System fails to boot after automatic disk check (done at boot time)

[fu]

At the next restart after automatic disk check at Ubuntu boot,
the system drops to BusyBox with an initramfs prompt after
showing the followind message:

"Gave up waiting for root device. Common problems:
...
ALERT! /dev/disk/by-uuid/6f2c7171-3bf0-4ab5-a491-0b7880abbfd5 does not exist."

then continuing with the following message block several times
(after which the initramfs prompt finally shows up):

[ 35.820113]: ata1.01: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x6 frozen
[ .........]: cmd a0/01:00:00:80:00/00:00:00:00:00/b0 tag 0 dma 16512
[ .........]: cdb 5a 00 2a 00 00 00 00 00 80 00 00 00 00 00 00
[ .........]: res 40/00:03:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/b0 Emask 0x4 (timeout)
[ .........]: ata1.01: status {DRDY}

then if I simply hit Control-D, it tries to resume from
disk with id 47fa0689-d5f2-4b7b-a014-b822a8b6589b, succeeding in starting the system,
but if rebooted, the same problem occurs.

I would be glad to know how could I fix the problem.
(I've searched for solutions, backed up my /boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-9-generic file and
run the following commands, but the problem did not disappear:
sudo mkinitramfs -o /boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-9-generic
sudo update-grub)

My system information regarding this problem:
Using Ubuntu 8.10, GNOME 2.24.1 (Ubuntu 2008-10-24),
KERNEL 2.6.27-9-generic (#1 SMP Thu Nov 20 21:57:00 UTC 2008),
GCC version 4.3.2 (i486-linux-gnu)
---------------------------------------------------------------

/dev/disk content
1c1b75f2-28bc-43a7-a25c-808641eb4ae2 -> sda7
6f2c7171-3bf0-4ab5-a491-0b7880abbfd5 -> sda6
40ba53b3-cdad-4258-bccb-8b938644a55c -> sda5
47fa0689-d5f2-4b7b-a014-b822a8b6589b -> sda1

sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 81.9 GB, 81964302336 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9964 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x117d117d

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 267 2144646 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda2 268 9964 77891152+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 268 297 240943+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 298 2729 19535008+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 2730 9964 58115106 83 Linux

/etc/fstab

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# /dev/sda6
UUID=6f2c7171-3bf0-4ab5-a491-0b7880abbfd5 / ext3 relatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /dev/sda7
UUID=1c1b75f2-28bc-43a7-a25c-808641eb4ae2 /home ext3 relatime 0 2
# /dev/sda5
UUID=40ba53b3-cdad-4258-bccb-8b938644a55c /tmp ext3 relatime 0 2
# /dev/sda1
UUID=47fa0689-d5f2-4b7b-a014-b822a8b6589b none swap sw 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0

/boot/grub/menu.lst

title Ubuntu 8.10, kernel 2.6.27-9-generic
uuid 6f2c7171-3bf0-4ab5-a491-0b7880abbfd5
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-9-generic root=UUID=6f2c7171-3bf0-4ab5-a491-0b7880abbfd5 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-9-generic
quiet

title Ubuntu 8.10, kernel 2.6.27-9-generic (recovery mode)
uuid 6f2c7171-3bf0-4ab5-a491-0b7880abbfd5
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-9-generic root=UUID=6f2c7171-3bf0-4ab5-a491-0b7880abbfd5 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-9-generic

title Ubuntu 8.10, kernel 2.6.27-7-generic
uuid 6f2c7171-3bf0-4ab5-a491-0b7880abbfd5
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-7-generic root=UUID=6f2c7171-3bf0-4ab5-a491-0b7880abbfd5 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-7-generic
quiet

title Ubuntu 8.10, kernel 2.6.27-7-generic (recovery mode)
uuid 6f2c7171-3bf0-4ab5-a491-0b7880abbfd5
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-7-generic root=UUID=6f2c7171-3bf0-4ab5-a491-0b7880abbfd5 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-7-generic

title Ubuntu 8.10, memtest86+
uuid 6f2c7171-3bf0-4ab5-a491-0b7880abbfd5
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

[kernel-janitor (kernel-janitor)]

Hi fu,

This bug was reported a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering if this is still an issue? Can you try with the latest development release of Ubuntu? ISO CD images are available from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/karmic .

If it remains an issue, could you run the following command from a Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal). It will automatically gather and attach updated debug information to this report.

apport-collect -p linux 305809

Also, if you could test the latest upstream kernel available that would be great. It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please remove the 'needs-upstream-testing' tag. This can be done by clicking on the yellow pencil icon next to the tag located at the bottom of the bug description and deleting the 'needs-upstream-testing' text. Please let us know your results.

Thanks in advance.

[This is an automated message. Apologies if it has reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]

[Jeremy Foshee (jeremyfoshee)]

This bug report was marked as Incomplete and has not had any updated comments for quite some time. As a result this bug is being closed. Please reopen if this is still an issue in the current Ubuntu release http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download . Also, please be sure to provide any requested information that may have been missing. To reopen the bug, click on the current status under the Status column and change the status back to "New". Thanks.

[This is an automated message. Apologies if it has reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]