Can not get gentoo-sources 2.6.20 to boot

nhe · n00b Joined: 21 Nov 2006 Posts: 13

I have a working MythTV system with the gentoo-sources 2.6.19-r5 kernel but when I try to upgrade to 2.6.20-r8 I get a kernel panic with the following message:

No filesystem could mount root, tried: (list of filesystems)
VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(8,3)

I used makeoldconfig with the .config file from my working 2.6.19 kernel to configure the 2.6.20 kernel.
When I do the same thing to upgrade to the ~amd64 gentoo-sources-2.6.21-r2 the system is booting normal but then I have problems with ivtv not being stable.
So at the moment I am back to 2.6.19

Thanks,

Nick

OnlyTux · Apprentice Joined: 15 Mar 2007 Posts: 174

Napalm Llama · Guru Joined: 04 Jun 2005 Posts: 515 Location: Swansea, UK

This may sound obvious, but... did you compile-in support for the filesystems you're using? Also, are you missing extended attributes? I think I had a problem with that a while ago...
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nhe · n00b Joined: 21 Nov 2006 Posts: 13

I even tried to configure a 2.6.20 kernel from scratch (just with the basics in it, i did not dig in to all the video hardware related stuff just for a test) and that did not boot either. If I use the same 2.6.19 configfile for 2.6.21 it works (at least it sees the drives, mounts partitions and boots to a working system).
My root filesystem is EXT3 and it is compliled into the kernel (and it is listed in the tried filesystems on the error message).

Thanks,

Nick

DaggyStyle · Advocate Joined: 22 Mar 2006 Posts: 3798

have you setted the right sata/ata support in the kernel?

what HD are you using?
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NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sat May 26, 2007 9:33 am Post subject:

nhe,

juhah · n00b Joined: 03 Oct 2004 Posts: 46

Check that you have enabled proper partition type support in your kernel config:

Napalm Llama · Guru Joined: 04 Jun 2005 Posts: 515 Location: Swansea, UK

Heh, what are the chances? I've just encountered this, too! I've got a couple of ideas for how to fix it though, so I'll see if any of them work and then report back

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nhe · n00b Joined: 21 Nov 2006 Posts: 13

I am giving up, I configured everything (file systems, sata hardware, partitions...) exactly the same, it works in 2.6.19, it does not work in 2.6.20 and it works in 2.6.21. I will stay with 2.6.19 until something beyond 2.6.20 makes it to the stable tree.

Thanks trying to help,

Nick

dirtbag · Guru Joined: 18 Feb 2003 Posts: 461 Location: NC

I tried to upgrade to 2.6.20, and i had a kernel panic.. I know this isnt what youre seeing, but I umasked and emerged 2.6.21 and now my system boots fine.. give 2.6.21 a try.

-dirtbag

mbreith · Apprentice Joined: 09 Mar 2006 Posts: 196

Yup. Add me to the list of complainers. Here are the errors:

dirtbag · Guru Joined: 18 Feb 2003 Posts: 461 Location: NC

ooh, Ive noticed that theyve done a lot of shuffeling of config options in 2.6.19->2.6.20|21
for instance, NAT, I had nat working fine in 2.6.19, but when I upgraded with same config, it didnt work. It took me a while to figure out that there were new/different options that had to be selected to get NAT working again.

do NOT trust your old /usr/src/linux/.config that worked in 2.6.19 to work in later versions without going over it with a fine tooth comb and making sure that your filesystems, disk controllers, lvm, etc are all configured.

-db

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Mon May 28, 2007 10:28 pm Post subject:

mbreith,

mbreith · Apprentice Joined: 09 Mar 2006 Posts: 196

Well, I went in and put in all of the SATA drivers that are in the 2.6.19.7 kernel that I have, but it is still panicking.

nhe · n00b Joined: 21 Nov 2006 Posts: 13

I placed:

sys-kernel/gentoo-sources ~amd64

in /etc/portage/package.keywords, replace amd64 with your arcitecture.
It gives me a booting system but for my MythTV box I prefer to stick with the stable kernels, it gives me enough problems that way :-)

Best regards,

Nick

jsf_x35a · Posted: Tue May 29, 2007 12:41 pm Post subject:

Ah, kernel upgrade problems again. I just had a similar one last night where VFS couldn't mount my root partition. Luckily, I've found a sure to work way of fixing any kind of kernel upgrade problem. genkernel

First boot up into your Gentoo liveCD, mount your partitions and chroot into your hard disk. Then do,

jsf_x35a · Posted: Tue May 29, 2007 12:44 pm Post subject:

Napalm Llama · Guru Joined: 04 Jun 2005 Posts: 515 Location: Swansea, UK

I have a less long-winded way of getting around kernel problems. I just keep all my old kernels in /boot, (I have a reasonably large boot; if yours is small then you could just keep the last known working one in there), and then if the new one fails I can simply edit the GRUB command line to boot the old one (by pressing E on the appropriate entry).

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mbreith · Apprentice Joined: 09 Mar 2006 Posts: 196

I have a 'vmlinuz' symlink that points to the current default kernel. I don't have to edit grub that way. I don't even have to update the symlink since

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Tue May 29, 2007 7:45 pm Post subject:

mbreith,

You do not need to rebuild anything after a kernel upgrade except your third party kernel modules, like ndiswrapper, nvidia-drivers, ati-drivers, rt73 and so on. All this build against the kernel, so they all 'drop out' when you upgrade.
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mbreith · Apprentice Joined: 09 Mar 2006 Posts: 196

Ok. Good. I had read somewhere that I would need to rebuild glibc and something else. I guess I will worry about that if something breaks.

I already had to rebuild the madwifi drivers for my network card, but I was expecting that. I would have to do the same for Alsa if I had it installed already.

That is what started this whole mess actually. The Alsa compiled into the kernel was giving me problems so I was going to recompile with it as modules. I figured that if I was going to be recompiling anyway, it may as well be with current source.

bertaboy · Guru Joined: 05 Nov 2004 Posts: 598

You have to install your SATA or PATA drivers. They got moved around somewhat, so here's what I had to do:

Napalm Llama · Guru Joined: 04 Jun 2005 Posts: 515 Location: Swansea, UK

I think my problem was that I didn't enable SCSI Disk Support. I have a question, though: For PATA, do you need to enable anything under "ATA/ATAPI/MFM/RLL support" if you turn on all the appropriate options under "Serial ATA (prod) and Parallel ATA (experimental) drivers"?
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NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 10:23 pm Post subject:

Napalm Llama,

The PATA options under ATA are exprimentail. that means they may destroy your data.
However, if you do use them, the old IDE stuff is not required.
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NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

Cyker · Veteran Joined: 15 Jun 2006 Posts: 1427

Also, IIRC the libata drivers map PATA disks to "sd?" instead of "hd?" so drive assignments might get buggered up.