Red Hat Bugzilla – Bug 206679
Unable to do initial boot after install (no initrd).
Last modified: 2007-11-30 17:11:43 EST
Description of problem: I got around my previous install bug by telling it to use DHCP, but now having completed the initial installation, and trying to boot for the first time to fill in all the initial settings, it can't seem to boot. On the console I see: VFS: Cannot open root device "sda7" or unknown-block (0,0) Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): How reproducible: ONly tried once so far - perhaps if I try again it will work better. Steps to Reproduce: 1. Install FC6t3 from DVD 2. Click the reboot button following the installation. 3. Actual results: Error above about root partition not being there Expected results: Bott into linux and start testing things. Additional info: The partitons seem to actually be there OK. An fdisk -l when booted into FC5 on the same machine after installing FC6t3 shows perfectly wonderful ext3 partitions with lots of stuff in them: Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 * 1 13 104391 83 Linux /dev/sda2 14 26 104422+ 83 Linux /dev/sda3 27 39 104422+ 83 Linux /dev/sda4 40 19457 155975085 5 Extended /dev/sda5 40 6541 52227283+ 83 Linux /dev/sda6 6542 13043 52227283+ 83 Linux /dev/sda7 13044 19457 51520423+ 83 Linux Disk /dev/sdb: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdb1 * 1 1020 8193118+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris /dev/sdb2 1021 19457 148095202+ 83 Linux The grub.conf file it generated looks like: # grub.conf generated by anaconda # # Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file # NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that # all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg. # root (hd0,2) # kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/sda7 # initrd /initrd-version.img #boot=/dev/sda3 default=0 timeout=5 splashimage=(hd0,2)/grub/splash.xpm.gz hiddenmenu title Fedora Core (2.6.17-1.2630.fc6) root (hd0,2) kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.17-1.2630.fc6 ro root=/dev/sda7 rhgb quiet and the device.map file looks like: # this device map was generated by anaconda (hd0) /dev/sda All that seems to be consistent with what I'd expect, though it is strange to see if use the /dev/sda7 syntax instead of the LABEL=/ syntax it normally seems to use. This board uses the nforce sata for the disks, but they have been working fine in previous FC6 versions.
I've tried booting a couple of more times, still get same error. Also tried switch to the LABEL= syntax, also same error (modulo the different device it says it can't find). I'm changing priority to high, since I seem to be totally blocked by this (and FC6t2 was working so well on this machine in the same partitions :-).
I was going to look at the initrd file in the /boot partition to see if the init script was doing anything funny, but there is no initrd image. Does this mean the problem is missing drivers for the sata disks? Should there be an initrd image? Any anaconda log files I should attach to this?
That seems to be it. I noticed that the same kernel was installed by FC6t3 as I was running from the last update of t2, so I copied the initrd from the t2 backup to the new t3 /boot and added the initrd line to grub.conf, and was able to boot into FC6t3 OK. Somehow anaconda seems to have neglected to build the initrd I seem to need.
Yup, similar to 206513 and my DVD instal on an Athlon x64 does exactly as you describe. Am in process of trying to generate a functional initrd and install it now, but this seems to be the problem/answer. Complete showstopper for me.
*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 206453 ***