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#1 2010-03-05 21:26:39

BoySka
Member
Registered: 2008-05-09
Posts: 25

Mkinitcpio errors: unable to boot

I have a quite old (it's a Duron) PC, obviously using arch.
I don't have any Internet connection, so, after the install (some time ago, kernel 2.6.28) I never upgraded its packages.
Some days ago, I have the idea: put a lot of packages onto an USB HD, then use repo-add and create a local repository.

I did an upgrade, and of course I upgraded the kernel, too. I must admit I haven't checked for errors on upgrading sad
[ I'm realizing just now that I could check /var/log/pacman.log I'll do it ASAP (that means on monday) ]

Anyway, I rebooted but it can't find the hard disk device. I added the rootdelay=8 and rootfstype=ext3, but none of them work.
It gives me a "ramfs>" prompt with a minimal (klibc) shell (which doesn't even have 'ls')
I checked, and the device is not under /dev/ not even with a different name (sda1, hda1, disk/by-uuid... nothing)

So, I think the problem is with the IDE controller in initrd.

I used a Knoppix Live CD to do a chroot.
First I did 'mount /dev/ -o bind /mnt/dev' and the same for /proc and /sys.
Then I chrooted.
When I try to do 'depmod -a' (I read it somewhere, can't find the link) it gives me errors because it's searching /lib/modules/<knoppix kernel version>/ instead of the arch one.

Doing mkinitcpio -p kernel26 is almost ok, but it complains about a missing udev files when doing hook "base".
However I don't think this is very important, cause filename is something about uhci and ehci (can't remember exactly)
mkinitcpio ends saying "success", but it won't work, just the same as before.

Trying to install the old kernel won't be any better.

Next time I'll try to install kernel26-lts, but I believe it won't be useful, as (I think) this is a mkinitcpio issue.
And I'll also try to substitute 'pata' with 'ide' on mkinitcpio hooks

What should I do to make the correct module go into the initramfs? And how can I know which is the correct one?
Even ugly ways to do this are welcome (i.e.: using installation CD... whatever!)

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#2 2010-03-22 09:46:46

siwing
Member
Registered: 2008-04-14
Posts: 1

Re: Mkinitcpio errors: unable to boot

I had the similar problem of not able to boot after the system upgrade (pacman -Syu) recently. The system had not been upgraded for few months already. In my case, the cause of the problem is missing the package "mkinitcpio-busybox" which is the new dependency of mkiniticpio. The "pacman -Syu" does not install this package. The mkinitcpio also ended with "success", but actually it complains missing "busybox" during the generation of kernel26.img.

To resolve this problem, I boot the system using the old kernel26.img and its associate kernel vmlinuz26. Then install the latest kernel and mkinitcpio explicitly (pacman -S kernel26 mkinitcpio). The dependency packages are installed as well. The system is then able to startup with the new kernel26.img and vmlinuz26.

Hope this help.

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#3 2010-03-23 21:20:01

BoySka
Member
Registered: 2008-05-09
Posts: 25

Re: Mkinitcpio errors: unable to boot

siwing wrote:

To resolve this problem, I boot the system using the old kernel26.img and its associate kernel vmlinuz26. Then install the latest kernel and mkinitcpio explicitly (pacman -S kernel26 mkinitcpio). The dependency packages are installed as well. The system is then able to startup with the new kernel26.img and vmlinuz26.

Ty for your contribute.
Anyway I decided (I was in a hurry) to backup every configuration, data, and re-install (I know, it's so bad, but I really needed to be able to use it).

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