Re: [gentoo-user] Can't see /dev/hda1,2,3 but I know they exist...

[daid kahl <daidxor@gmail.com>]

On 19 February 2010 20:43, Iain Buchanan <iaindb@netspace.net.au> wrote:
> On Fri, 2010-02-19 at 00:49 -0500, James Homuth wrote:
>> I performed a bit of an update on my laptop a day or two ago, and
>> after reboot, I lost the ability to do anything with /dev/hda*. I
>> currently have 0 swap space, and according to stat, ls etc, they don't
>> exist. But, booting to an install CD I burned for diagnostic purposes,
>> it sees them just fine. Also, and this is the strange part. It boots
>> no problem, so the OS is able to mount at least /dev/hda3, even though
>> from the command line I'm not seeing it. I'm probably missing
>> something completely dead obvious (it's after midnight here and all),
>> and Google's turning up nothing, so if someone could kindly slap me in
>> the face with it, that'd be appreciated. Thanks either way for
>> whatever help comes my way.
>
> The first thing that jumps to my mind is you have an older initrd that
> has your HD drivers in it (such as ATA), but the newer kernel you've
> probably just built (is that what you mean by "a bit of an update"?)
> doesn't.
>
> Check for an initrd, and tell us what "a bit of an update" means :)  You
> could also compare config files between your rescue CD and your system,
> if you can find it!
>
> HTH,
> --
> Iain Buchanan <iaindb at netspace dot net dot au>
>

Copy the live cd kernel to your machine and make it an option in grub
and try booting that.  Then at least you can stop chrooting and
optical mounting.  This will give us some information on if it is a
kernel problem or not.  Make sure to make modules_install

If it's the kernel, check out kccmp to compare the kernel options
between Live CD and the machine's kernel configuration after you dig
up the configuration for the kernel on the Live CD.

Other people are mentioning udev, and I wonder about this, too.
Either before or after you check the kernel (whichever you decide is
easier or seems better to you), can you chroot and rebuild udev
through portage and also run a revdep-rebuild please?  You said you
updated, but it is not clear to me that the full update was proper.
If you don't have revdep-rebuild, emerge the gentoolkit in the portage
tree to get it, and check out the documentation to see what else it
includes!

~daid