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Bug#655347: marked as done (improve 4.6.3. of release notes not from end user perspective)



Your message dated Thu, 2 May 2013 22:18:10 +0200
with message-id <20130502201810.GA6725@radis.cristau.org>
and subject line Re: Bug#655347: upgrade-reports: initramfs prompt on boot, 4.6.3. of release notes not from end user perspective
has caused the Debian Bug report #655347,
regarding improve 4.6.3. of release notes not from end user perspective
to be marked as done.

This means that you claim that the problem has been dealt with.
If this is not the case it is now your responsibility to reopen the
Bug report if necessary, and/or fix the problem forthwith.

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-- 
655347: http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=655347
Debian Bug Tracking System
Contact owner@bugs.debian.org with problems
--- Begin Message ---
Package: upgrade-reports
Severity: normal

I have personally encountered the problem referenced at 4.6.3 of the upgrade
release notes, on several systems.  All of them boot from software mirror
RAID on SCSI hardware from 2002 to 2006 vintage.  In each case, I needed
to add the kernel option rootdelay=9 to allow the system to boot.

I did not find the solution in the release notes because the symptoms
of the problem are not specifically mentioned in 4.6.3.  When the problem
happens, to the end user point of view, it fails to find the root
file system and dumps us out to the initramfs prompt.  We are not
aware this is a timing issue with udev, so the heading "Boot timing issues"
does not catch the eye.  The current heading does not describe
the problem well from the end user perspective.

I feel this problem would be identified in the release notes if there is
specific mention of the initramfs shell/prompt rather than the vague
reference to "a debug shell".  If that section could be rewritten to
describe what happens from the end user's perspective, with
details like what text is shown, what prompt appears, it would help.

I also feel this issue should be found under section 4.5 (possible issues
during upgrade). 


-- System Information:
Debian Release: 6.0.3
  APT prefers stable
  APT policy: (500, 'stable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.32-5-686 (SMP w/1 CPU core)
Locale: LANG=en_CA, LC_CTYPE=en_CA (charmap=ISO-8859-1)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash



--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
On Tue, Jan 10, 2012 at 10:21:20 -0400, Francis Picabia wrote:

> I have personally encountered the problem referenced at 4.6.3 of the upgrade
> release notes, on several systems.  All of them boot from software mirror
> RAID on SCSI hardware from 2002 to 2006 vintage.  In each case, I needed
> to add the kernel option rootdelay=9 to allow the system to boot.
> 
> I did not find the solution in the release notes because the symptoms
> of the problem are not specifically mentioned in 4.6.3.  When the problem
> happens, to the end user point of view, it fails to find the root
> file system and dumps us out to the initramfs prompt.  We are not
> aware this is a timing issue with udev, so the heading "Boot timing issues"
> does not catch the eye.  The current heading does not describe
> the problem well from the end user perspective.
> 
> I feel this problem would be identified in the release notes if there is
> specific mention of the initramfs shell/prompt rather than the vague
> reference to "a debug shell".  If that section could be rewritten to
> describe what happens from the end user's perspective, with
> details like what text is shown, what prompt appears, it would help.
> 
> I also feel this issue should be found under section 4.5 (possible issues
> during upgrade). 
> 
I've applied the following to squeeze and wheezy release notes:

diff --git a/en/upgrading.dbk b/en/upgrading.dbk
index 81692b6..e5c4418 100644
--- a/en/upgrading.dbk
+++ b/en/upgrading.dbk
@@ -1290,9 +1290,8 @@ minimal upgrade process described in <xref linkend="minimal-upgrade"/>.
 </para>
 </section>
 
-<!-- FIXME: REVIEW for Squeeze this was written for Lenny - drop? (jfs) -->
 <section id="boot-timing">
-<title>Boot timing issues</title>
+<title>Boot timing issues (waiting for root device)</title>
 <para>
 If an initrd created with <systemitem
 role="package">initramfs-tools</systemitem> is used to boot the system, in some
@@ -1302,8 +1301,17 @@ act on.
 </para>
 <para>
 The usual symptoms are that the boot will fail because the root file system
-cannot be mounted and you are dropped into a debug shell. But if you
-check afterwards, all devices that are needed are present in
+cannot be mounted and you are dropped into a debug shell:
+<screen>
+Gave up waiting for root device.  Common problems:
+ - Boot args (cat /proc/cmdline)
+   - Check rootdelay= (did the system wait long enough?)
+   - Check root= (did the system wait for the right device?)
+ - Missing modules (cat /proc/modules; ls /dev)
+ALERT!  <replaceable>/dev/something</replaceable> does not exist.  Dropping to a shell!
+(initramfs) 
+</screen>
+But if you check afterwards, all devices that are needed are present in
 <filename>/dev</filename>. This has been observed in cases where the root file
 system is on a <acronym>USB</acronym> disk or on <acronym>RAID</acronym>, especially if <acronym>LILO</acronym><indexterm><primary>LILO</primary></indexterm> is used.
 </para>

Cheers,
Julien

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