Re: boot failure "mount: mounting /dev/sda1 on /root failed: no such device"

[Kelly Clowers <kelly.clowers@gmail.com>]

On Mon, Jul 13, 2009 at 16:38, Andrew Reid<reidac@bellatlantic.net> wrote:
> On Tuesday 07 July 2009 15:26:54 Kelly Clowers wrote:
>
>> Is there a way to get a shell inside the initramfs, to
>> look around?
>
>  You can boot with "break=mount" as a kernel option, it
> will drop you into a busybox shell just before mounting
> the root directory.  The initramfs environment doesn't
> inherit environment variables from the boot scripts, but
> you can browse the file system and run the scripts and
> stuff.

Thanks, that might help.

>  I've run into similar problems when the initramfs
> didn't include the right driver module for the disk drive --
> the result is that the BIOS can see the drive, and GRUB
> can see it, but the kernel can't -- you get symptoms
> similar to what you describe, and it's also consistent
> with the LiveCD working, as it presumably has a full
> kernel.
>  The solution in that case is to get the right module into
> the initramfs, most simply by just listing it by name
> in /etc/initramfs-tools/modules and rebuilding the
> initramfs.
>
>  I haven't mentioned it because it doesn't make sense
> in your case -- you're restoring an RMA'd drive on
> an old box, where presumably the motherboard SATA
> device hasn't changed, so the initramfs you restored
> from back-up should work, plus you said you rebuilt the
> initramfs several times.

Yeah, and anyway, it isn't like I am using rare drivers -
it is an Intel MB, and I don't even have LVM or anything.

Anyway, thanks for the advice, I will see what I can do
with it.

>  The other way to investigate the initramfs, incidentally,
> is to just unpack it somehwere -- it's a cpio archive, you
> can google for instructions.

Also good to know.


Thanks,
Kelly Clowers