Bug#407495: Linux 2.6.18-686 serious boot problem in multi-user-mode, single-user boots without problems. (Kernel or scripts in initrd?)
Package: linux-image-2.6.18-3-686
Version: 2.6.18-7
Severity: grave
My hardware constallation:
It is a little hard to describe. I had done a fresh network-installation
on a rather old machine. The hardware is a little "nonstandard", so I
think I have to describe it.
The greatest part of the system is installed on a 30 GB harddisk, which
is not usable with my BIOS. But I this computer, there is a IDE
RAID-controller, which makes the disk available. The root file system,
including /boot is installed on a second hard disc, which is accessible
and bootable by the BIOS. I could not do a totally new partition of the
disk, because it contains a lot of data of a friend. ;-)
This system disk is /dev/hda, the data disk is /dev/hde. This are my
partitions and mountpoints:
/dev/hda1 Swap
/dev/hda2 (W95 extended)
/dev/hda3 on / (ext3, with bootable-flag)
/dev/hde1 Swap
/dev/hde2 on /usr (ext3)
/dev/hde3 on /home (ext3)
The output of sed 1q /proc/ide/ide2/config:
pci bus 00 device 48 vendor 1095 device 0680 channel 0
I dont know the exact type of the the card. I am happy that it works...
My boot manager is grub.
The 2.6.8-3-386 kernel boots without any problem. The exact version of
the working kernel is (output of cat /proc/version):
Linux version 2.6.8-3-386 (root@lart) (gcc version 3.3.5 (Debian
1:3.3.5-13)) #1 Sat Jul 15 09:26:40 UTC 2006
How I experienced the problem:
After the internet installation I got a 2.6.8 kernel. I wanted to use a
webcam, but the spca5xx modules package required a 2.6.18 kernel, so I
decided to update the kernel. I used aptitude for the installation.
After the installation, I wanted to boot my new kernel. The kernel
booted, but after a short while strange error messages appeared on the
screen and I found myself in this little shell named busybox. The most
important messages here:
Messages:
Running /scripts/local-premount
[...]
name_to_dev_t(/dev/hda1) = hda1(3,1)
Trying to resume from /dev/hda1
Attempting manual resume
[...]
kinit: No resume image
[...]
Mounting /sys on /root/sys failed
[...]
/scripts/init-bottom
Mounting /root/dev on /dev/static/dev failed
(Sorry for not giving a whole transcript, I found no way to write it to
a file...)
Important additional information:
I read a little in the scripts in /scripts (but I didn't understand them
fully and I didn't try this). They seem to expect the root file system
(in my case /dev/hda3) mounted on /root - but as I looked in /root, I
found my /home directories on this machine. But the system seems to
"believe", that the /dev/hde disk is my /dev/hda disk, a "mount" command
shows me that /dev/hda was mounted.
Really strange, and not what I expected...
But it can go much stranger.
I made a second try and booted the Kernel in recovery mode (single user,
with the single parameter to the kernel). And it booted without any
problems. This is really weird, but I can not analyze it further.
(Analyzing such problems is fun, but not the thing I boot a computer
for.)
Of course, it is reproduceable on my machine.
I think, there comes a subtle bug in the kernel or the scripts on the
initrd together with the unusual hardware.
Reply to: