I've recently replaced my hsf and now Debian will not boot properly and freezes following these errors:

pivot_root: No such file or directory
/sbin/init: 431: cannot open dev/console: No such file
Kernel panic: Attempted to kill init!

I've been trying to mount my root filesystem with tomsrtbt with no success. When I try to mount my SATA drive (contains the root partition), it complains about something (I can't remember what atm but it's not really relevant) and when I try to mount the primary disk (the one containing the mbr) it says it's not recognized as a block device. To fix this, I tried "mount -o dev /dev/hda1 /mnt", which didn't do one bit of good. I also have a Debian boot and root disk but "kernel vmlinuz" does not work and it complains about vmlinuz even though it exists (boot/<tab>). I never confirmed that my Debian bootdisk was working as it should... ooops.

Is there a way to access the console during boot so that I can look at my files or is a missing /dev/console preventing me from doing so? I saw someone say they were able to get a console by booting into Recovery Mode...

Also, how do I pause the boot process? I know there's a way.

I've searched LQ and Google and haven't found anything of any real use to me. Everyone suggests it is due to a corrupted initrd, or something to that effect. I really can't see why initrd would be corrupted since essentially all I did was replace the hsf and I didn't upgrade my kernel like all the other people with this error. Is it possible something else is causing this or is this error always the result of a corrupted initrd?


Thanks

Any ideas on this one?

To pause the boot process: Scroll Lock.

Maybe 'cos it's late at night but what is "hsf"?

hsf=heatsink fan

Run a LiveCD, Mepis or Knoppix f.ex and maybe you can access your partitions that way..

I'm already trying to boot Knoppix.
I have a thread up which covers the problem I'm running into with Knoppix. Maybe you could help...

Good suggestion.


edit: Maybe this Mepis you speak of would do the trick. Is Knoppix superior to Mepis or are they pretty much the same. I always hear people going on about Knoppix and I've never even heard of Mepis. Not like it really matters... anything that gets Debian boot to work again.

This has been fixed! Although I used Mepis instead of Knoppix, I encountered the same error. All that needs to be done (as far as I'm aware) is to disconnect the sata cable from the controller so that it will eventually detect the controller. Then, after boot is finished, reconnect the sata cable.

I was never able to mount the sata drive in Mepis (I tried /dev/sd[b,c]) but it would not mount. The ide drive was hdc[1,2] so I figured the sata drive would be sdc* since it was kernel 2.6 and therefore had a different naming scheme than 2.4. I've never been able to get this to work on my old hardware though. However, once I attempted to boot Debian again, it worked! The dis/reconnection of the sata cable is the only event I can think of that caused a functioning boot again.

MEPIS is better than Knoppix and has a good OS Center.

--sort of operating system comtrol center with among other things a very easy way of installing the live cd to HD. And a very good partitioner.

SATA drives are sda and sdb. Partitions on them are then sdax and sdbx.

Well, I tried sd[b,c] and sda1 is my usbstick. Also, the primary ide drive was mounted as hdc[1,2] so I figured the sata drive would be sdc[5-10], 5 being the root partition.

My sata controller is detected under kernel 2.6 (technically) but I don't really think it can communicate with the sata drive and I'm also pretty sure that this is why I cannot upgrade to kernel 2.6.xx under Debian.

Is it true that kernel 2.4 is for older hw while 2.6 is for newer hw, because this is what I saw in Mepis's GRUB and it has also been my thinking for quite some time.

2.6 is definitely better for newer hardware. My impression is that SATA qualifies for "newer"

Could your problem be due to the usb stick being sda1? At boot up the BIOS passes hardware parameters to the OS and it is unlikely to be aware of the USB stick at that point. You could try booting without the stick in place and then mounting the SATA drive as sda5.

For what it is worth I am running Debian with the 2.6.14 and have 2 SATA drives and 1 ATA (2 yesterday).

Did you do anything else apart from changing your hsf?

Actually, this has already been fixed but I appreciate your suggestions anyway.

I doubt the usbstick was bungling up anything because I remember adding it to fstab after I was booted into Mepis and then trying to mount it. I had already tried mounting the root partition several times before that, but I don't think I ever tried sda5 (although I may have) since I just figured sda was for usb devices. I'm pretty sure I tried sd[a,b,c] though.

Anyway... it has been fixed. Although, I suppose I could try mounting my drive in Mepis again.

Hey guys! I recently had this problem too when taking the kernel 2.6 image from the stable repository.

I managed to fix it too and although what I did may not work for you, it may just help somebody.

Basically, the previous 2.4 kernel had recognised my SATA drive partitions as hd* with root being on hde3. I'd had experience with the 2.6 kernel before and remembered that the naming of SATA drives was different to that of the 2.4 series; to be more exact, sd* instead of hd*.

For me, it was a simple case of alterting my GRUB conf to point to root as being on sda3 and then editing my /etc/fstab file too, as my partitions were incorrectly named.

I hope this helps someone. Peace. \/

i have a mail server running fedora 8 and had problem when booting when it halted when strting postfix. somene told me to run fsck command and after that it is giving me this error when booting:

/sbin/init:error while loading shared libraries: libdl.SO.2: cannot open shared object file: input/output error
kernel panic - not syncing : attempted to kill init