Re: boot failure

[Michael Lange <klappnase@freenet.de>]

Hi,

Thus spoketh Pierre Frenkiel <pierre.frenkiel@gmail.com> 
unto us on Tue, 24 Jan 2012 13:03:19 +0100 (CET):

(...)
>   ===============================================================
>     [    3.903186] scsi_mod: '20a' invalid for parameter 'inq_timeout'
>     done
>     Gave up waiting for root device.  Common problems:

according to modinfo scsi_mod:

    parm:           inq_timeout:Timeout (in seconds) waiting for devices
                    to answer INQUIRY. Default is 20. Some devices may
                    need more; most need less. (uint)

so apparently it's the "20a" that is passed as 'inq_timeout' to scsi_mod
that makes insmod scsi_mod fail and so the disk is not recognized.

I don't know where it is coming from though, not sure if it is possible
to pass such module parameters through grub, but you can easily verify
this, if you hit "e" on one of the not working menu entries.

If it is not grub, it must be something in the initrd; I would try to
unpack the initrd with 

    $ zcat initrd.img | cpio -i

and then grep its contents for lines containing "scsi_mod" or "20a", maybe
this reveals the source of your problems.
If you find something, you can edit these file(s) and then re-pack the
initrd with the command

   $ find | cpio --create --format=newc | gzip > initrd.img

run from the root of the unpacked initrd's directory tree and see if the
resulting initrd works.

Regards

Michael

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