Cobalt Qube2 boot problem

Message

cioannou · Post by **cioannou** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 8:02 pm

After completing installation steps (according to handbook), tried to "reboot" , the command did not work so I had to "power off" and back on.

The system started booting and gave me the following message.

Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(3,5)

And now I cannot even netboot like before....

Partition table:

hda:
hda1 /boot ext2
hda2 < hda5 hda6 >

hda5 / reiserfs (couldn't use ext3 because mke2fs -j /dev/hda5 was giving an error)
hda6 swap

--

The kernel was built:

a) make cobalt_defconfig
b) make vmlinux modules modules_install
c) cp vmlinux /boot/kernel-2.6.16.17
d) gzip -9v /boot/kernel-2.6.16.17

Boot process:

mount hda1
...
execute root=/dev/hda5 ro console=ttyS0,115200

Any suggestions??

Redhatter · Post by **Redhatter** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 2:44 am

Can you check your kernel's .config for ReiserFS support? On mine, I have CONFIG_REISERFS_FS=m. You'll need CONFIG_REISERFS_FS=y to use ReiserFS as a root filesystem (which is not recommended).

grep REISER /path/to/.config should tell you what you're after.

Incidentally... what happens when you try to netboot?

cioannou · Post by **cioannou** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 8:08 am

Thanks for the reply, it seems u are the alternative platforms guru around here (u had helped me with the Octane also)...

Firstly, i selected reiserfs because "mke2fs -j /dev/hda5" failed miserably, so I selected the next alternative, why do u say it's not a good idea to have reiserfs on root?

As for netboot, the steps in this machine were:

a) Cobalt OS
b) Use NetBSD cobalt CD to install netBSD
c) netboot Gentoo (followed handbook instructions "make cobalt_defconfig", did not burn the colo image into qube's firmware, only emerged colo)
d) netboot never worked again!!!

For some reason the netboot process is destroyed, when I press the <- -> buttons it displays "Netbooting" but nothing happens , it reboots and boots from hda.

finally I managed to:

nfs 192.168.1.2 /nfsroot kernel.gz
boot 2
execute .... root=/dev/ram0

It booted now, so I mounted the hda5 and left it to compile the kernel with support for all major fsystems.

I also copied the netboot files to hda1 (/boot) hoping that since it mounts it from the boot menu (serial console) it might also be able to use the netboot kernel to boot in case something else breaks.

Is it possible to make an installation CD, just like NetBSD's or at least have a lilo like menu to select which kernel to boot (netboot kernel or mine)?

Redhatter · Post by **Redhatter** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 8:18 am

cioannou wrote:Thanks for the reply, it seems u are the alternative platforms guru around here (u had helped me with the Octane also)...

Who's this "u" fellow you keep referring to? (Yeah... please leave SMS speak to SMS messages... if you don't mind

)

cioannou wrote:Firstly, i selected reiserfs because "mke2fs -j /dev/hda5" failed miserably, so I selected the next alternative, why do u say it's not a good idea to have reiserfs on root?

How does it "fail miserably"?
I'm not keen on ReiserFS /, largely because ReiserFS is known for having filesystem corruption issues, and isn't as well tested on MIPS as EXT3.

cioannou wrote:As for netboot, the steps in this machine were:

a) Cobalt OS
b) Use NetBSD cobalt CD to install netBSD
c) netboot Gentoo (followed handbook instructions "make cobalt_defconfig", did not burn the colo image into qube's firmware, only emerged colo)
d) netboot never worked again!!!

For some reason the netboot process is destroyed, when I press the <- -> buttons it displays "Netbooting" but nothing happens , it reboots and boots from hda.

finally I managed to:

nfs 192.168.1.2 /nfsroot kernel.gz
boot 2
execute .... root=/dev/ram0

Odd... it should do that automatically...?

cioannou wrote:It booted now, so I mounted the hda5 and left it to compile the kernel with support for all major fsystems.

Did you check for ReiserFS support in your .config?

cioannou wrote:I also copied the netboot files to hda1 (/boot) hoping that since it mounts it from the boot menu (serial console) it might also be able to use the netboot kernel to boot in case something else breaks.

Yeah, you just need the kernel.gz file... nothing else. The vmlinux.gz file is actually CoLo.

cioannou wrote:Is it possible to make an installation CD, just like NetBSD's?

This is on the cards... I'm looking into how to get Catalyst to produce such a LiveCD. Basically it'll turn your machine into a boot and terminal server... but this will have to wait until my exams are over.

cioannou · Post by **cioannou** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 8:59 pm

How does it "fail miserably"?
I'm not keen on ReiserFS /, largely because ReiserFS is known for having filesystem corruption issues, and isn't as well tested on MIPS as EXT3.

it was giving me "Wrong option -j" , but it was there when I tried mke2fs --help , dont know why it didn't work, also reboot , halt , shutdown don't work.

Did you check for ReiserFS support in your .config?

Yep, it was not there and recompiled the kernel today, but I get the same exact message after the new kernel, there must be something else missing or wrong.

This is on the cards... I'm looking into how to get Catalyst to produce such a LiveCD. Basically it'll turn your machine into a boot and terminal server... but this will have to wait until my exams are over.

That would be great. I would be glad to help anyway I can.

Thank god I copied the netboot kernel to hda1, now I can load and boot from it, so now I am back in and trying make menuconfig again......

cioannou · Post by **cioannou** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 7:01 am

Ok, it boots now, I also compiled in tmpfs and it just worked.

The missing things for now are reboot , shutdown , halt.

cioannou · Post by **cioannou** » Sat Jun 10, 2006 8:04 am

Do you know why "reboot, shutdown , halt" don't work? If I run shutdown it does nothing. Have I forgotten something?

Also, during startup it does the following:

a) Probes for hdc, hdd which dont exist, can I stop that?
b) Tries to start other terminals which I have commented in /etc/inittab
c) There is no /var/log/messages file why is that?

Thank you for your time

Redhatter · Post by **Redhatter** » Sat Jun 10, 2006 10:39 am

What happens when you type halt? Does init 0 work?

As for the other issues...

The probing hdc/hdd issue, is simply due to there being nothing plugged into the secondary (nonexistant) IDE controller. It's not just an issue on the Cobalt, it's an issue on any platform that uses IDE. I hit the same issue on my x86 desktop. A fix is unknown, I've just put up with the minor boot delay.

With the terminal issue... not sure, if you've commented out the c0->c6 lines, it shouldn't start them. I'd double check you've commented out the right entries.

On the /var/log/messages... you need a system logger before that file will appear. Even then, this is logger-specific... I tend to use metalog, which doesn't create a /var/log/messages.

Ohh... and a tip... if you ask a question in #gentoo-mips, please give us more than 2Âµsec to answer your question.

We don't live on IRC, and thus won't be watching every minute of the day.

cioannou · Post by **cioannou** » Sat Jun 10, 2006 4:12 pm

Forgot to tell you, init 0 also does nothing , it gives me the message that the system will shutdown but it doesn't.

Have already checked inittab for the terminal entries, they are commented.

And for /var/log/messages, I made the same assumption as you and re-emerged syslog-ng, no change.

Redhatter · Post by **Redhatter** » Sun Jun 11, 2006 12:51 am

Is syslog-ng being started?

Incidentally, which stage tarball are you using?

cioannou · Post by **cioannou** » Mon Jun 12, 2006 10:41 am

syslog-ng is ok now , for some reason it needed me to create the file myself and "restart" the daemon, don' t know why.

I used the stage3 tarball.

Redhatter · Post by **Redhatter** » Mon Jun 12, 2006 11:26 am

Ummm which stage 3 tarball? 2004.3, 2005.0, 2005.1, 2006.0?