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#1 2010-03-14 00:06:17

Yes
Member
Registered: 2008-03-29
Posts: 163

Failed to mount the real root device

I just did a fresh install, everything went fine, I updated everything, rebooted, and when it started booting I got the error

ERROR: Unable to determine the file system type of /dev/sda1:
Either it contains no filesystem, an unknown filesystem,
or more than one valid file system signature was found.

Try adding
     rootfstype=your_filesystem_type
to the kernel command line.

When I added rootfstype=ext3 to my kernel command line in menu.lst, I get this:

mount: mounting /dev/sda1 on /new_root failed: No such device
ERROR: Failed to mount the real root device.
Bailing out, you are on your own.  Good luck.

And then I'm kicked back to a Busybox shell.  Does anyone know what the problem might be?  I fsck'd the partition and it's fine, /etc/fstab hasn't changed since I booted successfully the first time.

Thanks!

Last edited by Yes (2010-03-14 04:14:07)

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#2 2010-03-15 09:11:22

Ber
Member
From: Belgium
Registered: 2006-07-05
Posts: 80
Website

Re: Failed to mount the real root device

It might seem obvious, but have you tried mounting it "manually" from the busybox shell?

The partition you switch to at the end of the initramfs isn't given by fstab (although you usually switch to the partition with mountpoint / in your fstab), but is taken from the root= grub option.


V=RI sweet V=RI

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#3 2010-03-21 07:34:53

jai134
Member
Registered: 2008-11-26
Posts: 234

Re: Failed to mount the real root device

I have that problem too. With one difference. I don't have a fresh install. My computer doesn't boot after an upgrade yesterday. I get this message:
mount: mounting /dev/disk/by-uuid/xxxxxxx on new_root failed: No such device.
Error: Failed to mount the real root device.
Bailing out, you are on your own. Good luck.
How can I mount "manually" from busybox, I did try mount -a but fstab can't be read from busybox.

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#4 2010-03-22 15:50:05

Ber
Member
From: Belgium
Registered: 2006-07-05
Posts: 80
Website

Re: Failed to mount the real root device

You can simply try :

mount -t ext2 /dev/sda1 /new_root

Adapt of course to suit your configuration (ext2 and sda1 probably need to be changed).  I can't check that right now but I'm pretty sure new_root is on /, if not look for it...

If it doesn't work check that you can mount it from a livecd


V=RI sweet V=RI

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#5 2010-03-25 04:05:47

print
Member
Registered: 2007-02-27
Posts: 174

Re: Failed to mount the real root device

@jai134 -- same issue here.  Laptop dead.

By the way, this error message is bullshit.  "Bailing out, you are on your own.  Good luck."  Really?

Anyway, I must be lucky, because the following worked for me:

Pop in arch live cd, reinstall core/util-linux-ng, rebuild kernel.

# root
# mount /dev/sda7 /mnt
# mount /dev/sda5 /mnt/boot
# mount -t proc none /mnt/proc
# mount -t sysfs none /mnt/sys
# mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
# chroot /mnt
# pacman -S --noconfirm linux-util-ng
# pacman -S kernel26
# reboot

For some reason mkinitcpio reports SUCCESS even if it doesn't find /sbin/blkid (provided by linux-util-ng) during the kernel build.  This is probably a bug.  Heh.

Good luck!

/p

Last edited by print (2010-04-13 00:45:10)


% whereis whatis whence which whoami whois who

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#6 2010-03-25 04:51:22

tavianator
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From: Waterloo, ON, Canada
Registered: 2007-08-21
Posts: 858
Website

Re: Failed to mount the real root device

Come on print, it's possible that the message is sincere.  After all, you have no root filesystem mounted if you see that message, so you might need a bit of luck to solve your problem.  Anyway, it would help if we knew what update caused the problem, so post the relevant part of /var/log/pacman.log if you can.  Also I've never seen just "root=sda7" before, always "root=/dev/sda7", so try that.  And try Ber's suggestion above.

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#7 2010-03-26 07:34:40

jai134
Member
Registered: 2008-11-26
Posts: 234

Re: Failed to mount the real root device

Nice to see that I wasn't alone. I did a fresh install instead so I'm up and running again.

@tavianator -- pacman.log
Using Gentoo rescue cd I was able to find this in the log:

error: could not extract lib/modules/2.6.32-ARCH/kernel/fs/gfs2/gfs2.ko (Lzma library error: Corrupted input data)

Last edited by jai134 (2010-03-26 08:21:45)

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#8 2010-04-05 09:14:52

dude83
Member
Registered: 2009-04-01
Posts: 18

Re: Failed to mount the real root device

same here after an update (no fresh install) ... anybody got it running again?

cheers chris

Last edited by dude83 (2010-04-05 09:15:50)

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#9 2010-04-05 13:50:20

print
Member
Registered: 2007-02-27
Posts: 174

Re: Failed to mount the real root device

@dude83 did you try the solution I listed above?


% whereis whatis whence which whoami whois who

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#10 2010-04-06 10:59:50

dude83
Member
Registered: 2009-04-01
Posts: 18

Re: Failed to mount the real root device

print wrote:

@dude83 did you try the solution I listed above?

yes, i wanted to. but for some reason my computer doesnt accept any keyboard input after i started a live cd (grml, arch, whatever cd). trying to figure out why this happens. even if i let it boot to get some kind of rescue prompt, there is no keyboard input. really strange whats happening there...

cheers

Last edited by dude83 (2010-04-06 11:00:48)

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#11 2010-04-06 12:42:54

print
Member
Registered: 2007-02-27
Posts: 174

Re: Failed to mount the real root device

Do you have another keyboard you can try?  If it's a usb keyboard, try a different port.  Otherwise sounds like you may have a hardware problem.  You may also need to add some kernel parameters for your specific hardware.  Maybe someone smarter than me can tell you which ones to try?


% whereis whatis whence which whoami whois who

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#12 2010-04-06 12:50:16

dude83
Member
Registered: 2009-04-01
Posts: 18

Re: Failed to mount the real root device

print wrote:

Do you have another keyboard you can try?  If it's a usb keyboard, try a different port.  Otherwise sounds like you may have a hardware problem.  You may also need to add some kernel parameters for your specific hardware.  Maybe someone smarter than me can tell you which ones to try?

yes it's an USB keyboard, i have tried different keyboards and also on different ports. i have no PS/2 keyboards anymore. Strange thing is before the boot process, it works perfectly. can do everything in BIOS or selecting menus in Grub.
just after it bootet it doesnt do anything.

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#13 2010-04-12 23:40:01

schmmd
Member
From: Seattle
Registered: 2006-03-25
Posts: 55
Website

Re: Failed to mount the real root device

print wrote:

# pacman -S --noconfirm linux-util-ng
# pacman -S kernel26
# reboot

For me, it's util-linux-ng, not "linux-util-ng".

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#14 2010-04-12 23:56:21

schmmd
Member
From: Seattle
Registered: 2006-03-25
Posts: 55
Website

Re: Failed to mount the real root device

Print, your instructions worked for me!  I knew I needed blkid but I didn't think to rebuild the kernel...

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#15 2010-04-13 00:45:42

print
Member
Registered: 2007-02-27
Posts: 174

Re: Failed to mount the real root device

@schmmd Glad to hear it.  I updated the solution above to reflect the misspelling.


% whereis whatis whence which whoami whois who

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#16 2010-06-28 03:53:21

whaler
Member
From: Oslo, Norway
Registered: 2008-03-25
Posts: 323

Re: Failed to mount the real root device

I had something similar - the system stopped during boot and complained that it couldn't read my root device or that it's address was wrong, etc. However, I did a C-A-D and on that second try it booted normally. This has happened before... It makes me suspect I have a memory (RAM) problem, but the experts here can perhaps come up with another explanation?

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#17 2010-07-02 20:29:11

w1ntermute
Member
Registered: 2009-06-28
Posts: 146

Re: Failed to mount the real root device

I just had this problem too, on a fresh install. Another package must've been broken. It's most likely not your hardware, though it is odd that it worked when you restarted.

Last edited by w1ntermute (2010-07-02 20:29:41)

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#18 2010-07-03 04:39:01

whaler
Member
From: Oslo, Norway
Registered: 2008-03-25
Posts: 323

Re: Failed to mount the real root device

Yes, it's odd. I've experienced the same before, which turned out to be caused by faulty RAM. Now, with a new system and Corsair RAM it should not happen!! smile

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#19 2010-07-11 00:03:27

anderfs
Member
Registered: 2010-07-10
Posts: 9

Re: Failed to mount the real root device

Hello there, even though I'm in a completely different scenario (loading install media from USB through grub4dos), I get the same error when I try to mount /dev/sdb1

[ramfs /]# mount -t VFAT /dev/sdb1 /bootmnt
mount: mounting /dev/sdb1 on /bootmnt failed: No such device

Curiously though, this is what I get when I try to get my devices by UUID

ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid/
lrwxrwxrwx    1 0    0    10 Jul 10 18:12 XXXX-XXXX -> ../../sdb1
lrwxrwxrwx    1 0    0    10 Jul 10 18:12 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX -> ../../sda1

And by label:

ls -l /dev/disk/by-label/
lrwxrwxrwx    1 0    0    10 Jul 10 18:12 BOOTZOR -> ../../sdb1

So I know it's there and of course it's listed if I do an ls on /dev/sd*, then, why would it claim there's no such a device? Also, sda1 which is an NTFS system can't be mounted either, same error.


Sometimes, I mean what I post.

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#20 2010-07-14 15:58:51

w1ntermute
Member
Registered: 2009-06-28
Posts: 146

Re: Failed to mount the real root device

OK, I may have found a lead. When I tried to install Ubuntu on this same computer (using the alternate install CD), and I got to the partitioning menu, my hard drives were listed as follows:

SCSI1 (0,1,0) /dev/sda
SCSI2 (0,0,0) /dev/sdb

Is it relevant that sda is (0,1,0) while sdb is (0,0,0)? Shouldn't sdb come after sda?

Edit: I removed one of the hard drives and used just the other one. Before, I had /boot, root, and swap on the first hard drive, and /home on the second. Once I physically disconnected the second hard drive and put home on the first one, everything worked fine.

Last edited by w1ntermute (2010-07-14 20:35:55)

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#21 2010-07-15 19:12:55

arre
Member
Registered: 2007-08-25
Posts: 10

Re: Failed to mount the real root device

Thanks print! You helped me out!

(I also had to download a new live cd, since the chroot doens't work with older kernels)

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#22 2010-07-22 13:18:59

anderfs
Member
Registered: 2010-07-10
Posts: 9

Re: Failed to mount the real root device

I had seemingly forgotten about this thread. I got the usb pendrive (BOOTZOR, which is the media from which I was loading arch) to mount by putting this on menu.lst, once again this is using grub4dos:

title Archlinux\n Lightweight and flexible Linux distribution that tries to Keep It Simple.    
kernel /arch/vmlinuz26 archisolabel=BOOTZOR tmpfs_size=75% locale=es_LA.UTF-8 root=/./dev/disk/by-label/BOOTZOR panic=30 waitusb=2 rootfstype=vfat rootdelay=10 rootwait ro
initrd /arch/archiso.img

So that's my arch entry, I put the necessary files on /arch/ and all those .sqfs files with package sources were placed on /, the .sqfs files are then loaded as installation sources, this way I didn't have to try to mount it all from [ramfs]#


Sometimes, I mean what I post.

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#23 2010-10-03 14:31:01

Phlogiston
Member
Registered: 2009-02-14
Posts: 39

Re: Failed to mount the real root device

This fixed it for me too, after changing the motherboard/cpu in a machine.

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#24 2011-04-06 12:50:03

hauzer
Member
From: Belgrade, Serbia
Registered: 2010-11-17
Posts: 279
Website

Re: Failed to mount the real root device

That worked print, thanks.


Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?
All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.
For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.

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#25 2011-07-15 16:03:18

agkbill
Member
Registered: 2011-06-13
Posts: 85

Re: Failed to mount the real root device

I had the same problem.

For me it was the use of /dev/sda, /dev/sdb, etc naming in GRUB and /etc/fstab that caused the problem.

After changing to uuid everything worked fine.

Se https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 65#p961265

/Christer

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