From Bugzilla Helper: User-Agent: Mozilla/4.75 [en] (X11; U; Linux 2.2.18 i686) I have 2 LINUX partitions on my SCSI disk: /dev/sda1 and /dev/sda3, where /dev/sda3 is a direct copy of /dev/sda1. If I try an update installation of my system residing on /dev/sda3 with RH 7.1 wolverine, then I'm asked after the 'linear mode' question whether I want to write the boot record on /dev/sda or /dev/sda1; I think, it would be a mistake to install the boot record on /dev/sda1, it should be /dev/sda3. Here, I stopped the installation. In the fisher beta, I skipped the linear question and performed the complete update, but, damned, then my primary RedHat on /dev/sda1 had been overwritten !! And when I tried to boot from this /dev/sda1 partition, after the kernel boot had been perfermed, and before starting the init process, the boot crashed with the msg: 'kernel too old'. Even if trying to reboot with my old boot diskette which normally enables to boot from /dev/sda1, the booting crashed with the above msg. My mistake or RedHat's? Regards Joachim Backes <backes.de> Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. see Description. 2. 3. Actual Results: see description Expected Results: see description see description
Your /etc/fstab file on the /dev/sda3 partition says that /dev/sda1 is the '/' partition, doesn't it?
Oops, you're right. Indeed, I forgot to modify /etc/fstab. Additionally, I forgot to madify /etc/lilo.conf too. That's my mistake. Please excuse for troubles :) Regards Joachim Backes
Now, after a correct modification of /etc/fstab in /dev/sda3, a tried again to make an update installation by the wolverine RH Beta, with writing the boot loader into /dev/sda3 (not /dev/sda), and writing a boot diskette. After the finished installation, I tried to boot my system now by using this new boot diskette, but after the kernel was loaded, and before the init proc was started, the boot stopped by a VFS panic message: could not use partition 08:03 for mounting. MY impression is that on the boot diskette the scsi driver aic7xxx.0 was missing (in the meanwhile, the diskette has been overwritten so that I cannot report here contents). Regards Joachim Backes
If you could possibly reproduce the issue it will help alot. I do not know of any problems with aic systems booting from floppy.
Hi, I could reproduce the bug on an additional PC system! I suspect the following: My running kernel 2.2.18 has been bound together with aic7xxx, that means, the disk dirver aic7xxx is not loaded as module in my normal system, therefore in the copied system too which had been upgraded. But I suppose that the boot diskette which was made by anaconda during the update was built with the very modular 2.4.1 kernel residing on the RH 7.1 CD, which needs aic7xxx as lodable module. But I suppose, this module is missing on the initrd on boot diskette. The exact boot messages: ... ... request-module [block-major-8]: Root fs not mounted VFS: Cannot open root device "sda3" or 08:05 Please append a correct "root=" boot option Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 08:03 =================================== I tried to mount the boot diskette on another LINUX, but is was not mountable: mount /mnt/floppy mount: /dev/fd0 already mounted or /mnt/floppy busy root@sunny [root]: fsck /dev/fd0 Parallelizing fsck version 1.18 (11-Nov-1999) e2fsck 1.18, 11-Nov-1999 for EXT2 FS 0.5b, 95/08/09 fsck.ext2: Device or resource busy while trying to open /dev/fd0 The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2 filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2 filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock: e2fsck -b 8193 <device> Regards Joachim Backes -- Joachim Backes <backes.de> | Univ. of Kaiserslautern Computer Center, Supercomputing Division | Phone: +49-631-205-2438 D-67653 Kaiserslautern, PO Box 3049, Germany | Fax: +49-631-205-3056 ---------------------------------------------+------------------------ WWW: http://hlrwm.rhrk.uni-kl.de/home/staff/backes.html
Please change VFS: Cannot open root device "sda3" or 08:05 into VFS: Cannot open root device "sda3" or 08:03 in my previous message (typing error).
Aditionally, an upgrade always is impossible (independent from an additional partition) from RH 7.0 to WOLVERINE, if the SCSI disk driver is not loaded as module. Additionally, when making a boot diskette during the upgrade, and booting after upgrading from this diskette, the loader stops with the message: Kernel too old (see above too). This can be reproduced.
Assigning to an engineer.
Sounds like something could be wrong with your boot floppy if it can't be mounted on a different machine. The 'kernel too old' message is really weird too. I think that you may have mismatched boot disks or a bad floppy.
Again, the problem can be reproduced! The boot floppy was made by the RedHat upgrade installer during upgrade (not by myself), exactly on the machine which was booted afterwads. I tried it more than one time. How to reproduce: 1. Install pure RH 7.0 2. Make an own kernel (2.2.18 for example), where the SCSI driver is kernel inbound (no module) 3. Make an RH 7.1 upgrade with an boot floppy produced by the upgrade installer 4. Now test booting ;-) 4.
The kernel on the installed system shouldn't have any effect on the installer, since it has it's own kernel. I don't understand steps 3 and 4 of your last posting. I'm not sure what "Make an RH 7.1 upgrade with an boot floppy produced by the upgrade installer." means.
Hi, step 3 means: when upgrading from RH 7.0 to RH 7.1, then let the RH 7.1 installer make a boot diskette (with th RH 7.1 kernel), when you are asked. step 4 means: Now reboot your system with this boot diskette, if the update is done. Additionally: My remark to your remark "The kernel on the installed system shouldn't have any effect on the installer, since it has it's own kernel." I think, this is an important point: exactly this is my problem. My opinion is -I repeat myself- that the RH 7.1 installer forgets to install the correspondent scsi driver module for my scsi interface card (adaptec 2940). Regards Joachim Backes
What happens if after upgrading if you boot the system without the bootdisk? I'm trying to see if we're making an incorrect boot disk or if the problem is larger than that.
AS I told you in a previous email, the system stops after kernel loading, but before mounting the root fs with the following msg: ... ... request-module [block-major-8]: Root fs not mounted VFS: Cannot open root device "sda3" or 08:05 Please append a correct "root=" boot option Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 08:03
I think this is a dupe of 31477. From what the folks in QA say, there were problems with the aic7xxx, but the more recent kernels have fixed this.