problem booting F13 kernel

[Craig White]

I did a yum update because I was struggling with installing from the
installation CD's and everything seemed to go well.

But when I booted I got an error - something like...

kernel panic - VFS Error - can't mount filesystem hd(0,0) which should
be /boot

The F12 kernel still boots though and the kernel parameters for my F12 &
F13 kernels are essentially the same. I also have re-run grub-install
but to no avail.

This was...
May 31 13:39:23 Installed: kernel-2.6.33.4-95.fc13.i686

So I removed the kernel and re-installed and it downloaded a newer
version of the kernel...

May 31 16:16:55 Installed: kernel-2.6.33.5-112.fc13.i686

Still the same problem. The only way I can boot is to choose the one F12
kernel still installed on this system...

2.6.32.11-99.fc12.i686

This is an Athlon processor, does that matter?

Any suggestions on how to proceed?

Craig


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[Craig White]

On Wed, 2010-06-02 at 09:51 +0530, Jayakrishnan M wrote:
>  Craig,
>  
>  On Wed, Jun 2, 2010 at 7:08 AM, Craig White <craigwhite(a)azapple.com&gt; wrote:
>  > On Tue, 2010-06-01 at 23:20 +0100, dexter wrote:
>  >> On 1 June 2010 16:59, Craig White <craigwhite(a)azapple.com&gt; wrote:
>  >> > On Tue, 2010-06-01 at 11:46 +0530, Jayakrishnan M wrote:
>  <snip>
>  >>
>  >> Well that looks nearly sane from here, but I would move the initrd
>  >> line in the F13 section to match how it is with F12 i.e before the
>  >> boot and savedefault lines. If still no joy I would try re-generating
>  >> initrd with dracut in /root and compare the two with lsinitrd..
>  > ----
>  > indeed that is all it took
>  >
>  > Of course my other issue was only remotely related - the onboard nVidia
>  > just is so poorly supported by KMS and jumpy and unusable so I stuck in
>  > a video card and it's working much better
>  >
>  > Thanks
>  >
>  > Craig
>  >
>  Good to know that you got it working.
>  Did you check the difference between the two ramdisks? My guess is
>  that the one you got while installing didn't have required disk
>  controller drivers. 
----
since what fixed it was moving the 'initramfs' command above
'savedefault & boot' lines, that the problem was that it was trying to
boot without the initramfs at all. I think that there is a bug in grubby
or whatever process installs the kernel on F13 which seemed to have the
boot commands out of sequence.

Craig


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[Jayakrishnan M]

Craig,

On Wed, Jun 2, 2010 at 7:08 AM, Craig White <craigwhite(a)azapple.com&gt; wrote:
>  On Tue, 2010-06-01 at 23:20 +0100, dexter wrote:
> > On 1 June 2010 16:59, Craig White <craigwhite(a)azapple.com&gt; wrote:
> > > On Tue, 2010-06-01 at 11:46 +0530, Jayakrishnan M wrote: 
<snip>
> >
> > Well that looks nearly sane from here, but I would move the initrd
> > line in the F13 section to match how it is with F12 i.e before the
> > boot and savedefault lines. If still no joy I would try re-generating
> > initrd with dracut in /root and compare the two with lsinitrd..
>  ----
>  indeed that is all it took
>
>  Of course my other issue was only remotely related - the onboard nVidia
>  just is so poorly supported by KMS and jumpy and unusable so I stuck in
>  a video card and it's working much better
>
>  Thanks
>
>  Craig
>  
Good to know that you got it working.
Did you check the difference between the two ramdisks? My guess is
that the one you got while installing didn't have required disk
controller drivers.

Jayakrishnan

[Craig White]

On Tue, 2010-06-01 at 23:20 +0100, dexter wrote:
>  On 1 June 2010 16:59, Craig White <craigwhite(a)azapple.com&gt;
> wrote:
>  > On Tue, 2010-06-01 at 11:46 +0530, Jayakrishnan M wrote:
>  >> Craig,
>  >>
>  >> On Tue, Jun 1, 2010 at 5:37 AM, Craig White <craigwhite(a)azapple.com&gt;
> wrote:
>  >> <snip>
>  >> > But when I booted I got an error - something like...
>  >> >
>  >> > kernel panic - VFS Error - can't mount filesystem hd(0,0) which should
>  >> > be /boot
>  >> >
>  >> <snip>
>  >> Please check the entries in /boot/grub/grub.conf and /etc/fstab. Since
>  >> you did a yum update, the entries should be fine; but it is better to
>  >> check those, just to be on the safer side.
>  >> Can you please post them to the list so that others can give ideas?
>  > ----
>  > OK - relevant portions
>  >
>  > #boot=/dev/sda
>  > default=0
>  > timeout=5
>  > splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
>  > hiddenmenu
>  >
>  > title           Fedora (2.6.33.5-112.fc13.i686)
>  > root            (hd0,0)
>  > kernel          /vmlinuz-2.6.33.5-112.fc13.i686 ro
>  > root=UUID=7734afd9-2d2e-43fc-baa2-b8ea07cc98f7 rhgb quiet \
>  >  SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 LANG=en_US.UTF-8 KEYTABLE=us
>  > savedefault
>  > boot
>  > initrd /initramfs-2.6.33.5-112.fc13.i686.img
>  >
>  > title           Fedora (2.6.32.11-99.fc12.i686)
>  > root            (hd0,0)
>  > kernel          /vmlinuz-2.6.32.11-99.fc12.i686 ro
>  > root=UUID=7734afd9-2d2e-43fc-baa2-b8ea07cc98f7 rhgb quiet \
>  >  SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 LANG=en_US.UTF-8 KEYTABLE=us \
>  >  nomodeset rdblacklist=nouveau
>  > initrd          /initramfs-2.6.32.11-99.fc12.i686.img
>  > savedefault
>  > boot
>  >
>  > The F13 kernel doesn't boot - gets the error (this is the exact message)
>  >
>  > Kernel panic-not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on
>  > unknown-block(0,0)
>  >
>  > and /dev/sda1 (hd 0,0) is /boot and it is ext3 - nothing special and of
>  > course it boots from the F12 kernel
>  >
>  > The F12 kernel boots - that is the only one I can use
>  >
>  > Craig
>  
>  A shot in the dark :-)
>  
>  Well that looks nearly sane from here, but I would move the initrd
>  line in the F13 section to match how it is with F12 i.e before the
>  boot and savedefault lines. If still no joy I would try re-generating
>  initrd with dracut in /root and compare the two with lsinitrd.. 
----
indeed that is all it took

Of course my other issue was only remotely related - the onboard nVidia
just is so poorly supported by KMS and jumpy and unusable so I stuck in
a video card and it's working much better

Thanks

Craig


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[Tom Horsley]

On Tue, 1 Jun 2010 23:20:56 +0100
dexter wrote:

>  A shot in the dark :-) 
Another shot in the dark: I have these files:

/boot/grub/grub.conf
/boot/grub/menu.lst (a symlink to /boot/grub/grub.conf)
/etc/grub.conf (also a symlink to /boot/grub/grub.conf)

Any chance some symlinks got broken somehow and
grub is actually looking at a different copy of the file
than the one you are looking at?

[dexter]

On 1 June 2010 16:59, Craig White <craigwhite(a)azapple.com&gt; wrote:
>  On Tue, 2010-06-01 at 11:46 +0530, Jayakrishnan M wrote:
> > Craig,
> >
> > On Tue, Jun 1, 2010 at 5:37 AM, Craig White <craigwhite(a)azapple.com&gt; wrote:
> > <snip>
> > > But when I booted I got an error - something like...
> > >
> > > kernel panic - VFS Error - can't mount filesystem hd(0,0) which should
> > > be /boot
> > >
> > <snip>
> > Please check the entries in /boot/grub/grub.conf and /etc/fstab. Since
> > you did a yum update, the entries should be fine; but it is better to
> > check those, just to be on the safer side.
> > Can you please post them to the list so that others can give ideas?
>  ----
>  OK - relevant portions
>
>  #boot=/dev/sda
>  default=0
>  timeout=5
>  splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
>  hiddenmenu
>
>  title           Fedora (2.6.33.5-112.fc13.i686)
>  root            (hd0,0)
>  kernel          /vmlinuz-2.6.33.5-112.fc13.i686 ro
>  root=UUID=7734afd9-2d2e-43fc-baa2-b8ea07cc98f7 rhgb quiet \
>   SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 LANG=en_US.UTF-8 KEYTABLE=us
>  savedefault
>  boot
>  initrd /initramfs-2.6.33.5-112.fc13.i686.img
>
>  title           Fedora (2.6.32.11-99.fc12.i686)
>  root            (hd0,0)
>  kernel          /vmlinuz-2.6.32.11-99.fc12.i686 ro
>  root=UUID=7734afd9-2d2e-43fc-baa2-b8ea07cc98f7 rhgb quiet \
>   SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 LANG=en_US.UTF-8 KEYTABLE=us \
>   nomodeset rdblacklist=nouveau
>  initrd          /initramfs-2.6.32.11-99.fc12.i686.img
>  savedefault
>  boot
>
>  The F13 kernel doesn't boot - gets the error (this is the exact message)
>
>  Kernel panic-not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on
>  unknown-block(0,0)
>
>  and /dev/sda1 (hd 0,0) is /boot and it is ext3 - nothing special and of
>  course it boots from the F12 kernel
>
>  The F12 kernel boots - that is the only one I can use
>
>  Craig 
A shot in the dark :-)

Well that looks nearly sane from here, but I would move the initrd
line in the F13 section to match how it is with F12 i.e before the
boot and savedefault lines. If still no joy I would try re-generating
initrd with dracut in /root and compare the two with lsinitrd..

...dex

[Craig White]

On Tue, 2010-06-01 at 11:46 +0530, Jayakrishnan M wrote: 
>  Craig,
>  
>  On Tue, Jun 1, 2010 at 5:37 AM, Craig White <craigwhite(a)azapple.com&gt; wrote:
>  <snip>
>  > But when I booted I got an error - something like...
>  >
>  > kernel panic - VFS Error - can't mount filesystem hd(0,0) which should
>  > be /boot
>  >
>  <snip>
>  Please check the entries in /boot/grub/grub.conf and /etc/fstab. Since
>  you did a yum update, the entries should be fine; but it is better to
>  check those, just to be on the safer side.
>  Can you please post them to the list so that others can give ideas? 
----
OK - relevant portions

#boot=/dev/sda
default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu

title           Fedora (2.6.33.5-112.fc13.i686)
root            (hd0,0)
kernel          /vmlinuz-2.6.33.5-112.fc13.i686 ro
root=UUID=7734afd9-2d2e-43fc-baa2-b8ea07cc98f7 rhgb quiet \
  SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 LANG=en_US.UTF-8 KEYTABLE=us
savedefault
boot
initrd /initramfs-2.6.33.5-112.fc13.i686.img

title           Fedora (2.6.32.11-99.fc12.i686)
root            (hd0,0)
kernel          /vmlinuz-2.6.32.11-99.fc12.i686 ro
root=UUID=7734afd9-2d2e-43fc-baa2-b8ea07cc98f7 rhgb quiet \
  SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 LANG=en_US.UTF-8 KEYTABLE=us \
  nomodeset rdblacklist=nouveau
initrd          /initramfs-2.6.32.11-99.fc12.i686.img
savedefault
boot

The F13 kernel doesn't boot - gets the error (this is the exact message)

Kernel panic-not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on
unknown-block(0,0)

and /dev/sda1 (hd 0,0) is /boot and it is ext3 - nothing special and of
course it boots from the F12 kernel

The F12 kernel boots - that is the only one I can use

Craig 


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[Jayakrishnan M]

Craig,

On Tue, Jun 1, 2010 at 5:37 AM, Craig White <craigwhite(a)azapple.com&gt; wrote:
<snip>
>  But when I booted I got an error - something like...
>
>  kernel panic - VFS Error - can't mount filesystem hd(0,0) which should
>  be /boot
>  
<snip>
Please check the entries in /boot/grub/grub.conf and /etc/fstab. Since
you did a yum update, the entries should be fine; but it is better to
check those, just to be on the safer side.
Can you please post them to the list so that others can give ideas?
>  This is an Athlon processor, does that matter?
>  
This shouldn't matter.
>  Any suggestions on how to proceed?
>
>  Craig 
Jayakrishnan