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#1 2011-04-13 08:48:50

alphazo
Member
Registered: 2009-10-20
Posts: 163

[SOLVED] Unable to boot after downgrading from 2.6.38 to 2.6.37

After experiencing some issues with 2.6.38 and my Intel video card (external monitor support). I decided to go back to 2.6.37 for the time being.

I went into my /var/cache/pacman/pkg and typed in:

pacman -U kernel26-2.6.37-6-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz kernel26-headers-2.6.37-6-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz linux-api-headers-2.6.37-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz
warning: downgrading package kernel26 (2.6.38.2-1 => 2.6.37-6)
warning: downgrading package kernel26-headers (2.6.38.2-1 => 2.6.37-6)
warning: downgrading package linux-api-headers (2.6.38.1-1 => 2.6.37-1)
resolving dependencies...
looking for inter-conflicts...

Targets (3): kernel26-2.6.37-6  kernel26-headers-2.6.37-6  linux-api-headers-2.6.37-1

Total Download Size:    0.00 MB
Total Installed Size:   96.04 MB

Proceed with installation? [Y/n] y
(3/3) checking package integrity                                                               [#######################################################] 100%
(3/3) checking for file conflicts                                                              [#######################################################] 100%
(1/3) upgrading kernel26                                                                       [#######################################################] 100%
>>> Updating module dependencies. Please wait ...
>>> MKINITCPIO SETUP
>>> ----------------
>>> If you use LVM2, Encrypted root or software RAID,
>>> Ensure you enable support in /etc/mkinitcpio.conf .
>>> More information about mkinitcpio setup can be found here:
>>> http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Mkinitcpio

>>> Generating initial ramdisk, using mkinitcpio.  Please wait...
==> Building image "default"
==> Running command: /sbin/mkinitcpio -k 2.6.37-ARCH -c /etc/mkinitcpio.conf -g /boot/kernel26.img
:: Begin build
:: Parsing hook [base]
:: Parsing hook [udev]
:: Parsing hook [autodetect]
:: Parsing hook [pata]
:: Parsing hook [scsi]
:: Parsing hook [sata]
:: Parsing hook [uresume]
:: Parsing hook [filesystems]
:: Parsing hook [keymap]
:: Generating module dependencies
:: Generating image '/boot/kernel26.img'...SUCCESS
==> SUCCESS
==> Building image "fallback"
==> Running command: /sbin/mkinitcpio -k 2.6.37-ARCH -c /etc/mkinitcpio.conf -g /boot/kernel26-fallback.img -S autodetect
:: Begin build
:: Parsing hook [base]
:: Parsing hook [udev]
:: Parsing hook [pata]
:: Parsing hook [scsi]
:: Parsing hook [sata]
:: Parsing hook [uresume]
:: Parsing hook [filesystems]
:: Parsing hook [keymap]
:: Generating module dependencies
:: Generating image '/boot/kernel26-fallback.img'...SUCCESS
==> SUCCESS
(2/3) upgrading kernel26-headers                                                               [#######################################################] 100%
(3/3) upgrading linux-api-headers                                                              [#######################################################] 100%

Then I rebooted and to my surprise I got stuck very early during the boot process.

sda: sda1 sda2 sda3
sd 0:0:0:0 [sda] Attached SCSI disk
Waiting 10 seconds for device /dev/sda3
mount: mounting /dev/sda3 on /new_root failed: No such device
ERROR: Failed to mount the real root device

Hopefully I had a 2.6.39rc3-mainline entry in my grub so I selected it and was able to boot as before. I then upgraded from 2.6.37 back to 2.6.38 and guess what... still unable to boot (same message).

What could be the root cause?

Thanks
Alphazo

Last edited by alphazo (2011-04-13 14:09:20)

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#2 2011-04-13 09:11:58

toad
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From: if only I knew
Registered: 2008-12-22
Posts: 1,775
Website

Re: [SOLVED] Unable to boot after downgrading from 2.6.38 to 2.6.37

Hm, have never seen /new_root before... Try checking your fstab and googling this new_root thing - that is what I would do.


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#3 2011-04-13 09:37:29

alphazo
Member
Registered: 2009-10-20
Posts: 163

Re: [SOLVED] Unable to boot after downgrading from 2.6.38 to 2.6.37

Posted a bug report but I've been told it is not a bug! One comment pointed me to the persistent block device naming wiki page.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pe … ice_naming

I changed my menu.lst to use UUID rather than /dev/sda3 but that didn't help and I get the same error message during boot for both 2.6.37 and 2.6.38.

# kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda3 ro
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/0537101d-95ab-44be-8092-f3f6b8738089 ro

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#4 2011-04-13 09:49:40

toad
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From: if only I knew
Registered: 2008-12-22
Posts: 1,775
Website

Re: [SOLVED] Unable to boot after downgrading from 2.6.38 to 2.6.37

EDIT:

deleted, strange double post

Last edited by toad (2011-04-13 10:28:50)


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#5 2011-04-13 10:27:53

alphazo
Member
Registered: 2009-10-20
Posts: 163

Re: [SOLVED] Unable to boot after downgrading from 2.6.38 to 2.6.37

Also replaced /dev/sdax by UUID in fstab but that doesn't help.

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#6 2011-04-13 10:31:25

toad
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From: if only I knew
Registered: 2008-12-22
Posts: 1,775
Website

Re: [SOLVED] Unable to boot after downgrading from 2.6.38 to 2.6.37

I still wonder why it wants to mount / to /new_root - you could of course create that mountpoint and see how it goes.


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#7 2011-04-13 11:55:34

alphazo
Member
Registered: 2009-10-20
Posts: 163

Re: [SOLVED] Unable to boot after downgrading from 2.6.38 to 2.6.37

From the emergency console I can see that the mount point does exist!  Very weird.

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#8 2011-04-13 12:56:16

alphazo
Member
Registered: 2009-10-20
Posts: 163

Re: [SOLVED] Unable to boot after downgrading from 2.6.38 to 2.6.37

Finally I got both 2.6.37 and 2.6.38 to boot again but boy it wasn't pretty. Before I start here is what I did before the boot issue.

- Running     2.6.38.2-1 from [Core]
- I also have 2.6.39rc3 from [miffe] repo with a dedicated entry in Grub (testing & recovery)
- Downgraded to 2.6.37 using from /var/cache/pacman/pkg:

 pacman -U kernel26-2.6.37-6-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz kernel26-headers-2.6.37-6-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz linux-api-headers-2.6.37-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz

- Rebooted
- Boot would stop early during the process
- Booted 2.6.39rc3
- Upgraded to 2.6.38.2-1 via

pacman -U kernel26-2.6.38.2-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz kernel26-headers-2.6.38.2-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz linux-api-headers-2.6.38.1-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz

- Rebooted
- Boot would stop early during the process
- Booted 2.6.39rc3
- Downgraded to 2.6.37 using from /var/cache/pacman/pkg:

 pacman -U kernel26-2.6.37-6-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz kernel26-headers-2.6.37-6-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz linux-api-headers-2.6.37-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz

- Rebooted
- Boot would stop early during the process
- Booted 2.6.39rc3
- Copied via USB kernel26.img and vmlinuz26 from a friend's PC (running same Arch configuration with 2.6.38 kernel)
- Rebooted
- This time, my friend's 2.6.38 would start
- Upgraded to 2.6.38.2-1 via

pacman -U kernel26-2.6.38.2-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz kernel26-headers-2.6.38.2-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz linux-api-headers-2.6.38.1-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz

- Rebooted
- This time, my 2.6.38 would start
- Downgraded to 2.6.37 using from /var/cache/pacman/pkg:

 pacman -U kernel26-2.6.37-6-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz kernel26-headers-2.6.37-6-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz linux-api-headers-2.6.37-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz

- Rebooted
- Again I can boot from 2.6.37

So overall there have been two issues. One when dowgrading from 2.6.38 to 2.6.37 while running 2.6.38 and then when downgrading to 2.6.37 or 2.6.38 while running 2.6.39.

A bit confusing I admit but I think there is a glitch here that does bad thing when generating kernel26.img

Alphazo

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#9 2011-04-13 12:57:56

toad
Member
From: if only I knew
Registered: 2008-12-22
Posts: 1,775
Website

Re: [SOLVED] Unable to boot after downgrading from 2.6.38 to 2.6.37

Coolio, fancy marking this topic as solved?


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