Re: boot failure "mount: mounting /dev/sda1 on /root failed: no such device"
On Mon, Jul 13, 2009 at 17:52, Kelly Clowers<kelly.clowers@gmail.com> wrote:
> 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.
Going to try this now, since break= does not seem to work for
some reason...
Cheers,
Kelly Clowers
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