[gentoo-user] * Boot (initramfs) .. does not continue

[gentoo-user] * Boot (initramfs) .. does not continue

[Maximilian Bräutigam]

Hi all,

on my new computer i recently installed gentoo using a raid1
of /dev/sda6 and /dev/sdb6. i'm using genkernel with nearly standard
config (except the configs regarding raid and power management) and my
grub ist configured as u see below:

title           Gentoo Linux x86_64-2.6.28-5 (fb)
root            (hd0,5)
kernel          /boot/kernel-genkernel-x86_64-2.6.28-gentoo-r5
root=/dev/ram0 init=/linuxrc ramdisk=8192 real_root=/dev/md1 udev
video=vesafb:mtrr:3,ywrap vga=838
initrd          /boot/initramfs-genkernel-x86_64-2.6.28-gentoo-r5
savedefault
boot

The framebuffer is working well, the scans that are made before booting
are working and then it tries to 
 * boot (initramfs) ..
and at this point he simply stops and does nothing anymore.

yesterday, everything was working fine, but i can't remember that i did
something wrong or extraordinary. for me it sounds like raid-support is
broken, but my config is ok. recompilation of kernel was no problem.

please, help me solving this weird problem, that is driving me crazy.

thank you very much in advance.

kind regards,
der Max

Re: [gentoo-user] * Boot (initramfs) .. does not continue

[Volker Armin Hemmann]

On Samstag 16 Mai 2009, Maximilian Bräutigam wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> on my new computer i recently installed gentoo using a raid1
> of /dev/sda6 and /dev/sdb6. i'm using genkernel with nearly standard
> config (except the configs regarding raid and power management) and my
> grub ist configured as u see below:

probably forgot something there.
>
> title           Gentoo Linux x86_64-2.6.28-5 (fb)
> root            (hd0,5)
> kernel          /boot/kernel-genkernel-x86_64-2.6.28-gentoo-r5
> root=/dev/ram0 init=/linuxrc ramdisk=8192 real_root=/dev/md1 udev
> video=vesafb:mtrr:3,ywrap vga=838
> initrd          /boot/initramfs-genkernel-x86_64-2.6.28-gentoo-r5
> savedefault
> boot

ugh. You know that you don't need an initrd for raid1?

>
> The framebuffer is working well, the scans that are made before booting
> are working and then it tries to
>  * boot (initramfs) ..
> and at this point he simply stops and does nothing anymore.
>
> yesterday, everything was working fine, but i can't remember that i did
> something wrong or extraordinary. for me it sounds like raid-support is
> broken, but my config is ok. recompilation of kernel was no problem.
>
> please, help me solving this weird problem, that is driving me crazy.

boot systemrescuecd
mount /dev/md1 /mnt/gentoo
cd /mnt/gentoo
mount --bind /proc proc
mount --bind /dev dev
mount --bind /sys sys
chroot ./. /bin/zsh
etc-update
exit
reboot

Re: [gentoo-user] * Boot (initramfs) .. does not continue

[Mike Kazantsev]

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On Sat, 16 May 2009 12:11:59 +0200
Maximilian Bräutigam <max-braeu@gmx.de> wrote:

> on my new computer i recently installed gentoo using a raid1
> of /dev/sda6 and /dev/sdb6. i'm using genkernel with nearly standard
> config (except the configs regarding raid and power management) and my
> grub ist configured as u see below:
...
> 
> The framebuffer is working well, the scans that are made before booting
> are working and then it tries to 
>  * boot (initramfs) ..
> and at this point he simply stops and does nothing anymore.

I've never had a chance to use genkernel, but unless you're using LVM
on top of the raid, kernel with mdraid and fs drivers compiled-in should
be able to see it, so you can try booting without initramfs line and
hope genkernel hasn't compiled rootfs and mdraid support as modules.

-- 
Mike Kazantsev // fraggod.net

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Re: [gentoo-user] * Boot (initramfs) .. does not continue

[Maximilian Bräutigam]

Am Samstag, den 16.05.2009, 16:23 +0600 schrieb Mike Kazantsev:
> On Sat, 16 May 2009 12:11:59 +0200
> Maximilian Bräutigam <max-braeu@gmx.de> wrote:
> 
> > on my new computer i recently installed gentoo using a raid1
> > of /dev/sda6 and /dev/sdb6. i'm using genkernel with nearly standard
> > config (except the configs regarding raid and power management) and my
> > grub ist configured as u see below:
> ...
> > 
> > The framebuffer is working well, the scans that are made before booting
> > are working and then it tries to 
> >  * boot (initramfs) ..
> > and at this point he simply stops and does nothing anymore.
> 
> I've never had a chance to use genkernel, but unless you're using LVM
> on top of the raid, kernel with mdraid and fs drivers compiled-in should
> be able to see it, so you can try booting without initramfs line and
> hope genkernel hasn't compiled rootfs and mdraid support as modules.
> 
hi Mike,

could you please tell me, where to find these options in menuconfig,
because if i'm compiling my kernel i use:
genkernel --menuconfig all

if you are thinking of the options in 
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gentoo-x86+raid+lvm2-quickinstall.xml
-- these are enabled.

by the way, if i'm booting w/o the initrd, i get a kernel panic because
he is not able to mount/find the raid system -- something with
"superblock not found".

i'm despaired.
thank you very much.
der Max

[gentoo-user] Re: * Boot (initramfs) .. does not continue

[Remy Blank]

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Maximilian Bräutigam wrote:
> by the way, if i'm booting w/o the initrd, i get a kernel panic because
> he is not able to mount/find the raid system -- something with
> "superblock not found".

I assume you have set the partition type of your RAID components to "fd"
(RAID autodetect)?

-- Remy


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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: * Boot (initramfs) .. does not continue

[Maximilian Bräutigam]

Am Samstag, den 16.05.2009, 13:44 +0200 schrieb Remy Blank:
> Maximilian Bräutigam wrote:
> > by the way, if i'm booting w/o the initrd, i get a kernel panic because
> > he is not able to mount/find the raid system -- something with
> > "superblock not found".
> 
> I assume you have set the partition type of your RAID components to "fd"
> (RAID autodetect)?
> 
> -- Remy
> 

Hi Remy,

yes of course i did, because everything worked fine since today. but to
be sure, i looked at cfdisk: "Linux raid autodetect".

kind regards,
der Max

Re: [gentoo-user] * Boot (initramfs) .. does not continue

[Mike Kazantsev]

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On Sat, 16 May 2009 13:33:04 +0200
Maximilian Bräutigam <max-braeu@gmx.de> wrote:

> could you please tell me, where to find these options in menuconfig,
> because if i'm compiling my kernel i use:
> genkernel --menuconfig all
> 
> if you are thinking of the options in 
> http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gentoo-x86+raid+lvm2-quickinstall.xml
> -- these are enabled.

Yes, I mean these options as well, but in recent kernels there's one
more flag in "Multi-dev" section that's missing in the guide:
"Autodetect RAID arrays during kernel boot".
Obviously, it should be set if you want to boot from mdraid.

  Device Drivers  --->
    [*] Multiple devices driver support (RAID and LVM)  --->
      <*>   RAID support
        [*]     Autodetect RAID arrays during kernel boot
        <*>     RAID-1 (mirroring) mode

But that's not all the prequesites, since you also need a device
and fs driver compiled in.

It might look like this (but the hardware and/or fs is probably
different in your case):

  Device Drivers  --->

    SCSI device support  ---> (RAID settings here is not for sw raid)
      -*- SCSI device support
      <*> SCSI disk support

    <*> Serial ATA (prod) and Parallel ATA (experimental) drivers  --->
      <*>   AHCI SATA support
      [*]   ATA SFF support
        <*>     Intel ESB, ICH, PIIX3, PIIX4 PATA/SATA support

  File systems  --->
    <*> The Extended 4 (ext4) filesystem


> by the way, if i'm booting w/o the initrd, i get a kernel panic because
> he is not able to mount/find the raid system -- something with
> "superblock not found".

-- 
Mike Kazantsev // fraggod.net

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Re: [gentoo-user] * Boot (initramfs) .. does not continue

[Maximilian Bräutigam]

Am Samstag, den 16.05.2009, 18:09 +0600 schrieb Mike Kazantsev:
> On Sat, 16 May 2009 13:33:04 +0200
> Maximilian Bräutigam <max-braeu@gmx.de> wrote:
> 
> > could you please tell me, where to find these options in menuconfig,
> > because if i'm compiling my kernel i use:
> > genkernel --menuconfig all
> > 
> > if you are thinking of the options in 
> > http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gentoo-x86+raid+lvm2-quickinstall.xml
> > -- these are enabled.
> 
> Yes, I mean these options as well, but in recent kernels there's one
> more flag in "Multi-dev" section that's missing in the guide:
> "Autodetect RAID arrays during kernel boot".
> Obviously, it should be set if you want to boot from mdraid.
> 
>   Device Drivers  --->
>     [*] Multiple devices driver support (RAID and LVM)  --->
>       <*>   RAID support
>         [*]     Autodetect RAID arrays during kernel boot
>         <*>     RAID-1 (mirroring) mode
> 
> But that's not all the prequesites, since you also need a device
> and fs driver compiled in.
> 
> It might look like this (but the hardware and/or fs is probably
> different in your case):
> 
>   Device Drivers  --->
> 
>     SCSI device support  ---> (RAID settings here is not for sw raid)
>       -*- SCSI device support
>       <*> SCSI disk support
> 
>     <*> Serial ATA (prod) and Parallel ATA (experimental) drivers  --->
>       <*>   AHCI SATA support
>       [*]   ATA SFF support
>         <*>     Intel ESB, ICH, PIIX3, PIIX4 PATA/SATA support
> 
>   File systems  --->
>     <*> The Extended 4 (ext4) filesystem
> 
> 
> > by the way, if i'm booting w/o the initrd, i get a kernel panic because
> > he is not able to mount/find the raid system -- something with
> > "superblock not found".
> 
Hi Mike and all other gentoos ;) 

all of your mentioned options are enabled (since genkernel and me did
it).

i copied all data to another partition /dev/sdb9 and disabled initrd. by
the way, i think that initrd was running, because all the scans after
executing the initrd ran without problems. despite, i disabled it and
got a kernel panic, like:

"""
[md] scanned 0 and added 0
 ...
VFS: cannot open root device "sdb9" or unknown block(0,0)
please append correct "root="
 ...
Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: unable to mount root fs on
unknown-block(0,0)
"""

i don't know how to handel this error, since my grub entry is correct
(or not?):

"""
title		Gentoo Linux x86_64-2.6.28-5 (no initrd) (on /dev/sdb9)
root		(hd1,8)
kernel		/boot/kernel-genkernel-x86_64-2.6.28-gentoo-r5 root=/dev/sdb9
"""

kind regards,
der Max

Re: [gentoo-user] * Boot (initramfs) .. does not continue

[Mike Kazantsev]

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On Sat, 16 May 2009 16:01:10 +0200
Maximilian Bräutigam <max-braeu@gmx.de> wrote:

> all of your mentioned options are enabled (since genkernel and me did
> it).
> 
> i copied all data to another partition /dev/sdb9 and disabled initrd. by
> the way, i think that initrd was running, because all the scans after
> executing the initrd ran without problems. despite, i disabled it and
> got a kernel panic, like:
> 
> """
> [md] scanned 0 and added 0
>  ...
> VFS: cannot open root device "sdb9" or unknown block(0,0)
> please append correct "root="
>  ...
> Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: unable to mount root fs on
> unknown-block(0,0)
> """

I think there should also be a list of detected partitions (if any).

> i don't know how to handel this error, since my grub entry is correct
> (or not?):
> 
> """
> title		Gentoo Linux x86_64-2.6.28-5 (no initrd) (on /dev/sdb9)
> root		(hd1,8)
> kernel		/boot/kernel-genkernel-x86_64-2.6.28-gentoo-r5 root=/dev/sdb9
> """

Looks correct to me.
"kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/md0" works fine in my case with RAID1 and
posted above settings, nearly all the other device drivers are modular.

Prehaps it's just some weird version-hardware compatibility issue or
build problem, although I believe it's quite rare with disk / fs
drivers, so you must be doing something wrong.

Try stopping the system boot as soon as possible using "I" key, exiting
to shell, and look at the output of "lsmod".
It should list the stuff you have loaded as modules, which were probably
loaded from initrd (since the system won't boot w/o it), so you can try
either compiling the relevant ones in or dropping them from initrd to
see if the system can boot (yeah, sounds crazy, but it might be just
simplier ;)

With some luck, there might be something critical you've just managed
to miss, easily detectable at the first glance.

-- 
Mike Kazantsev // fraggod.net

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