Too soon to be having problems

darencarr · Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 1:21 am Post subject: Too soon to be having problems

I've been trying to switch back to Gentoo from Kubuntu for weeks now and every disk I try doesn't make it past mounting the root partition. I get an error that says something along the line of 'cannot mount the specified root'. I'd like to know what I'm doing wrong but I can't seem to find this problem anywhere on the Internet. Any help would be much appreciated, I don't think I can handle Kubuntu for much longer...

poly_poly-man

darencarr · Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 1:38 am Post subject:

Well,
I set the BIOS to boot from CD, pop the Minimal CD in (does it with the liveCD too), select Gentoo kernel with framebuffer (happens with nofb on too), it starts to boot and right after you select the keyboard map I think it tries to mount a root partition and it can't. It never makes it to the login part, it offers 3 options: try again, skip, & go to the shell (which is kinda limited). The first two options end up with the same results. I'm not sure what to do from the shell because its got a dozen commands, few of which i recognize. I could copy what it says but it'd take a while to type out (can't just copy and paste it...

)

poly_poly-man · Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 1:42 am Post subject:

darencarr · Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 3:29 am Post subject:

My computer still boots from Kubuntu fine, it just won't boot from the install CD. Or maybe I missed the point...

padoor · Advocate Joined: 30 Dec 2005 Posts: 4185 Location: india

you can try mont the partition in kubuntu /mnt
download stage3 and get going.
chroot into kubuntu
is the cdrom read in kubuntu?
i think you can do inside kubuntu all of gentoo installations while in chroot.

is your mounting problem with drive letters? like hda sda
if it shows kernel panic available mount possible dsk/partition it may show.

when you can boot in kubuntu what is worry, just mount gentoo partition dev proc and all as per manual .
dmesg may show you what went on
_________________
reach out a little bit more to catch it (DON'T BELIEVE the advocate part under my user name)

ebpowell · n00b Joined: 30 Aug 2003 Posts: 38 Location: MD

Okay, if it weren't for Ubuntu's completely borked support for the stupid BCM43xx chipset, I wouldn't bother trying to re-install Gentoo after a collosal system screwing from the at-drivers following an emerge -u world, I would be here....but here I am, trying to re-install on a Dell Inspiron 1521, that has worked well under Gentoo in the past.

Yeah, this sucks.

The freaking LiveCd won't even boot?

"!!Media Not Found"
"!!Could Not find CD to boot, something else needed!"

"Could not find the root bloack device in ."

ARE YOU KIDDING ME???? That is pathetic.
_________________
Eschew Obfuscation....

darencarr · Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 4:24 am Post subject:

Yeah that sounds like what I'm getting too. Maybe a problem with the CD? What I'm wondering is, since this seems to work for most people, is there something up with ubuntu that makes this not work properly, and secondly why should it matter anyways? It shouldn't even look at the HDs if its booting from CD, right? Do I have to format the HD before I even put the disk in?

padoor · Advocate Joined: 30 Dec 2005 Posts: 4185 Location: india

try to check the cd
better make another cd if you have the downloaded iso file at the slowest speed of nero or any other writer.
try boot windows cd . it will atleast rule out cd drive problem
you said kubuntu boots up correct.
_________________
reach out a little bit more to catch it (DON'T BELIEVE the advocate part under my user name)

NathanZachary · Moderator Joined: 30 Jan 2007 Posts: 2605

Did you try poly's suggestion of using the SystemRescueCD?
_________________
“Truth, like infinity, is to be forever approached but never reached.” --Jean Ayres (1972)
---avatar cropped from =AimanStudio---

geo909 · n00b Joined: 11 Dec 2008 Posts: 12

I have exactly the same issue with the 2008 minimal cd.
I downloaded the 2007 minimal cd and it works like charm.

Is that a bug?

fangorn · Veteran Joined: 31 Jul 2004 Posts: 1886

I also second the part with NOT using the Gentoo cds.

I'm using either SystemRescueCD (Gentoo based www.sysresccd.org) or Grml (Debian based www.grml.org)

Both support more hardware out of the box.
_________________
Video Encoding scripts collection | Project page

darencarr · Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 12:54 pm Post subject:

Oh so the system rescue CD is a gentoo based restore CD? I might give that a go tonight, I burnt a copy but got busy with other things.
Padoor, I've tried two CD drives on different channels (one's SATA one's IDE) same problem. Guess I could try burning another but I think I'll try the restore CD first.
If all else fails ill d/l the 2007 minimal CD.

What a weird issue...

geo909 · n00b Joined: 11 Dec 2008 Posts: 12

What is the difference between the 2007 and the 2008 cd's?
As I said it works with the 2007 and I was wondering if there is any
reason I shouldn't proceed with the installation from the 2007 one..

Nephilim666 · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 07 Jul 2007 Posts: 148

poly_poly-man · Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 11:05 pm Post subject:

darencarr · Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 12:36 am Post subject:

Ok, update, i was able to do most of the install from the sysrescuecd, but after rebooting for the first time, it does the same thing, however if i type /dev/hda3 in when it asks for the root block device it mounts the root partition as read-only, i have a feeling that this is a genkernel thing or whatever genkernel uses to autodetect hardware thing, course i could be off base, my first two attempts at a manual kernel failed utterly. Any thoughts? Perhaps I did something wrong?
On a possibly related topic, why is LILO not recommended for amd64?

poly_poly-man · Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 12:59 am Post subject:

darencarr · Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 1:08 am Post subject:

I've used lilo on all my amd64 machines for years and never had a problem, is this just a new thing?

Also, is there a big list of hardware that the system rescue CD keeps track of from when it boots so that i know what to turn on and off in the kernel? I f'ed it up pretty bad the first two times I tried it on my own. Perhaps theres a pretty comprehensive list of what options need to be on for each piece of hardware? I know theres help in menuconfig but half of the time i have no clue what they're talking about.

poly_poly-man · Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 1:19 am Post subject:

cach0rr0 · Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 1:28 am Post subject:

lspci is your friend

if you're looking for a bit of a cheat sheet on what to build into your kernel, check this out

http://kmuto.jp/debian/hcl/

found that on pappy's page just today, wish id have seen it years ago...woulda saved me heaps of time, now im familiar enough with my hardware it aint needed

darencarr · Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 1:29 am Post subject:

poly_poly-man · Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 2:02 am Post subject:

darencarr · Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 12:50 pm Post subject: