Bug#774579: linux-image-3.16.0-4-amd64: Kernel fails to boot - cannot find root

[Ian Campbell <ijc@debian.org>]

On Mon, 2015-01-05 at 23:34 +0000, Dave Williams wrote:
> Hi Ben,
> 
> OK - so far I've got:
> - 3.14.15-2 works (found a .deb in apt archives on another machine)
> - 3.15.5 works (built this from source, but without applying debian
> patches (i.e. just unpackaged linux_3.15.5.orig.tar.xz and built that
> - haven't worked out how to apply all the debian patches yet (I'm
> assuming it's not tricky? I just haven't had time to find out how it's
> done)))
> - 3.16.7-ckt2-1 does not work (again - this is a pre-built .deb)
> 
> I'll keep you posted as I try different versions.
> If there are any particular versions where changes were made to the
> ata-piix driver (or whatever it depends on), then I can try them.
> Otherwise I'll just keep doing what I'm doing...  Next one I've
> downloaded source for is 3.16.2. I'll let you know how that one pans
> out.

Rather than building things yourself why not just use the existing
binaries from http://snapshot.debian.org/package/linux/ as Ben
suggested?

Between 3.15.5-1~exp1 (you've tested 3.15.5 but it'd be worth confirming
the actual package in case some patch is responsible) and 3.16.7-ckt2-1
that would give you (ignoring the ~bpo ones) these options:
      * 3.16.7-2
      * 3.16.7-1
      * 3.16.5-1
      * 3.16.3-2
      * 3.16.3-1
      * 3.16.2-3
      * 3.16.2-2
      * 3.16-1~exp1
      * 3.16~rc6-1~exp1
      * 3.16~rc5-1~exp1
Which you could bisect through in ~4 iterations without needing to build
anything at all. Chances are that would narrow it down to a particular
rc or a range of 1-2 stable releases.

Ian.