rpi1 not booting with kernel 4.4.19 and initrd

slacksam · 09-13-2016, 04:41 AM

Hi,

I had a Slackware ARM installation running on a RPi1 for about 3 years, using a lvm partitioning for root and swap.

Some days back I upgraded from 14.1 to 14.2 without any issues, without upgrading the kernel and initrd image.

Yesterday I made a kernel upgrade with the packages from http://sarpi.fatdog.eu/index.php?p=rpi1get142, created a new initrd.gz, changed the config.txt and cmdline.txt according to the README.initd, but it didn't boot, showing the message

Quote:

RAMDISK: Couldn't find valid RAM disk image starting at 0.

on the boot screen.

So I made a completly new install on another sd-card, followed http://sarpi.fatdog.eu/index.php?p=installer, with lvm and initrd.gz similar to my old installation, but it also doesn't boot, showing the same error message.

Here's the content of my cmdline.txt:

Code:

dwc_otg.lpm_enable=0 console=tty1 root=/dev/wcvg/root rootfstype=btrfs rootwait ro initrd=0xa00000,0x6d162d

(The file size of initrd.gz is 7149101 Bytes)

Here the additional entry in my config.txt:

Code:

ramfsfile=initrd.gz
ramfsaddr=0x00a00000

Here my /etc/mkinitrd.conf (which was generated with "mkinitrd_command_generator.sh -c -i"):

Code:

SOURCE_TREE="/root/initrd-tree"
CLEAR_TREE="1"
OUTPUT_IMAGE="/boot/initrd.gz"
KERNEL_VERSION="4.4.19-arm"
KEYMAP="de-latin1-nodeadkeys"
MODULE_LIST="xhci-pci:ohci-pci:ehci-pci:xhci-hcd:uhci-hcd:ehci-hcd:hid:usbhid:i2c-hid:hid_generic:hid-cherry:hid-logitech:hid-logitech-dj:hid-logitech-hidpp:hid-lenovo:hid-microsoft:hid_multitouch:zlib_deflate:raid6_pq:xor:btrfs"
LUKSDEV=""
ROOTDEV="/dev/wcvg/root"
ROOTFS="btrfs"
RESUMEDEV="/dev/wcvg/swap"
RAID=""
LVM="1"
UDEV="1"
WAIT="4"

(The name of the VG "wcvg" is correct.)

Please also see the attached screenshot of the boot screen after it stopped booting.

Any idea how to make my RPi boot again?

slacksam · 09-13-2016, 02:08 PM

Now I made a new install without lvm which was succsessful and boots. But when I try to use vgscan or vgchange (in order to mount a partition on an external sd-card), I get the following error messages:

Code:

~# vgscan --mknodes
  Reading all physical volumes.  This may take a while...
  Found volume group "wcvg" using metadata type lvm2
  /dev/mapper/control: open failed: No such device
  Failure to communicate with kernel device-mapper driver.
  Check that device-mapper is available in the kernel.
  Incompatible libdevmapper 1.02.125 (2016-05-14) and kernel driver (unknown version).

Code:

~# vgchange -ay
  /dev/mapper/control: open failed: No such device
  Failure to communicate with kernel device-mapper driver.
  Check that device-mapper is available in the kernel.
  Incompatible libdevmapper 1.02.125 (2016-05-14) and kernel driver (unknown version).
  0 logical volume(s) in volume group "wcvg" now active

Might that be the reason why the system with lvm doesn't boot?
And if so, how can I fix it?

SCerovec · 09-18-2016, 03:28 PM

Before anything else, try revert to the older kernel:

somehow mount the root filesystem and revert it to the 14.1 kernel?

Slackware has an track record of flawlessly working with non default kernels.

Therefrom try rebuilding the affected packages?

Could You try find to which package the libdevmapper belongs and try rebuild it?

Also I would consider rebuilding the kernel if above fails?

The build scripts should be on the ftp server in the source section?