Bug#237834: /usr/sbin/mkinitrd: Cannot determine root device
Package: install
Version: 20040312 (floppies)
Severity: normal
1.
Installation of the kernel fails because mkinitrd cannot determine
the root device. The following is taken from var/log/messages:
Reading Package Lists...
Building Dependency Tree...
The following extra packages will be installed:
kernel-image-2.4.25-1-686 suggested packages:
lilo kernel-doc-2.4.25 kernel-pcmcia-modules-2.4.25-1-686
The following NEW packages will be installed:
kernel-image-2.4-686 kernel-image-2.4.25-1-686
0 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 12.2MB of archives.
After unpacking 32.5MB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://ftp.us.debian.org sarge/main kernel-image-2.4.25-1-686 2.4.25-1 [1$Get:2 http://ftp.us.debian.org sarge/main kernel-image-2.4-686 2.4.25-1 [6414B]Fetched 12.2MB in 5m27s (37.2kB/s)
Selecting previously deselected package kernel-image-2.4.25-1-686.
(Reading database ... 7209 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking kernel-image-2.4.25-1-686 (from .../kernel-image-2.4.25-1-686_2.4.25$Selecting previously deselected package kernel-image-2.4-686.
Unpacking kernel-image-2.4-686 (from .../kernel-image-2.4-686_2.4.25-1_i386.deb$Setting up kernel-image-2.4.25-1-686 (2.4.25-1) ...
/usr/sbin/mkinitrd: Cannot determine root device
Failed to create initrd image.
dpkg: error processing kernel-image-2.4.25-1-686 (--configure):subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 9
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of kernel-image-2.4-686:kernel-image-2.4-686 depends on kernel-image-2.4.25-1-686; however:Package kernel-image-2.4.25-1-686 is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing kernel-image-2.4-686 (--configure):dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:kernel-image-2.4.25-1-686kernel-image-2.4-686
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
Some other points are:
2.
Perhaps the documentation should suggest that with a serial console
one has to be cautious with the setting of the language, country and
keyboard. In particular, there should be some matching between the
settings of the terminal in which the console is displayed and that of
the system that is installed. On the other hand, experienced
administrators are aware of that already.
3.
I had to configure the network manually because it turned out that the
dhcp method puts too much load onto my weak dhcp server. It took me a
long time to find out that the constant failures to install the base
system, which looked un reproducible, are due to the fact that my router,
which is also a dhcp server, can not handle the fast rate of dhcp
requests that the system to be installed is putting on it. Perhaps the
expert method of the installation should offer the user a choice about
the frequency of renewals of the lease contract? Alternatively, maybe the
default should be set to a much smaller renewal requests frequency?
4.
I believe that with a full installed system that doesn't use a
frame buffer, specifying
console=tty0 console=ttyS0,9600n8
as kernel parameters will make a serial console the main console of the
system while still keeping VTs in the physical console that is attached
to the system. Is there a way to have something like that with the d-i?
5.
When specifying parameters for the kernel modules (like IRQ and IO),
having a way to select to which modules parameters should be asked for
will be helpful. Iterating through all the models just to press `enter'
because specific parameters are not required is annoying.
--
"If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange apples then
you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I
have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two
ideas." -- George Bernard Shaw (sent by shaulk @ actcom . net . il)
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