Kernel stops booting

[GentooForEver]

I'm new to gentoo and I'm inexperienced with the command line. I tried to install gentoo with the live kde environment several times. I followed the gentoo handbook. (Despite my problems I think the gentoo distro is great. I appreciate the learning experience with the articles on gentoo.org very much. Lots of thanks to the gentoo community!)

There are several harddrives in my computer. On the /dev/sda are Windows 7 and Linux Mint installed and everything works, with the exception of two usb 3.0 connectors. These usb connectors stopped working after half a year. Probably a hardware problem.

I tried to install gentoo on /dev/sdf with a msdos partition table. I'm booting only with bios. There are other harddrives in my system with gpt-partitions tables. I compiled a custom kernel.

I have searched the /var/log/messages for clues. I also searched the gentoo forums.

The last thing I tried: I actived the following kernel configuration: "Automount devtmpfs at /dev, after the kernel mounted the rootfs" In the handbook this option is deactivated. I found in the gentoo forum two old posts, that described, that activating this solved the boot problem. Not for me.

So here are the /var/log/messages:

[GentooForEver]

Here the link to the boot messages:

http://pastebin.com/Wjjc9Ncr

fstab:

[NeddySeagoon]

GentooForEver,

Welcome to Gentoo.

Your boot messages look normal until the shutting down for a reboot.
Did that just happen or did you do something?
If you want a wild guess, your kernel is missing CONFIG_BINFMT_SCRIPT=y, so it can't run the init script.

Please post the output of lspci and put your kernel .config file onte a pastebin site.
wgetpaste can help there.

In general, its not a good idea to use kernel device names like /dev/sdf4 when you have several HDD and several distros.
The problem being that the names are not fixed, the are allocated in device discovery order, which can vary from kernel to kernel.

Make friends with blkid.

[GentooForEver]

Thank you, NeddySeagoon, for the quick response.

[GentooForEver]

I just realized that I made a mistake, when I changed the kernel command line. I pointed the PARTUUID to the sdf2.
I changed that to the sdf4. At now the boot process behaves like before. The screen freezes at 0.7s. But /var/log/messages go on until 5 to 10 seconds. ctrl-alt delete works again.

[NeddySeagoon]

GentooForEver,

You need an initrd if the kernel cannot mount the root filesystem without using some user space tools, like mount.
The initrd is a root filesystem in a file. It provides a temporary root filesystem that is used to mount the real root file system.
From your original

[GentooForEver]

As you correctly analyzed the problem was, the two video cards installed in my computer. The i915, which is build into Central Processing Unit (CPU), and the Nvidia GTX 760 on the pci slot.

Solution:
As you proposed, I just went into the BIOS/UEFI and disabled the i915. I saved the BIOS/UEFI configuration and rebooted. The screen didn't freeze anymore. I was able to login into the root account as described in the Gentoo handbook.

I have struggled for about a week to solve this problem and I have tried several times in years long passed to install gentoo. And now, finally, there is a login prompt on my screen. I still can't believe it! Now, I'm able to progress to the next chapter of the handbook: "Finalizing". And some day, may be, I'll manage to install a graphical user interface.

You made my day, week, month, year. THANK YOU!

I would have never been able to solve that problem on my own! Thank you! You are GREAT!

[NeddySeagoon]

GentooForEver,

Compared to your first boot, installing the GUI is easy.
You get error messages to work with, you can ssh in when the display is black and poke about.
It might not work first time but diagnostics are simpler.

There are wiki pages for Xorg and all the common window managers.
Install Xorg and test it.
Add the Window manager of your choice.

The testing of Xorg is important. It that works and your WM doesn't, the problem is your WM.
If you don't do the test, problems can be in Xorg or the WM.

Everywhere in Gentoo, build on what you know works. Then when, not if, you break it, you can back out the changes.
That's why the first boot is hard. There is nothing to build on.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

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

[ShyPixie]