opinions on using kernel 2.6.24-amd64 on lenny

jlinkels · 10-22-2008, 07:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by the trooper

Code:

waiting for root filesystem....

Yes, I did

BEFORE you try all those googled suggestions in the blind, do this: Add to the kernel command line (either in menu.lst or during booting in Grub)

Code:

debug rootdelay=5

This will drop you in the Busybox shell. Use 'help' to see all commands available. (Your computer was not hanging, it was waiting. Eventually it will drop in the shell)

Find the boot log file. It is either in the / or /tmp or /var. Open it with 'vi' Not with 'more'. More is broken, it'll show you only the last page and you think there are no errors. Been there, done that.

Find the error and act accordingly. Two likely causes:

You have to use UUID for the root= boot parameter. You'll be able to find how to do that in google. These are my relevant fstab and menu.lst lines:

Code:

fstab:
UUID=c1420be7-ac52-477b-b31d-820d809105dc       /       ext3    defaults,errors=remount-ro 0       1
menu.lst:
kernel          /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.26-1-686 root=UUID=c1420be7-ac52-477b-b31d-820d809105dc ro rootdelay=5

You obtain the UUID with the 'blkid' command.

However, in my case it was a broken udev in Debian Lenny. See this post:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=671795

jlinkels

the trooper · 10-23-2008, 10:02 AM

Okay, this is where i am up to.
I have edited /boot/grub/menu.lst as follows:

Code:

# ## Start Default Options ##
## default kernel options
## default kernel options for automagic boot options
## If you want special options for specific kernels use kopt_x_y_z
## where x.y.z is kernel version. Minor versions can be omitted.
## e.g. kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro
##      kopt_2_6_8=root=/dev/hdc1 ro
##      kopt_2_6_8_2_686=root=/dev/hdc2 ro
# kopt=root=UUID=3f9210ef-96a1-464a-ae21-96d804dbdf87 ro

And also:

Code:

# ## End Default Options ##

title           Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.27.2-amd64
root            (hd0,1)
kernel          /vmlinuz-2.6.27.2-amd64 root=UUID=3f9210ef-96a1-464a-ae21-96d804dbdf87 ro rootdelay=5
initrd          /initrd.img-2.6.27.2-amd64

title           Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.27.2-amd64 (single-user mode)
root            (hd0,1)
kernel          /vmlinuz-2.6.27.2-amd64 root=UUID="3f9210ef-96a1-464a-ae21-96d804dbdf87 ro single
initrd          /initrd.img-2.6.27.2-amd64

Here's the updated /etc/fstab

Code:

 /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
proc            /proc           proc    defaults        0       0
UUID=3f9210ef-96a1-464a-ae21-96d804dbdf87      /               ext3    errors=remount-ro 0       1
/dev/sda2       /boot           ext3    defaults        0       2
/dev/sda5       /home           ext3    defaults        0       2
/dev/sda6       none            swap    sw              0       0
/dev/hda        /media/cdrom0   udf,iso9660 user,noauto     0       0

blkid gives me:

Code:

/dev/sda3: UUID="3f9210ef-96a1-464a-ae21-96d804dbdf87" TYPE="ext3"

So when i boot the kernel now i get an error message of:

"ALERT! /dev/disk/by-uuid/3f9210ef-96a1-464a-ae21-96d804dbdf87-does not exist-
dropping to a shell"
What am i getting so wrong?
May be a fresh pair of eyes may help....

Regards.
The trooper.

the trooper · 10-23-2008, 10:28 AM

Also one more thing here's the details for udev:

Code:

ade@Pc1:~$ aptitude show udev
Package: udev
State: installed
Automatically installed: no
Version: 0.125-7

Any ideas how to proceed?

Quakeboy02 · 10-23-2008, 11:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by the trooper

Any ideas how to proceed?

I suggest you download Super Grub Disk and give that a try. It's bailed me out of many odd booting problems. BTW, I've never used a UUID. I still think your problem is how grub is setup.

jlinkels · 10-23-2008, 11:56 AM

I take it you copied and pasted the UUID's - I didn't check.

Wait until you drop into a shell, and issue this command:
ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid/

Most likely it doesn't exist. Please add 'debug' to your kernel parameters as I recommended so you can peek into the log file and see WHY it is not created.

Did you recreate the initrd as I wrote in the thread I pointed to?

jlinkels

the trooper · 10-23-2008, 12:20 PM

Hello jlinkels.
Just to clarify,i added debug to the kernel parameter.
Once i dropped into a shell i issued the command:

Code:

ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid/

As you correctly said,it came back "file not found"
I then navigated to the /tmp directory.
In /tmp i found the file".debug".
On opening this file with Vi,it appears to be empty or the end of the file.
I have yet to recreate the initrd,i will try this now and then post back

Regards.
The trooper.

the trooper · 10-23-2008, 12:33 PM

Nope.
Still stops at "waiting for root filesystem"

I,d love to get to the bottom of this,but maybe it's beyond me.
If any one has any other ideas please let me know.

The trooper

Quakeboy02 · 10-23-2008, 01:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by the trooper

Nope.
Still stops at "waiting for root filesystem"

I,d love to get to the bottom of this,but maybe it's beyond me.
If any one has any other ideas please let me know.

The trooper

Super Grub Disk

the trooper · 10-23-2008, 01:55 PM

Quote:

Super Grub Disk

Yes,tried it.
Booted both kernels off the disc,same result.
What makes you think Grub is the problem?

Quakeboy02 · 10-23-2008, 02:39 PM

When you say "booted both kernels off the disk" what does that mean? Did you tell it to repair your grub or just to boot without repairing?

the trooper · 10-23-2008, 03:25 PM

Exactly as i posted.
I used the disc to boot both kernels rather than using Grub on my machine.
Do you think re-installing Grub will do something different to what is on the disc or my MBR?

Quakeboy02 · 10-23-2008, 03:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by the trooper

Exactly as i posted.
I used the disc to boot both kernels rather than using Grub on my machine.
Do you think re-installing Grub will do something different to what is on the disc or my MBR?

I don't know. I suspect that it's either related to hd/sd or to initramfs. I had expected SGD to fix it. Guess I was wrong. I don't have an AMD64 kernel running, or I'd offer to use your .config file to make a kernel. You might post it anyway at pastebin.com (give us the link) to see if anyone can see an obvious problem with it.

jlinkels · 10-23-2008, 06:32 PM

Just for your convenience I rebooted my computer. (which is a nuisance because after each reboot I have to recompile and reinstall my nvidia driver, no, I checked the log file and it says everything is fine, but that is another problem, let us get you booting first so that you can enjoy the disappearing video driver as well

)

I used this command line:

Code:

kernel          /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-3-k7 root=/dev/hdd1 debug rootdelay=5 ro

yeah I know it is not kernel 2.6.26, but believe me, for the boot parameters it doesn't matter, I just wanted to make sure the syntax was right.

There is no root file system on /dev/hdd1 so the boot failed. I found the logfile in c:/tmp/initramfs.debug. The file size is 0, don't ask me why, but it contained several hundreds of lines. And it told me exactly why it didn't boot.

Your kernel is a stock debian 2.6.26 kernel from Lenny, right? No custom compilation where you turned off debugging or so?

BTW, this is unlikely to be a grub problem. Your machine boots perfectly. I loads initrd, and it drops in Busybox because it cannot find the root file system. This is way beyond booting if I am not mistaken, this is the kernel in full operation. It just doesn't have a root file system.

jlinkels

Quakeboy02 · 10-23-2008, 06:41 PM

Oops. You're right. This is about a downloaded kernel. I got this thread mixed up with another one. Sorry about that.

the trooper · 10-24-2008, 07:10 AM

Quote:

Just for your convenience I rebooted my computer. (which is a nuisance because after each reboot I have to recompile and reinstall my nvidia driver, no, I checked the log file and it says everything is fine, but that is another problem, let us get you booting first so that you can enjoy the disappearing video driver as well )

Wow! That must be a real pain! Thanks for taking the time to do that.
I have navigated to the file you suggested in your last post:/tmp/initramfs.debug.
I didn't see anything specific as to why it was not finding the root filesystem.
Can you be more specific for the kind of thing i need to look for?
It just showed me what i get when i try to boot the kernel normally:

Code:

ALERT! /dev/disk/by-uuid/3f9210ef-96a1-464a-ae21-96d804dbdf87-does not exist

Also i should point out that this is a custom kernel i compiled myself(with help from Quakeboy02),it is kernel 2.6.27.2-amd64.
I had a problem with the 2.6.26 kernel which lead me to this.
Here's a link for my last kernel/problem thread:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...-lenny-673596/

Quakeboy02,

Quote:

Oops. You're right. This is about a downloaded kernel. I got this thread mixed up with another one. Sorry about that.

No problem.Easily done with a thread of this size.
Thank you for your time and help so far,both of you.

Regards.
The trooper.