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Old 08-18-2009, 03:02 AM   #1
JonesD1
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Registered: May 2009
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ALERT! /dev/hda1 does not exist. Dropping to a shell!


(Similar threads found but did not assist me)

Hardware: Pentium III, 800Mz, 512 MB RAM.
After disk format and Debian Lenny installation, the Linux worked well.
The running kernel is 2.6.26-2-686.

Now I am trying to download and compile the latest Linux kernel 2.6.30.3 and still have obstacles.

My last try was to following http://howtoforge.com/kernel_compilation_debian_etch as recommended to me in this forum.

My current failure is during boot time, using GRUB version 0.97.

Because I can not copy paste the boot output, I copied some lines which might help me:

Code:
...
Driver 'sr' needs updating - please use bus-type methods
...
Buffer I/O error on device sr0, block 165496
sr 1:0:0:0 [sr0] Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE
sr 1:0:0:0 [sr0] Sense Key: Illegal Request [current]
sr 1:0:0:0 [sr0] Add Sense: Illegal made for this track
end_request: I/O error, dev sr0, sector 1323968

The above last section repeat itself several times.
Then it is released and continues

Code:
Begin: Mounting root file system...Begin: Running /scripts/local-top...done
Begin: waiting for root file system...done.
WARNING bootdevice may be renamed. Try root=/dev/sda1
Gave up waiting for boot device. Common problems:
  -Boot args (cat/proc/cmdline)
    - Check root delay (...)
    - Check root (did the system wait for the right device?)
  - Missing modules (cat /proc/modules; ls /dev)
ALERT! /dev/hda1 does not exist. Dropping to a shell!
Now, to complete the information giving hereby, I made the fdisk -l command and got the following:

Code:
LinuxMachine:/home/yona# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/hda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x24a424a3

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1   *           1        9541    76638051   83  Linux
/dev/hda2            9542        9729     1510110    5  Extended
/dev/hda5            9542        9729     1510078+  82  Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/hdb: 20.5 GB, 20547841536 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2498 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x42607084

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hdb1   *           1        2388    19181578+  83  Linux
/dev/hdb2            2389        2498      883575    5  Extended
/dev/hdb5            2389        2498      883543+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
LinuxMachine:/home/yona#
What is the problem???
 
Old 08-18-2009, 03:32 AM   #2
zhjim
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Registered: Oct 2004
Distribution: Debian Squeeze x86_64
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JonesD1
Code:
Begin: Mounting root file system...Begin: Running /scripts/local-top...done
Begin: waiting for root file system...done.
WARNING bootdevice may be renamed. Try root=/dev/sda1
Gave up waiting for boot device. Common problems:
  -Boot args (cat/proc/cmdline)
    - Check root delay (...)
    - Check root (did the system wait for the right device?)
  - Missing modules (cat /proc/modules; ls /dev)
ALERT! /dev/hda1 does not exist. Dropping to a shell!
Did you try this? Seems like the root device gets renamed. Maybe a look at the menu.lst in /boot/grub will clear things up. See what root device is set for the other boot entries.


Quote:
Originally Posted by JonesD1
Code:
...
Driver 'sr' needs updating - please use bus-type methods
...
Buffer I/O error on device sr0, block 165496
sr 1:0:0:0 [sr0] Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE
sr 1:0:0:0 [sr0] Sense Key: Illegal Request [current]
sr 1:0:0:0 [sr0] Add Sense: Illegal made for this track
end_request: I/O error, dev sr0, sector 1323968

The above last section repeat itself several times.
There is a kernel option that exactly matches this error message. But dunno where it is.
 
Old 08-18-2009, 06:16 AM   #3
JonesD1
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Registered: May 2009
Posts: 15

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Still deeply stuck

Thank you zhjim

Regard your first hint, my /boot/grub/menu.lst is correct, at least for this issue.

Regarding your second hint, how can I continue from here?
 
Old 08-18-2009, 08:37 AM   #4
zhjim
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JonesD1

Regarding your second hint, how can I continue from here?
My bad. Mixed it up with another error message. Here is the extract from make menuconfig
Code:
 CONFIG_IDEDISK_MULTI_MODE:                                                                                                                           
If you get this error, try to say Y here:
hda: set_multmode: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
 hda: set_multmode: error=0x04 { DriveStatusError }
If in doubt, say N.
But I still believe in some io problem. Either the driver for the harddisk controller is not probably loaded or for the filesystem. I'd rather go for the controller.
Did you check on the initrd of the new kernel? Maybe create a new one with mkinitrd or mkinitramfs.
 
Old 08-18-2009, 09:26 AM   #5
JonesD1
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Registered: May 2009
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I used the following command to build the initrd.img as well as the kernel:

fakeroot make-kpkg --initrd --append-to-version=-raz kernel_image kernel_headers

And a new initrd.img was built as expected: initrd.img-2.6.30.3-raz
 
Old 08-19-2009, 12:02 AM   #6
JonesD1
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Still need help here, please.

I am completely stuck.
 
Old 08-21-2009, 04:42 AM   #7
zhjim
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I'm out of ideas but why not just start from the beginning.

Can you post your menu.lst from /boot/grub. Also a fstab and lspci and mix this with a ls from /boot

Maybe we can find something.
 
Old 08-22-2009, 05:29 AM   #8
JonesD1
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Registered: May 2009
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I found the problem.
Yet, I don't don't know how to solve it.

The 'make menuconfig' creates a wrong configuration for my hardware.
Comparing the running kernel .config file versus the new one generated, reveals a missing "CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEDISK=m".
The kernel thinks that I have a SATA or a SCSI disk, because I can run the ls shell command after the failure during boot, and it downloads /dev/sda drivers instead of /dev/hda drivers.

I don't really know every peace of HW inside my PC box, weather it uses IDE, ATA, or else. So, I have difficulties in configuring correctly into the menuconfig program. I just know that my disk is surely IDE (it was made in the year 2000).

Is there a simple utility that can advice me what is the minimum configuration elements for my PC?

Thank you in advance.
 
Old 08-22-2009, 06:45 AM   #9
malekmustaq
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JonesD1,

Since you are booting from a new kernel the issues lie there. If I were in that case my options are these:

1) Get correct specifications of my hardware: user@host-$: lspci
2) Check what modules my quite old bios require but are not built-in to the 2.6.30.3, get them;
3) Recompile the kernel with these required modules;
4) After the kernel is compiled, the proper initrd.img must be compiled using that new kernel: use mkinitrd command and be sure to compile it with *relevant* modules.
5) It appears that you are installing linux into the first partition. So if you install Grub there it will only use Stage 1.5 and is capable of booting ALL systems located in the disk.

Just a side point: your RAM might require a minimalist distro, if you have no plan of replacing or adding more Mbytes try consider Slackware 12.2 or Absolute Linux, although Debian is also good.

Hope it helps.

Goodluck.

Last edited by malekmustaq; 08-22-2009 at 06:50 AM.
 
Old 09-02-2009, 12:58 AM   #10
JonesD1
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Registered: May 2009
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Thank you malekmustaq,

(sorry for the late response, I was away, now back to solve my issues)

I made the recommended command lspci and here is the result:

Code:
yona@LinuxMachine:~$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82815 815 Chipset Host Bridge and Memory Controller Hub (rev 02)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82815 815 Chipset AGP Bridge (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev 02)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801BA ISA Bridge (LPC) (rev 02)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801BA IDE U100 Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801BA/BAM USB Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801BA/BAM SMBus Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.4 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801BA/BAM USB Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801BA/BAM AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 02)
01:08.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82801BA/BAM/CA/CAM Ethernet Controller (rev 01)
01:0b.0 Communication controller: ESS Technology ES2898 Modem (rev 03)
02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV34 [GeForce FX 5200] (rev a1)
yona@LinuxMachine:~$
Now to your Next advice:
"Check what modules my quite old bios require but are not built-in to the 2.6.30.3, get them"
How am I suppose to know what the 2.6.30.3 is missing for my HW, and how should I download it?

Thank you very much.
 
  


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