Bug 278521

Summary: Kernel panic on boot with 2.6.9-55.0.6.ELsmp
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 Reporter: Andrew Gormanly <a.gormanly>
Component: kernelAssignee: David Milburn <dmilburn>
Status: CLOSED CURRENTRELEASE QA Contact: Martin Jenner <mjenner>
Severity: high Docs Contact:
Priority: medium    
Version: 4.5CC: jgarzik, peterm, prarit
Target Milestone: ---   
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: x86_64   
OS: Linux   
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version: Doc Type: Bug Fix
Doc Text:
Story Points: ---
Clone Of: Environment:
Last Closed: 2010-07-09 16:45:21 UTC Type: ---
Regression: --- Mount Type: ---
Documentation: --- CRM:
Verified Versions: Category: ---
oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:
Attachments:
Description Flags
messages from the kernel as it fails to boot
none
dmesg output from working kernel 2.6.9-55.0.2.ELsmp
none
last lines of boot with "debug" keyword none

Description Andrew Gormanly 2007-09-05 14:34:50 UTC 
Description of problem:
The new kernel, 2.6.9-55.0.6.ELsmp panic on boot, unable to find the root
partition on sda10.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
2.6.9-55.0.6.ELsmp

How reproducible:
Every time.

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Boot machine.
2.
3.
  
Actual results:
Panic after "Red Hat nash version 4.2.1.10 starting" beginning with "mkrootdev:
label / not found".  Full output attached below.

Expected results:
"INIT: version 2.85 booting" then normal boot as with 2.6.9-55.0.2.ELsmp and
earlier.

Additional info:
Machine is a Dell XPS M1210 laptop.

I'll attach a hand-typed copy of the boot messages before the panic and the
output of dmesg from the running 2.6.9-55.0.2.ELsmp kernel.

I suspect either that the newer kernel is trying and failing to use SATA drivers
and the old is using generic, or the new initrd is missing something (it's ~6k
smaller).

I'll try making a new initrd and booting from it.
Comment 1 Andrew Gormanly 2007-09-05 14:34:50 UTC 
Created attachment 187491 [details]
messages from the kernel as it fails to boot
Comment 2 Andrew Gormanly 2007-09-05 14:35:59 UTC 
Created attachment 187501 [details]
dmesg output from working kernel 2.6.9-55.0.2.ELsmp
Comment 3 Prarit Bhargava 2007-09-12 15:21:44 UTC 
Andrew, could you boot 2.6.9-55.0.6.ELsmp and replace "quiet" with "debug" on
the boot line, and then attach the output here?

Thanks,

P.
Comment 4 Andrew Gormanly 2007-09-12 16:40:53 UTC 
Created attachment 193651 [details]
last lines of boot with "debug" keyword

It occurs to me that another possibility is that mkrootdev is expecting the
root partition to have a low number - which it doesn't in this case; / is
/dev/sda10 and the partitions are not in disk order.  It should find it based
on the e2label, but it clearly does not.
Comment 5 Neall Doren 2008-04-14 16:14:28 UTC 
Any news on this?  Identical problem happens to me on all x86 (not 64 bit)
kernels from 2.6.9-55.0.2.ELsmp and beyond.  All previous (2.6.9-42.0.8.ELsmp
and earlier) boot normally.
Comment 6 David Milburn 2010-07-08 16:52:17 UTC 
If possible, would you please try a more recent kernel? Thank you.

http://people.redhat.com/jwilson/el5/204.el5/
Comment 7 Andrew Gormanly 2010-07-09 15:15:10 UTC 
Impossible, I'm afraid, the machine's long gone.  I got around the bug in the end, but can't remember how, sorry.
Comment 8 David Milburn 2010-07-09 16:45:21 UTC 
Ok, thanks for the info, I will close this BZ, please re-open if necessary.