Bug#385949: initramfs-tools: lilo not run after installation; system did not boot any more
Package: initramfs-tools
Version: 0.77b
Severity: critical
Justification: breaks the whole system
*** Please type your report below this line ***
I use Debian testing.
The latest "apt-get update; apt-get upgrade" installed version 0.77b.
After that, the system would not boot again:
-=-=-=
[...]
ACPI wakeup devices
PCI0 UAR1 USB1 USB2 USB3 [...]
ACPI: (supports S0 S1 S4 S5)
RAMDISK: Compressed image found at block 0
invalid compressed format (err=1)
VFS: cannot open root device "305" or unknown-block(3,5)
Please append a correct "root=" boot option
Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(3,5)
-=-=-=
A web search ran from a live CD led me think this was because "lilo" had failed to
be run after the update. The following sequence, inspired from this URL:
http://www.developpez.net/forums/archive/index.php/t-40078.html
fixed it for me (commands run as root in a terminal on the live CD ---
YMMV as hda/hda5 depend on every system):
-=-=-=
mkdir -p /mnt/hda/proc /mnt/hda/dev/shm /mnt/hda/sys
mount -t proc proc /mnt/hda/proc
mount -t sysfs sysfs /mnt/hda/sys #si c'est un kernel 2.6.x
mount -f -t tmpfs tmpfs /mnt/hda/dev
mount -f -t tmpfs tmpfs /mnt/hda/dev/shm
mount -f -t devpts -o gid=4,mode=620 devpts /mnt/hda/dev/pts
mount /dev/hda5 /mnt/hda
chroot /mnt/hda
-=-=-=
Then I could run:
-=-=-=
Knoppix:/# lilo
-=-=-=
(Actually I had to run "lilo -P ignore", as suggested by lilo, because
of a problem, but I think this is unrelated. I reran "lilo" without
problems or warnings once I had correctly booted up the usual system).
Suggestion: (I will now try to switch to GRUB but) DO include this lilo
check in your non-regression tests!
lilo is normally installed on my system:
-=-=-=
# dpkg -l lilo
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Installed/Config-files/Unpacked/Failed-config/Half-installed
|/ Err?=(none)/Hold/Reinst-required/X=both-problems (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name Version Description
+++-===========================-===========================-======================================================================
ii lilo 22.6.1-7.1 LInux LOader - The Classic OS loader can load Linux and others
-=-=-=
-- Package-specific info:
-- /proc/cmdline
auto BOOT_IMAGE=Linux-2.6.16 ro root=305
-- /proc/filesystems
13: cramfs
17: ext3
-- lsmod
Module Size Used by
ipt_MASQUERADE 3200 1
xt_tcpudp 3072 1
iptable_filter 2816 0
ip_nat_ftp 3072 0
ip_conntrack_ftp 7324 1 ip_nat_ftp
iptable_nat 7684 1
ip_nat 16116 3 ipt_MASQUERADE,ip_nat_ftp,iptable_nat
ip_tables 11352 2 iptable_filter,iptable_nat
ip_conntrack 48952 5 ipt_MASQUERADE,ip_nat_ftp,ip_conntrack_ftp,iptable_nat,ip_nat
nfnetlink 6168 2 ip_nat,ip_conntrack
x_tables 11396 4 ipt_MASQUERADE,xt_tcpudp,iptable_nat,ip_tables
radeon 96032 1
drm 62228 2 radeon
ipv6 218912 8
ppdev 8324 0
lp 10496 0
dm_mod 48180 0
snd_emu10k1_synth 6400 0
snd_emux_synth 30528 1 snd_emu10k1_synth
snd_seq_virmidi 6272 1 snd_emux_synth
snd_seq_midi_emul 5760 1 snd_emux_synth
snd_seq_dummy 3588 0
snd_seq_oss 27812 0
snd_seq_midi 8096 0
snd_seq_midi_event 6592 3 snd_seq_virmidi,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi
snd_seq 43852 9 snd_emux_synth,snd_seq_virmidi,snd_seq_midi_emul,snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_emu10k1 99940 1 snd_emu10k1_synth
snd_rawmidi 22496 3 snd_seq_virmidi,snd_seq_midi,snd_emu10k1
snd_ac97_codec 82848 1 snd_emu10k1
snd_ac97_bus 2112 1 snd_ac97_codec
i2c_viapro 7956 0
snd_pcm_oss 44128 0
snd_mixer_oss 15744 1 snd_pcm_oss
i2c_core 19536 1 i2c_viapro
mousedev 10496 1
tsdev 7296 0
snd_pcm 74504 3 snd_emu10k1,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss
snd_seq_device 8332 8 snd_emu10k1_synth,snd_emux_synth,snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq,snd_emu10k1,snd_rawmidi
via_ircc 23252 0
snd_timer 20420 3 snd_seq,snd_emu10k1,snd_pcm
snd_page_alloc 9864 2 snd_emu10k1,snd_pcm
snd_util_mem 4352 2 snd_emux_synth,snd_emu10k1
irda 161596 1 via_ircc
snd_hwdep 8580 2 snd_emux_synth,snd_emu10k1
snd 46400 13 snd_emux_synth,snd_seq_virmidi,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_emu10k1,snd_rawmidi,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_seq_device,snd_timer,snd_hwdep
crc_ccitt 2048 1 irda
shpchp 39424 0
pci_hotplug 24308 1 shpchp
emu10k1_gp 3520 0
evdev 8832 0
psmouse 34504 0
analog 9888 0
serio_raw 6532 0
gameport 13576 3 emu10k1_gp,analog
parport_pc 31728 1
parport 32008 3 ppdev,lp,parport_pc
rtc 11444 0
pcspkr 3012 0
via_agp 9408 1
agpgart 29296 2 drm,via_agp
floppy 55916 0
soundcore 8736 1 snd
ext3 117064 8
jbd 47316 1 ext3
mbcache 7684 1 ext3
ide_generic 1216 0 [permanent]
ide_cd 35680 0
cdrom 32240 1 ide_cd
ide_disk 14720 10
uhci_hcd 26896 0
tulip 46048 0
ehci_hcd 26952 0
usbcore 111136 3 uhci_hcd,ehci_hcd
via82cxxx 8068 0 [permanent]
generic 4228 0 [permanent]
ide_core 111536 5 ide_generic,ide_cd,ide_disk,via82cxxx,generic
thermal 13064 0
processor 21760 1 thermal
fan 4548 0
-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
APT prefers testing
APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash
Kernel: Linux 2.6.16-2-k7
Locale: LANG=en_US, LC_CTYPE=en_US (charmap=ISO-8859-1)
Versions of packages initramfs-tools depends on:
ii busybox 1:1.1.3-2 Tiny utilities for small and embed
ii cpio 2.6-17 GNU cpio -- a program to manage ar
ii klibc-utils 1.4.19-2 small statically-linked utilities
ii module-init-tools 3.2.2-3 tools for managing Linux kernel mo
ii udev 0.093-1 /dev/ and hotplug management daemo
initramfs-tools recommends no packages.
-- no debconf information
Reply to: