Re: Boot Problems with 2.6.32-5-686 Kernel

On Thu, Oct 24, 2013 at 3:34 AM, Tom H <tomh0665@gmail.com> wrote:

On Thu, Oct 24, 2013 at 4:02 AM, Mark Phillips

<mark@phillipsmarketing.biz> wrote:
> On Wed, Oct 23, 2013 at 6:10 AM, Tom H <tomh0665@gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Wed, Oct 23, 2013 at 3:54 AM, Mark Phillips
>> <mark@phillipsmarketing.biz> wrote:
>>>
>>> I ran apt-get update and apt-get upgrade this morning on an old server
>>> (Debian Squeeze) and the system won't boot now. I get the error
>>>
>>> kernel panic not syncing: VFS: unable to mount root fs on unknown
>>> -block(0,0)
>>>
>>> One of the updates was to kernel 2.6.32-5-686. I can boot in to safe
>>> mode with this kernel, and the upgrade wiped out the older version of the
>>> kernel.
>>>
>>> I have googled for possible solutions, but nothing helpful is popping
>>> up. I am also running grub, and not grub2, but that is OK for this kernel
>>> according to debian.org.
>>
>> Are the "root" and "kernel" lines of the regular and recovery lines
>> diffeent (other than the recovery kernel line having "single" added)?
>

> Yes, I looked in /boot/grub.cfg and the lines for the menu entries for both
> normal boot and recovery mode are identical except regular boot says quiet
> and recovery says single.
>
> Still can't get it to boot.

Please bottom-post.

Since you're using grub1, I hope that you mean "/boot/grub/menu.lst".
"grub.cfg" is grub2's menu configuration file and it's in
"/boot/grub/".

I'm having trouble understanding how you can mount "/" when booting
with "single" and cannot mount "/" when you boot without it since the
same initramfs is used for both (unless your "initrd" lines in
"menu.lst" are different in the regular and recovery cases).

Tom,

Sorry about the top posting...gmail made me do it! ;)

I am very confused at this point. I guess I do have grub2 installed, as I do not have a menu.lst, but only /boot/grub/grub.cfg.

For completeness, my grub.cfg:
root@hammerhead:/home/mark# cat /boot/grub/grub.cfg
#
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE
#
# It is automatically generated by grub-mkconfig using templates
# from /etc/grub.d and settings from /etc/default/grub
#

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
if [ -s $prefix/grubenv ]; then
load_env
fi
set default="0"
if [ "${prev_saved_entry}" ]; then
set saved_entry="${prev_saved_entry}"
save_env saved_entry
set prev_saved_entry=
save_env prev_saved_entry
set boot_once=true
fi

function savedefault {
if [ -z "${boot_once}" ]; then
    saved_entry="${chosen}"
    save_env saved_entry
fi
}

function load_video {
insmod vbe
insmod vga
insmod video_bochs
insmod video_cirrus
}

insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 2de70949-fd34-49d0-98e7-3bcfedff81e8
if loadfont /usr/share/grub/unicode.pf2 ; then
set gfxmode=640x480
load_video
insmod gfxterm
fi
terminal_output gfxterm
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 2de70949-fd34-49d0-98e7-3bcfedff81e8
set locale_dir=($root)/boot/grub/locale
set lang=en
insmod gettext
set timeout=5
### END /etc/grub.d/00_header ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###
set menu_color_normal=cyan/blue
set menu_color_highlight=white/blue
### END /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
menuentry 'Debian GNU/Linux, with Linux 2.6.32-5-686' --class debian --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
    insmod part_msdos
    insmod ext2
    set root='(hd0,msdos1)'
    search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 2de70949-fd34-49d0-98e7-3bcfedff81e8
    echo    'Loading Linux 2.6.32-5-686 ...'
    linux    /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-5-686 root=UUID=2de70949-fd34-49d0-98e7-3bcfedff81e8 ro quiet
    echo    'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
    initrd    /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-5-686
}
menuentry 'Debian GNU/Linux, with Linux 2.6.32-5-686 (recovery mode)' --class debian --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
    insmod part_msdos
    insmod ext2
    set root='(hd0,msdos1)'
    search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 2de70949-fd34-49d0-98e7-3bcfedff81e8
    echo    'Loading Linux 2.6.32-5-686 ...'
    linux    /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-5-686 root=UUID=2de70949-fd34-49d0-98e7-3bcfedff81e8 ro single
    echo    'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
    initrd    /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-5-686
}
### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_linux_xen ###
### END /etc/grub.d/20_linux_xen ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries. Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment. Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.
### END /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/41_custom ###
if [ -f $prefix/custom.cfg ]; then
source $prefix/custom.cfg;
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/41_custom ###
root@hammerhead:/home/mark#

The only changes I have made to the system was to boot into recovery mode, and then do a shutdown -n how. I then tried to reboot into normal mode and it booted without any error messages! I have tried about 5 reboots and they all succeeded without any errors or failures.

Everything is back up and running.

Gremlins......

Thanks for your help!

Mark