reboot-loop just after grub

lynix · 2009-07-23 21:05:51

Hi, there!

Today I updated my arch-installation on a set-top-box (T-Online S100, i686), everything went fine, as usual. But now the box is stuck in a reboot-loop: just after a menu entry in the grub menu.lst is selected and booted, the screen gets black and I find myself at POST again.

The problem is that I have no chance of seeing any useful messages or something, it reboots too fast.

Any ideas how I can start fixing this? Is there a no-reboot-option for grub or something?

The box boots off a USB stick, so I have easy access to its root if that helps...
Some additional data:

- i686, kernel 2.6.30.2-1
- boot partition is ext2, root is ext3
- no vga=

Greetings and thanks in advance,

lynix

Last edited by lynix (2009-07-24 06:58:54)

djszapi · 2009-07-23 22:23:43

Can you start it in fallback mode ? What your boot parameters ?

lynix · 2009-07-24 06:56:04

Hi, djszapi!

No, fallback results in exactly the same. My boot entries:

# (0) Arch Linux
title  Arch Linux
root   (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/836636f7-8ef8-4906-bcc8-ba3009a1d03d ro quiet
initrd /kernel26.img

# (1) Arch Linux
title  Arch Linux Fallback
root   (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sdb3 ro
initrd /kernel26-fallback.img

Last edited by lynix (2009-07-24 06:56:28)

lynix · 2009-07-24 07:58:32

btw, you can find the complete log of the update here:

http://pastebin.com/d46ac6a88

djszapi · 2009-07-25 05:54:24

Last case, you can chroot to your system from a livecd, and correct it with installing all the packages that are installed.

Is it a kernel panic and an automatical restart according to the menu.lst setting? Just a last idea : Okay, immediately, so he can\t mount root.

If you reinstall the kernel, and run hook, will it be right ?

yehdev_cc · 2009-07-25 07:12:07

So, the problem has to do with the updates ...
I had a similar problem after an update .. but fortunately it happens under 'VirtualBox' (the other thread) ....
In my case, It happens before starting 'init' ... when it's loading 'udev' in the boot image ...
what about you ?

lynix · 2009-07-25 08:06:27

I chrootet from a live USB drive (as the box has no optical drive). Reinstalling the kernel did some change: I now get dumped into a rescue shell and there is a message saying that the root device, /dev/sda3, doesn't exist (like http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=48604).
Unfortunately the usb keyboard doesn't work in the rescue shell and the box has no PS/2, so I think I'm done here

I will reinstall the system, planned to do so in a few days anyway

Thanks for all the replies!

Arch Linux

#1 2009-07-23 21:05:51

reboot-loop just after grub

#2 2009-07-23 22:23:43

Re: reboot-loop just after grub

#3 2009-07-24 06:56:04

Re: reboot-loop just after grub

#4 2009-07-24 07:58:32

Re: reboot-loop just after grub

#5 2009-07-25 05:54:24

Re: reboot-loop just after grub

#6 2009-07-25 07:12:07

Re: reboot-loop just after grub

#7 2009-07-25 08:06:27

Re: reboot-loop just after grub

Board footer