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    #1

    [SOLVED] refusing to boot after update

    HELP...

    I could do with some advice:
    yesterday updated Kubuntu 7.10, but got a weird message at the end, something about all updates not being fully installed or so (if I only had payed attention). At the same time I was also downloading/installing WINE in a different screen.
    Anyway, things did run ok afterwards, and even WINE seemed ok. Did have some problems when trying to look something up on one of the drives, that was not there anymore (a partition on my HD) - but a soft boot fixed that.

    But today at boot the problems began: messages as follows:

    "cannot open root device"
    "please append a correct "root=" boot option"
    " Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: unable to mount root fs on unknown block"

    At this point my computer stops, and cannot be convinced to continue other than to switch off/on the power supply. I do have several CD's to boot in Linux to fix things, but I'm wondering what to fix?? I have a dual boot system, the boot loader is ok, and booting in XP works.

    Anyone who can tell me what to do?
    Thanks in advance.

    Are you Microsoft's slave, or do you master Linux?
    Tags: None
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    #2
    Re: refusing to boot after update

    Hi,

    funny indeed. What you appear to have done I have tried unsuccessfully for many a year

    To cut a long story short, it is impossible to have two installation process happening at the same time.

    So what happened?

    See if you can boot using Qqmike's grub tutorial. I'm afraid I don't have the link to hand but it is in this forum and definitely worth knowing all about. Try that and report back unless somebody else can provide better advice.
    Once your problem is solved please mark the topic of the first post as SOLVED so others know and can benefit from your experience! / FAQ
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      #3
      Re: refusing to boot after update

      I don't think my How-To will help directly. The symptoms you describe are those of a bad boot stanza for Kubuntu in your GRUB configuration file /boot/grub/menu.lst. Specifically, it sure sounds like your kernel options might be messed up and/or something is wrong (or not working) with the initrd statement (which specifies ramdisk).
      I don't know anything about Wine.

      If you want to post your file /boot/grub/menu.lst, maybe someone can catch something on it.
      You'll probably have to use Super Grub Disk to boot into your Kubuntu to get menu.lst or use the Kubuntu Live CD to access it.
      An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way. Charles Bukowski
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        #4
        Re: refusing to boot after update

        Originally posted by toad
        funny indeed. What you appear to have done I have tried unsuccessfully for many a year

        To cut a long story short, it is impossible to have two installation process happening at the same time.

        So what happened?
        Ah, well, I started to download the upgrade (approx 17 packets or so); during this I started to look for WINE with the idea to check it out; little did I know that it would simply go ahead and install itself as soon as I pressed the button that I thought would first give me an explanation of what was going to happen...

        So, a learning experience! Meanwhile I ran Super Grub, and followed the instructions of fixing the boot loader; I got the message it was ok, so I rebooted. Indeed the start has changed a bit, but is still not completed successfully: I get the Bootmenu, choose Kubuntu 7.10 (same goes for the 7.10 recovery), than I get the message that the system is starting, but then again fails (stops). Message: "[31.267082] Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: unable to mount root fs an unknown-block (0,0)"

        I then did boot from a live CD (Puppy Linux), and checked out the boot menu in /boot/grub, which looked ok to me. Please see the attached copy.

        One final remark: my computer has only 1 HD, which is partitioned into
        hda 0,0 XP boot
        0,1 data - NTFS
        0,2 Linux boot
        0,3 Linux home
        0,4 Linux swap
        I wonder if this has to do with the "unknown block (0,0)"??
        Attached Files
        Are you Microsoft's slave, or do you master Linux?
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          #5
          Re: refusing to boot after update

          hda 0,0 XP boot
          0,1 data - NTFS
          0,2 Linux boot
          0,3 Linux home
          0,4 Linux swap

          So there's no Extended partition? Just those 5 primary partitions?
          (You can only have 4 primary partitions. Since you need 5, that must be set as follows:

          XP boot
          data - NTFS
          Linux boot
          Extended partition
          Linux home (a Logical partition)
          Linux swap (another Logical partition)
          An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way. Charles Bukowski
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            #6
            Re: refusing to boot after update

            Oops, yes, you are absolutely right!
            There is (and of course must be ) an extended partition - could well be as you describe.
            Are you Microsoft's slave, or do you master Linux?
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              #7
              Re: refusing to boot after update

              probably too late now for my comment, but, actually, I put the swap right after the Extended (i.e., as the first Logical partition within the Extended because it does not change in size--it is fixed at, whatever, 500 MB to 1.5 GB. That way /home is the second Logical partition, and it has room to be re-sized.

              In fact, my latest idea is this, for the sdb Linux drive in my system:

              sdb1 Dedicated GRUB partition 10 MB (you only need 1 MB)
              sdb2 root files for the “main” Kubuntu I'm using 15 GB (more than adequate)
              sdb3 root files for an experimental instance of Kubuntu 40 GB allowance (for /home or whatever)
              sdb4 Extended
              sdb5 swap 1.5 GB (more than enough room)
              sdb6 /home for the “main” sdb2 Kubuntu (40 GB—includes room to back up the sdb2 root files here using a simply dd command)
              and plenty of room for anything else on this 160 GB Seagate SATA

              And the menu.lst on the sdb1 GRUB partition is simple:
              for each Linux OS :
              title Kubuntu (or any other Linux) whatever
              configfile (hdx,y)/boot/grub/menu.lst

              Plus an entry for XP on (hd0,0).

              I never have to change the menu.lst when I change the OS on (hdx,y).

              An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way. Charles Bukowski
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                #8
                Re: refusing to boot after update

                How simple it turned out to be!

                Well, solved!

                First of all, used a live CD to edit menu.lst, and 'unremark' Ubuntu 7.10, kernel 2.6.20-16-generic (which I remarked out to make the startup-menu shorter). Now I was able to start up again using this kernel. By looking into /boot/grub I noticed that one of the files had 0 bytes, namely initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic; further more, the last edited date matched the date of my unfortunate installation proces. So I copied the .bak copy of the file into the named one, and was able again to start up under 22-14!

                I still think that there is a problem with the update manager though: again I downloaded 4 packages today, and again I got a message saying that although downloaded they could not be installed, maybe due to a not complete download. Next, the update manager crashed. A new startup shows no packages to update.
                How can I make the update manager check that whatever was downloaded indeed was installed??

                Does anyone know a command to check the loaded kernel version?

                Thanks.
                Are you Microsoft's slave, or do you master Linux?
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                  #9
                  Re: refusing to boot after update

                  Originally posted by Luigi01
                  Does anyone know a command to check the loaded kernel version?
                  In a console type:
                  Code:
                  uname -a
                  Windows no longer obstructs my view.
                  Using Kubuntu Linux since March 23, 2007.
                  "It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data." - Sherlock Holmes​
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                    #10
                    Re: refusing to boot after update

                    "one of the files had 0 bytes, namely initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic"

                    Yep. No initrd, no ramdisk setup, no boot -- every time
                    Seriously, though, wonder how the heck it ended up 0 bytes? Good that you were keen to use the bak. Nice work.
                    An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way. Charles Bukowski
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                      #11
                      Re: refusing to boot after update

                      Luigi01 – a note

                      Some credit goes to you for suggesting a solution to a problem I had with /boot/initrd.img.
                      http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...seen#msg114186

                      At first, I thought about grabbing an initrd.img from somewhere and replacing my broken one with it. I already tried a repair, but that didn't work (see link). Then, I remembered your trick to rename the backup file .bak. Worked great! Then I used a copy of THAT one to make a new .bak file (just in case ). Thanks. --Mike

                      An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way. Charles Bukowski
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