Bug#271434: kernel: SATA harddrive handling makes system unbootable at update

[Gert Ohme <ohm@grs.de>]

Package: kernel
Followup-For: Bug #271434

I noticed the same problem (pivot_root: No such file or directory)
on a Dell Dimension 8300 with 2 SATA-harddisks and 2 IDE CD, DVD after
a simple update from
        kernel-image-2.6.7-xxx-686 -> kernel-image-2.6.8-1.686

This update made the system unbootable,

Reason: the SATA-disks on my system cannot be handled by the IDE-driver

I got the system bootable again with two changes:

1) changed "kernel"-record in the file /boot/grub/menu.lst
   /dev/hdxx -> /dev/sdxx
   i.e.:
        kernel          /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.8-1-686 root=/dev/hda5 ro ->
        kernel          /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.8-1-686 root=/dev/sda1 ro

2) generated a new /boot/initrd.img-2.6.8-1-686 with changes to the 
   file loadmodules
   i added to loadmodules the two lines:
        modprobe -k ata_piix
        modprobe -k sd_mod

hopefully this helps a bit.
Cheers Gert


-- System Information:
Debian Release: 3.1
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Kernel: Linux 2.6.8-1-686
Locale: LANG=de_DE@euro, LC_CTYPE=de_DE@euro