Initrd cannot find volume group [SOLVED]

binro · Last edited by binro on Wed May 11, 2011 8:03 pm; edited 1 time in total

My install has got to the stage of the first boot but it fails because the initrd program gets to the "Scanning for Volume Groups" stage and then can't find any. I have obviously created them and when I boot on the install CD, "vgscan --mknodes" finds the VG immediately. The initrd program was created with "genkernel --lvm ..." in the usual way. I can't think what I have done wrong!

TIA
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Hu · Moderator Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 21631

Are you sure that the new kernel has the modules required to operate your hard drives? You could have device nodes for the drives present, but without the supporting code, attempts to open those nodes will fail.

binro · Posted: Sun May 08, 2011 5:32 pm Post subject:

tomk · Posted: Mon May 09, 2011 3:30 pm Post subject:

Moved from Installing Gentoo to Kernel & Hardware.
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binro · Posted: Tue May 10, 2011 11:11 pm Post subject:

I found this http://us.generation-nt.com/bug-619010-linux-image-2-6-38-1-686-bigmem-fails-boot-lvm2-looks-system-help-202616242.html and I have a T510 so I installed a 2.6.37-r4 kernel but got exactly the same result.

I give up. I will revert to standard partitions.
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"Ship me somewheres east of Suez, where the best is like the worst,
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from "Mandalay" by Rudyard Kipling

Hu · Moderator Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 21631

Root on LVM works fine for me. If you drop to a shell in the initramfs, can you read the contents of the hard disk nodes?

cach0rr0 · Posted: Wed May 11, 2011 6:14 am Post subject:

you will probably be better off doing a manual kernel configuration, and manually creating an initramfs to handle scanning/initializing your lvm volume groups

genkernel, at least in my experience, does not seem to do well with thinks like luks, lvm, etc as root.

The manual route is not as difficult as it may sound/seem - if you do try this, folks will be happy to help if you get stuck or have questions.
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binro · Posted: Wed May 11, 2011 8:03 pm Post subject:

The kernel is RYO and that was the problem. I used a config from another machine and the SATA drive was slightly different, I needed the AHCI platform. Rebuilding the kernel with that solved the problem and the machine rebooted, finally! Phew.

Thanks for the suggestions.
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"Ship me somewheres east of Suez, where the best is like the worst,
Where there ain't no Ten Commandments an' a man can raise a thirst"
from "Mandalay" by Rudyard Kipling

binro · Posted: Fri May 13, 2011 9:02 am Post subject:

As an addendum, the post I found above was correct. When I got the boot going it was using a 2.6.37-r4 kernel; when I tried 2.6.38 with the same config the kernel could not see the SATA drive. This seems a peculiarity of ThinkPad T510s.
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"Ship me somewheres east of Suez, where the best is like the worst,
Where there ain't no Ten Commandments an' a man can raise a thirst"
from "Mandalay" by Rudyard Kipling