also tried to this:

arch
mount /dev/sda4 /mnt
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot
mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
mount-t proc none /mnt/proc
mount -t sysfs none /mnt/sys
chroot /mnt

then tried to run lilo and the same thing happens.

I also tried the Arch fallback and that fails, saying Kernel panic - not syncing. Attempted to kill init!

I found one more thing to try right now...

anyone know what this could be?

Last edited by efourseven (2009-06-19 02:00:40)

efourseven · 2009-06-17 20:30:49

I cannot fix this! I have no idea what to do or what happened.

efourseven · 2009-06-17 21:40:13

Ok.. when I try to boot the Arch Fallback... it stops on this error message:

Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(3,4)

How could I find out what exactly my root partition is? I am booting the arch bootloader disk with this command: arch root=/dev/sda4 and I am pretty sure that is the root fs because I can go into my user folders and see files on the harddrive. But, In my /etc/fstab it says /dev/hda4 / ext3 for the root partition.

Also, everytime I boot in with the bootloader cd, it gives me a FILESYSTEM CHECK FAILED.

Last edited by efourseven (2009-06-18 02:01:55)

efourseven · 2009-06-18 00:41:53

root partition is definetly /dev/hda4.

I am booting with install/bootloader cd with: arch root=/dev/sda4 and it gets me in with a FILESYSTEM CHECK FAILED. I then mount -n -o remount,rw /

I run lilo and I get this error: Fatal: raid_setup: stat("/dev/hda")

I cannot figure this out for the life of me. Someone please help...

Last edited by efourseven (2009-06-18 02:01:10)

fphillips · 2009-06-18 01:40:26

You really need to give us the config files if you expect any help - you're posts so far are nothing but confusing. You mix up boot=/root= and sda/hda, so we don't know what's really going on. Please give lilo.conf and fstab at least.

Are you using grub on your installation, or did you install lilo? Which wiki article did you follow?

Have you had a successful linux install recently? What hardware (including type of disk)?

For lilo, typically "boot=/dev/sda" (disk with the bootloader) and "root=/dev/sda4" (root partition).

fphillips · 2009-06-18 01:49:52

Here's what I mean, you have:

root=/dev/sda4 (my root partition)
boot=/dev/sda4
/dev/hda4 / ext3 for the root
boot=/dev/sda4
root partition is definetly /dev/hda4
root=/dev/sda4

and then:

Fatal: raid_setup: stat("/dev/hda")
Fatal: raid_setup: stat("dev/hda")

None of boot/root/sda/hda are interchangeable.

efourseven · 2009-06-18 02:00:30

Thanks you for the reply. Sorry for the confusion, I fixed my typo's in my previous post's. I use lilo. I am not sure how to copy my config files, I dual boot this computer and right now I can only use windows.

My lilo config says:

boot=/dev/hda (which is maybe why I am getting this Fatal: raid_setup: stat: ("/dev/hda") error? It tries to boot up /dev/hda4 as root from the lilo.conf. Should I try switching them to /dev/sda4?

I have been running Arch for quite awhile now, and nothing like this has ever happened. I installed it years ago.

I tried the wiki articals on Boot Recovery, almost all of them. Everytime I try to run lilo it gives me that same error.

Ok.. I got somewhere!!

I just went into my /etc/fstab and /etc/lilo.conf and switched all the /dev/hda to /dev/sda and I am now in the system without the FILESYSTEM CHECK FAIL error. I still cannot boot though. But... I can now copy my config files here...

Here is my lilo.conf

#
# /etc/lilo.conf
#

boot=/dev/sda
append="devfs=nomount"
# This line often fixes L40 errors on bootup
# disk=/dev/discs/disc0/disc bios=0x80


default=ArchLinux
timeout=50
lba32
prompt

image=/boot/vmlinuz26
        label=ArchLinux
        root=/dev/sda4
        initrd=/boot/kernel26.img
        read-only

image=/boot/vmlinuz26archck 
    label=ArchFallback
    root=/dev/sda4
    initrd=/boot/kernel26-fallback.img
    read-only

other=/dev/sda2
        label=dos

# End of file

and here is my /etc/fstab

# 
# /etc/fstab: static file system information
#
# <file system>        <dir>         <type>    <options>          <dump> <pass>
none                   /dev/pts      devpts    defaults            0      0
none                   /dev/shm      tmpfs     defaults            0      0
tmpfs                  /tmp          tmpfs     defaults            0      0
usbfs                  /proc/bus/usb usbfs  defaults            0      0

/dev/cdrom0        /mnt/cdrom   iso9660   ro,user,noauto,unhide   0      0
/dev/cdrom1        /mnt/cdburn  iso9660   rw,user,noauto,unhide   0      0

/dev/sda1          /mnt/usbdrive vfat  defaults,user,noauto   0      0   
/dev/sdb2          /mnt/ipod vfat noatime,noauto,user,umask=000,quiet,exec 0 0
/dev/sdc1          /mnt/camera vfat defaults,noauto,user  0 0 
/dev/sda3          swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/sda4          / ext3 defaults 0 1

any help would be very much appreciated.

Last edited by efourseven (2009-06-18 02:39:08)

fphillips · 2009-06-18 02:31:35

Stat is used to find if files are present, so since it failed I would say that /dev/hda is not present and you need to be using boot=/dev/sda and root=/dev/sda4.

So do this again:
mount /dev/sda4 /mnt
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot
mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
mount-t proc none /mnt/proc
mount -t sysfs none /mnt/sys
chroot /mnt

Edit lilo.conf, run lilo, and reboot. While you are in there check /etc/mkinitcpio.conf. The kernel panics, "unknown-block" and FILESYSTEM CHECK FAILED may mean that your HOOKS= array is incomplete.

efourseven · 2009-06-18 02:58:07

Ok I ran Lilo, everything is cool and I didn't get the error message anymore. I tried booting up normally again... and the same thing is still happening. It says: Probing EDD (edd=off to disable)... ok. Then, reboots on me. And it does that over and over again.

I am in the system again now with 'arch root=/dev/sda4' from the booloader disk.

my /etc/mkinitcpio.conf looks like so...

HOOKS="base udev autodetect ide filesystems"

Last edited by efourseven (2009-06-18 03:00:25)

fphillips · 2009-06-18 03:00:49

You still cannot boot because ... it reboots after "Probing EDD"? This is before the kernel has unpacked I believe, so something between your LILO install and the BIOS. You have had lilo running on this same hardware before?

The "Probing EDD" comes from LILO I believe, not kernel or BIOS, and LILO will usually give a code if it's installed wrong (like L99).

BTW, you can probably kill the devfs=nomount, since we use udev now and the kernel doesn't even contain devfs anymore.

efourseven · 2009-06-18 03:12:57

Yes, this is the same lilo as originally installed. Yes it wont let me boot normally after the "Probing EDD".

Thanks for the tip on the devfs.

What could possiblly between the BIOS and Lilo?

efourseven · 2009-06-18 03:22:24

Should I try and re-install lilo... or maybe grub?

fphillips · 2009-06-18 03:24:26

Actually now I think the EDD message is from the kernel - you get the lilo menu and the kernel unpacks? I haven't seen this message in a long time, so it's hard to recall.

Some more info would be helpful: mobo/system, disk type, whether you are up to date with Arch kernel and packages. It may just be that this kernel doesn't like your board. There is no configuration or modules this early in the kernel boot sequence, so I son't know what it could be.

The "edd=off" is a kernel parameter, so it would go into the append="" line in lilo.conf. It seems to complete though, so I don't think you need to do this.
http://www.mjmwired.net/kernel/Document … meters.txt

efourseven · 2009-06-18 03:35:24

Yea, I get to the Lilo menu and enter the normal boot up... and it starts to boot, but very shortly, almost the 3rd or 4rth line, I get the Probing EDD line and an automatic reboot. I just upgraded everything, so it is all up to date as far as I know. I'll try and find what motherboard, but everything worked fine until very recently.

efourseven · 2009-06-18 10:10:10

One other thing that bothers me is that my harddrive is IDE, not scsi or sata, so I should be using hd[x] not sd[x] right? But, when I run fdisk -l the table shows the partitions as sda1, sda2, sda3, sda4 not hda. And, when I changed them to /dev/sda I was able to boot into the system without errors, so I don't know...

I am now thinking of removing lilo and installing grub.

Last edited by efourseven (2009-06-18 11:01:36)

fphillips · 2009-06-18 13:59:14

The kernel ATA layer was changed a while back with "libata." It now sees both pata and sata as sd*.

I think moving to grub is a good idea. There are fewer and fewer of us who remember about lilo, and lilo is all but unmaintained. The arch devs were thinking about dropping it, but decided to keep it as long as it still worked.

efourseven · 2009-06-18 16:27:56

fphillips, firstly, I appreciate your help so far, thank you.

I just installed grub.

When I try to boot, I get this error message:

:: Loading root filesystem module...
Attempting to create root device '/dev/sda4'
ERROR: Failed to parse block device name for '/dev/sda4'
unknown
ERROR: root fs cannot be detected. Try using the rootfstype= kernel parameter.
Wating for devices to settle...done.

Root device '/dev/sda3' doesn't exist, attempting to create it
ERROR: Failed to parse block device name for '/dev/sda4'
ERROR: Unable to create/detect root device '/dev/sda4'
Dropping to a recovery shell... type 'exit' to reboot
NOTE: klibc contains no 'ls' binary, use 'echo *' instead

If the device '/dev/sda4' gets created while you are here,
try adding 'rootdelay≃8' or higher to the kernel command-line
ramfs$

everything is is the same... except my /boot/grub/menu.lst looks like this:

# Arch Linux
title  Arch Linux  [/boot/vmlinuz26]
root   (hd0,3)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda4 ro
initrd /boot/kernel26.img

title Arch Linux Fallback
root (hd0,3)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26archck root=/dev/sda4 ro
initrd /boot/kernel26-fallback.img

# Windows
title Windows
rootnoverify (hd0,1)
makeactive
chainloader +1

No longer do I get stuck at 'Probing EDD'

fphillips · 2009-06-18 21:49:04

OK, so now from the chroot, modify the HOOKS line in /etc/mkinitcpio.conf and replace ide with pata, then regenerate the image with mkinitcpio -p kernel26. Hopefully that will do it for you.

Also, I noticed you say that /boot partition is /dev/sda1, but the fstab above has it as /mnt/usbdrive, so you'll need to get that straight.

If /boot really has its own partition at /dev/sda1, then that should be specified as "root (hd0,0)" instead of (hd0,4) because that is where grub will use as its root to find its files (see the grub wiki article).

You will also need to list it in fstab, and change the paths in menu.lst to "/vmlinuz26" and "/kernel26.img". This is because they are at the top level of the /boot partition, rather than the /boot folder of the root partition.

Last edited by fphillips (2009-06-18 22:14:02)

efourseven · 2009-06-19 01:47:40

Thank you. I will try this now.

Btw, I thought that /dev/sda1 was the boot partition, but I do not have a seperate /boot partition. The /boot directory is on my root / partition so I messed up with trying to mount the /boot partition as /dev/sda1, which is my usbdrive.

efourseven · 2009-06-19 01:59:22

YES!! Finally! Works like a charm!

fphillips, thank you very much. I never really knew much about about what happens during the boot process. Very cool to get a better understanding of it while fixing this problem. I just wonder how it didn't fail until now. Apparantly I should have fixed the problems with the /dev/hda and /dev/sda confusion in my config files a long time ago. I also feel like I should have dumped lilo a long time ago too.

Thanks again.

Last edited by efourseven (2009-06-19 01:59:58)

fphillips · 2009-06-19 03:37:57

Nice. It seems that this was a years-old install where the config files didn't keep up with the changes in the kernel/udev. Very understandable. I only knew about the libata hda->sda thing because I used to watch LKML religiously.

I used Slackware with lilo for seven years, so without Arch I would still been there, using all the old tech.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-06-17 12:54:35

[SOLVED] Probing EDD then system reboots ???

#2 2009-06-17 20:30:49

Re: [SOLVED] Probing EDD then system reboots ???

#3 2009-06-17 21:40:13

Re: [SOLVED] Probing EDD then system reboots ???

#4 2009-06-18 00:41:53

Re: [SOLVED] Probing EDD then system reboots ???

#5 2009-06-18 01:40:26

Re: [SOLVED] Probing EDD then system reboots ???

#6 2009-06-18 01:49:52

Re: [SOLVED] Probing EDD then system reboots ???

#7 2009-06-18 02:00:30

Re: [SOLVED] Probing EDD then system reboots ???

#8 2009-06-18 02:31:35

Re: [SOLVED] Probing EDD then system reboots ???

#9 2009-06-18 02:58:07

Re: [SOLVED] Probing EDD then system reboots ???

#10 2009-06-18 03:00:49

Re: [SOLVED] Probing EDD then system reboots ???

#11 2009-06-18 03:12:57

Re: [SOLVED] Probing EDD then system reboots ???

#12 2009-06-18 03:22:24

Re: [SOLVED] Probing EDD then system reboots ???

#13 2009-06-18 03:24:26

Re: [SOLVED] Probing EDD then system reboots ???

#14 2009-06-18 03:35:24

Re: [SOLVED] Probing EDD then system reboots ???

#15 2009-06-18 10:10:10

Re: [SOLVED] Probing EDD then system reboots ???

#16 2009-06-18 13:59:14

Re: [SOLVED] Probing EDD then system reboots ???

#17 2009-06-18 16:27:56

Re: [SOLVED] Probing EDD then system reboots ???

#18 2009-06-18 21:49:04

Re: [SOLVED] Probing EDD then system reboots ???

#19 2009-06-19 01:47:40

Re: [SOLVED] Probing EDD then system reboots ???

#20 2009-06-19 01:59:22

Re: [SOLVED] Probing EDD then system reboots ???

#21 2009-06-19 03:37:57

Re: [SOLVED] Probing EDD then system reboots ???

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