[SOLVED] Wife's laptop won't boot. Error superblock probe failed.

em21701 · 09-08-2013, 01:14 PM

Code:

(swapper,1,1):ocfs2_fill_super:1039 ERROR: superblock probe failed!
VFS: Cannot open root device "sda1" or unknown-block(8,1)
Please append a correct "root=" boot option; here are the available partitions:
0800     244198584 sda  driver: sd
  0801      9767488 sda1 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
  0802     19535040 sda2 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
  0803      3903795 sda3 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
  0804    210989677 sda4 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
0b00      1048575 sr0 driver; sr
Kernel Panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(8,1)
Pid: 1, comm: swapper Not tainted 2.6.37.6 #3
Call Trace:
 [<ffffffff81aa1ff6>] panic+091/0x194
 [<ffffffff81aa213a>] ? printk+041/0x43
 [<ffffffff821100c9>] mount_block_root+0x1d4/0x288
 [<ffffffff82110355>] mount_root+0x8a/0xa4
 [<ffffffff821104c9>] prepare_namespace+0x170/0x1a9
 [<ffffffff8210fe26>] kernel_init+0x1d2/0x1e2
 [<ffffffff810037d4>] kernel_thread_helper+0x4/0x10
 [<ffffffff8210fc54>] ? kernel_init+0x0/0x1e2
 [<ffffffff8100370d>] ? kernel_thread_helper+0x0/0x10

This started randomly, I had not done any upgrades or changes. I have since tried reloading slackware from disk with no change. Lilo would not write to the mbr at the end of setup. sda1 is the root partition, sda2 is /usr, sda3 is the swap, and sda4 is /home. I'm out of ideas at this point and looking for some help.

Thanks in advance,
Eric

em21701 · 09-08-2013, 01:31 PM

trying to boot from a usb disk with /dev/sda1 as root produces the same panic. I formated that partition when I when through the reinstall process and ran a check at the same time so I don't think there is a physical problem with the disk.

Raveriux · 09-08-2013, 01:47 PM

maybe you have added usb disk when booting or sd card in reader?

em21701 · 09-08-2013, 01:59 PM

There was a sd card in the reader which has never been a problem before. I removed it and tried to boot with the same result. Still kernel panic.

jostber · 09-08-2013, 02:45 PM

Might be a problem with your 2.6 kernel? Try to reinstall it from the disk, and look here:

http://www.clearfoundation.com/compo...view/id,46626/

saulgoode · 09-08-2013, 03:29 PM

I experienced a similar problem about a year ago with my tower PC, except that I was still able to boot from USB drives. What had happened in my case was that the motherboard's SATA controller had gotten confused owing to a faulty cable connection on one of the drives and, even after fixing the cabling, would not properly access the root drive.

Yes, I know that such problems should not theoretically happen, or at least should be recoverable by resetting the BIOS to its defaults; however, resetting the BIOS didn't fix things. Fortunately, I was able to remedy the problem by re-flashing the BIOS (booting the BIOS updater from a USB-connected DVD).

I only mention this as a last resort possibility to consider if all else fails (and assuming you have a means of re-flashing the BIOS).

em21701 · 09-08-2013, 03:47 PM

This problem started on a 3.6.10 Kernel that was working fine. I backtracked to the standard kernel in hopes that it would boot.

em21701 · 09-08-2013, 06:14 PM

I ran systemrescuecd and gparted did not recognize any filesystem on sda1 even though I reformatted it during the reinstall. I used gparted to set it back to ext4. I'm going to try the reinstall again.

syg00 · 09-08-2013, 06:36 PM

As suggested, start looking at hardware. If it was always ext4, why does the kernel think it's OCFS2 ?, Seemed like an unlikely choice for a laptop.

em21701 · 09-08-2013, 07:20 PM

Letting gparted do the formatting seems to have done the trick. Not really sure why the slackware installer couldn't get it done but wither way it's working now. Thanks for the ideas all.

Eric