Hello all.

I have compiled kernels in the past, but not recently as it was easier to just download the newest ones off the repo.

So the first thing that I did was followed Debains guide to compile and install the Linux Kernel. I'll post the link in case you want to follow along. I am following an old guide but it should not matter right?

https://www.debian.org/releases/whee...h08s06.html.en

I went to kernel.org and downloaded kernel 4.0.9.

Then I downloaded libncurses5-dev, fakeroot, and kernel-package.

I extracted the kernel in my downloads folder went in side of it and issued make menuconfig switched on what I wanted on and switched off what I wanted off. I did not go to deep into customizing it, as it was raining really bad outside and I did not want the power to go out and ruin my work,

I then issued the command:

fakeroot make-kpkg --initrd --revision=2 kernel_image

Then after that finished I ran dpkg -i /home/old/Downloads/linux-image-4.0.9_2_i386.deb
and make modules_install. I do not think that was neccesary but I did it anyway. I also issued update-initramfs -u -k all and after that sudo update-grub.

I rebooted the machine and started to boot into the new kernel, but I got this message:

ALERT! /dev/disk/by-uiid/b222a279-3970-41d1-a631-df58a2b3fe94 does not exist. Dropping to shell


I read somewhere that setting a delay fixed this sort of problem for them so I set the delay to 40 seconds.

Instead of getting
ALERT! /dev/disk/by-uiid/b222a279-3970-41d1-a631-df58a2b3fe94 does not exist. Dropping to shell

I instead got ALERT! /dev/sda1 not found. Dropping to shell.



I have tried looking all over to see how to fix this error but can not find anything.

Here is my custom kernels .config

http://pastebin.com/egB8hJx8

Here is my fstab

# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
# / was on /dev/sda1 during installation
UUID=b222a279-3970-41d1-a631-df58a2b3fe94 / xfs defaults 0 1
# /home was on /dev/sda8 during installation
UUID=81bfdf70-fb95-4bbb-9310-e2e4e71228a7 /home xfs defaults 0 2
# /tmp was on /dev/sda7 during installation
UUID=efcccc2b-8dd4-427e-80ab-98d0a479bd0e /tmp xfs defaults 0 2
# /var was on /dev/sda5 during installation
UUID=88317a2e-154f-4bd2-bc0b-a23ec7e94910 /var xfs defaults 0 2
# swap was on /dev/sda6 during installation
UUID=6b20ccda-4cd7-4ebb-abac-6b0c3114450b none swap sw 0 0
/dev/sr0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0


Here is lsmod from a working kernel ( kernel 3.16 )

http://pastebin.com/U8tUPAuV

Here is my grub.cfg

http://pastebin.com/8iM4y6gE

If there is anything else you need do not hesitate to ask.

My motherboard is a ASUS P4SD-LA its really old, but still fast.

Thank you!

Check pls 1st if your UUID is still OK, put output here:
or when you want to print it to file:


And it may be hnady what you have now all as disks present:
And if you want to see what the structure is on a certain disk:
Changed the last one, type error...

Everything looks the same to me.

/dev/sda1: UUID="b222a279-3970-41d1-a631-df58a2b3fe94" TYPE="xfs" PARTUUID="98d5939f-01"
/dev/sda5: UUID="88317a2e-154f-4bd2-bc0b-a23ec7e94910" TYPE="xfs" PARTUUID="98d5939f-05"
/dev/sda6: UUID="6b20ccda-4cd7-4ebb-abac-6b0c3114450b" TYPE="swap" PARTUUID="98d5939f-06"
/dev/sda7: UUID="efcccc2b-8dd4-427e-80ab-98d0a479bd0e" TYPE="xfs" PARTUUID="98d5939f-07"
/dev/sda8: UUID="81bfdf70-fb95-4bbb-9310-e2e4e71228a7" TYPE="xfs" PARTUUID="98d5939f-08"

Strange... but I found this related to another kernel, look at it:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1127779

found it through:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=813090

My search (had little time, need to go to my people here..): https://www.google.nl/search?q=ALERT...pping+to+shell

And read thus nice story, maybe also valid for Debian:
http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/u...nitrd-bug.html

1 members found this post helpful.

Ill do apt-get dist-upgrade first, and then if that does not work I will try the live cd

EDIT:

Doing apt-get dist-upgrade as described in your first link did not work, nor did booting and mounting the system via /mnt. I will try your third link.

EDIT 2:

From the third link it talks about missing modules, although on the boot screen it does not say anything about missing modules, I checked my .config and it does not say anything about xfs support. So it may not be booting because I do not have the XFS in the kernel. I can not find it anywhere under file systems, it is not there by default on kernel 4?

BTW do sata drivers need to be compiled as a built in or a module or does it not matter,

Read stuff on that:
http://unix.stackexchange.com/questi...le-during-boot
http://how-to.linuxcareer.com/custom...w-when-and-why

Thanks, according to th first link building it as a built in is recommended but not necessary.

It's not a necessity, but if you're building it as a module, then the modules must be included in the initramfs. That's what the initramfs is there for, is to load any drivers necessary before mounting the root filesystem.

How would I know if it is in the initramfs? Unpack the initrd file in /boot?

After looking at XFS kconfig file I needed LBDAF, but I had it off, after turning it on I was able to select XFS under the file system menu. I will try to rebuild the kernel now. Also I had ATA/ATAPI/MFM disabled, I enabled that and all of the drivers that were under it as built in (*). I am hoping that my sata driver will be under there since it was not under libata ( I think ) .

EDIT: no dice, still getting cannot find /dev/sda1 giving up waiting for root device. When I do ls /dev it does not show sata. I will check lsmod on a working kernel and double check modules.

After some more googling I found out that my chipset ICH5 does not support AHCI, however I was building all the kernels that did not work with AHCI, so hopefully removing AHCI from the kernel and rebuilding the kernel it will work. Hopefully.

If it does work I will be devastated because AHCI was not in the lsmod of the working kernel, so it would have been a serious blunder on my side of things.

EDIT: Disabling AHCI did not fix the problem. Still can not find /dev/sda1. I will now try no AHCI with libata disabled and use ATA/ATAPI

EDIT 2: Disabling AHCI and using ATA/ATAPI results in the same problem but under ls /dev there are now hde hde1 hde2.

EDIT 3: I disabled IDE in the bios, the same problem acures but this time under ls /dev I get hda hda1 hda2 and I get a warning message to change /dev/sda to /dev/hda.

IT WORKED! I finally did something!

So if you have an old board like me disable ide in the bios, un-select libata and switch /dev/sda to /dev/hda and remove the uuid.

Also, what I could of done, which I forgot about was take the config that was working on the old kernel put that in my new kernel and use make oldconfig but whatever.

Good work! You were persistent.... and it helped to act like that!
And very useful tips! Tnx for posting the solution!

1 members found this post helpful.