I am having the same (or at least similar) problem as both Jester and djheath.
In case hardware is an issue, I am running FC5 on an Asus A7V333 with an Athlon XP 1800+ CPU, 1GB RAM and two 320GB hard drives running in RAID 0 using the on-board Promise controller. The RAID array has a small (100MB) /boot partition, and the rest is allocated to a single LVM partition that contains 3 logical volumes.
After several unsuccessful attempts to get Ubuntu to install onto the RAID array, I decided to try Fedora, since it includes native support for the controller. I had already partitioned the drives using gparted as a part of the process of trying to get Ubuntu installed (3 primary partitions and an extended partition that contained a single logical partition), so I just reformatted all of the existing partitions rather than repartitioning for the Fedora install. The install went smoothly, and in short order I had a fully functional Fedora system up and running.
Then I made my first mistake. I was extremely tired at this point, having already spent the better part of a day trying to get Ubuntu working, so when I ran pup I just decided to update everything. Several hours later Fedora finally finished downloading all of the updates. Since apparently some of the things I had updated required a system reboot in order to be finalized (including, unbeknownst to me at the time, a kernel upgrade), I rebooted the system to complete the process.
GRUB loaded, auto-started the new kernel after a short delay and then...nothing. I saw the same
Red Hat nash version 5.0.32 starting message that djheath mentioned in his first post, a string of Buffer I/O errors that I assume are caused by the kernel trying to access the array before loading dmraid, and that was it. The system was not frozen; tapping lock toggle keys would turn the appropriate LEDs on and off on the keyboard and I was able to reboot it using the infamous 3-finger salute, but it simply would not continue the boot process.
Thinking I may have hosed the partitioning process when using gparted and that something in the partition table was now causing problems, I decided to start of from scratch. First I rebuilt the array, in case gparted had somehow managed to wreck it. Then I reloaded the DVD and installed FC5 all over again. I also modified my previous partition scheme based on the default one anaconda wanted to use. Rather than use several primary partitions, I used the LVM partition scheme described above.
Again the install went smoothly. This time I paid much closer attention to what was being updated. Anything I didn't think needed updating, I left alone. I passed over the kernel update at first. I updated everything else that needed updating, then made sure that there were no issues getting the box rebooted and back running. Once that was complete I updated the kernel all on its own, to make sure no other updates were conflicting with it.
Once again, after updating the kernel, the box will not boot. I see the exact same thing I saw before.
Red Hat nash version 5.0.32 starting followed by a series of Buffer I/O errors (although different logical blocks are mentioned since the array was rebuilt and the partition scheme changed) and then nothing.
The system boots fine using the kernel from the CD (
vmlinuz-2.6.15-1.2054_FC5) but refuses to boot with the new one (
vmlinuz-2.61.17-1.2157_FC5).
I don't think the Buffer I/O errors are related, because I see the same errors when booting into the original kernel. When booting to 2.61.15, the next thing I see after the I/O errors is:
Code:
Reading all physical volumes. This may take a while...
Found volume group "VolGroup00" using metadata type lvm2
3 logical volume(s) in volume group "Volgroup00" now active
INIT: version 2.86
This message does not appear when booting to 2.61.17. The cursor just continues to flash after the I/O error messages.
I disabled the
quiet option on 2.61.17 and it shows the following after the I/O errors:
Code:
Creating initial device nodes.
Loading jbd.ko module
Loading ext3.ko module
device-mapper: 4.6.0.ioctl (2006-02-17) initialised: dm-devel@redhat.com
Loading dm-mirror.ko module
Loading dm-zero.ko module
Loading dm-snapshot.ko module
Making device-mapper control node
Again, after the final line, the boot process just seems to stall.
This is the only problem (so far) with configuring the system that has me completely stumped. There have been a few other hiccups on the road to getting some of the services running the way I want them to, but I've managed to get everything sorted out, save this. If anyone could shed any light on the issue, or even point me in a direction that would help me determine exactly what the issue
is, it would be greatly appreciated.
