Re: rootdelay=9 kernal option - why?

[Camaleón <noelamac@gmail.com>]

On Fri, 06 Jan 2012 16:23:03 -0400, francis picabia wrote:

> On Thu, Jan 5, 2012 at 12:28 PM, Camaleón <noelamac@gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Thu, 05 Jan 2012 08:12:03 -0400, francis picabia wrote:
>>
>>> On most of my older systems, I've needed to add the option rootdelay=9
>>> to make the system boot when upgrading to the kernel and such for
>>> squeeze. Without it, the root file system is not found and it drops
>>> you into the initramfs prompt.
>>
>> Mmm, yes, it is documented:
>>
>> 4.6.3. Boot timing issues
>> http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/release-notes/ch-upgrading.en.html#boot-timing
> 
> Thanks for the link...
> 
> This type of documentation can always be found if you already know the
> problem and solution, but it is invisible if you only have a symptom.  

Sure! :-)

I wonder how did you finally reached the conclusion for the "rootdelay", 
I wouldn't either have imagined so after finding any clue over Internet, 
forums and mailing lists... even after reading the Relase Notes, you still 
have to connect the points to identify your booting problem with the solution 
showed there.

> I was already expecting it this time, but the first time I encountered
> it I took some time to find the problem.  The better way to describe it
> is to include details on what kind of failure you will see, with some
> parts of the text as it appears on the screen.  I would not call it
> "boot timing issues", but rather "No root file system on boot, drops to
> initramfs prompt". Calling it merely "a debug shell" is too vague and
> does not match google searches.  People discussing it in forums and
> mailing lists match the search terms, while the Debian release notes do
> not.

I agree, but this is something that comes with the years and experience. 
Old dogs have developed a sixth sense for identifying such issues :-)

> I generally print out the release notes prior to upgrade.  In
> particular, it might help to place this in chapter 5 rather than 4. 
> Chapter 5 is "Issues to be aware of for squeeze".  As this didn't happen
> in Debian 5, I would think it belongs there.
> 
> There has been some improvement on the errors shown on the screen
> lately, with at least 3 potential problems listed when this goes sour,
> and one of them is the rootdelay option.

It is still unclear why you're seeing the error, unless you're at any of 
the mentioned scenarios (using USB disks, RAID or LILO) the timing 
problem should not bit you.

Greetings,

-- 
Camaleón