Re: Bug#636123: linux-image-2.6.39 not booting due to older package (not in list of dependencies!)
On Tue, Aug 02, 2011 at 02:05:05PM +0100, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton wrote:
> http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=636123
>
> there's a rather complex set of interdependencies between
> linux-image-2.6.39, libdevmapper, initramfs-tools and LVM that has
> resulted in a system which last had 2.6.32-trunk-amd64 installed (and
> associated packages) failing to boot when the latest 2.6.39 kernel was
> installed. the root filesystem is on an LVM partition.
>
> the error that occurred will be familiar to anyone who has done kernel
> development especially embedded linux development: unable to find root
> filesystem, after only about 5-10 lines of kernel messages. it's
> incredibly early on in the boot process, and is probably in the
> initial ramdisk stuff, when looking for (duh) the root filesystem.
>
> the *only* thing that was installed, which resulted in the boot
> failure, was the linux 2.6.39 kernel. this, obviously, triggered an
> initrd build (but not of the 2.6.32 one, i don't recall seeing that:
> could be wrong though).
>
> now, i've discussed this on the bugtracker and there clearly isn't -
> and really shouldn't be - a listed debian dependency between
> linux-image-2.6.39 kernel and a userspace library. however, there
> clearly *is* a dependency because "It Don't Wurk (tm)".
>
> so the issue is: how the bloody hell should this clear dependency be
> expressed in "Debian Dependency" terms, such that nobody else runs
> smack into this same issue?
>
> ben's suggested that there may be something in initramfs-tools that's
> up the creek. however, i'm having difficulty finding a link (depends,
> rdepends) between libdevmapper and initramfs-tools (which may in fact
> be the issue).
>
> are there any other ideas on how this may be resolved?
the kernel is racy and before you were just lucky, it scsi is involved use
scsi_mod.scan=sync
if not use bootparam
rootdelay=9
known stuff, no need to cry, documented
http://wiki.debian.org/InitramfsDebug
--
maks
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