Boot hangs with "Waiting for root file system" since kernel 2.6.20-14

[Martyn Russell]

I just updated on Feisty to kernel 2.6.20-14 from -13 and when I rebooted it stalled at almost 0%.
I changed grub and removed the -quiet switch and I get the following:
--
Loading essential drivers ... OK
Running /scripts/init-premount... OK
Mounting root file system ...
Running /scripts/local-top ... OK
Waiting for root file system ...
--
If I run in single user mode I see these lines before it stops:
--
[ 12.344000] ata3: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300)
[ 12.344000] ata3.00: ata_hpa_resize 1: sectors = 625142448, hpa_sectors = 4385456
[ 12.344000] ata3.00: ATA-6: WDC WD3200JD-22KLBO, 08.05J08, max UDMA/100
[ 12.344000] ata3.00: 625142448 sectors, multi 16: LBA48
--
These lines refer to my one and only SATA hard disk on /dev/sda3.
I have spent some time looking around for other people with this issue and just wanted to clarify that my /etc/fstab is using UUIDs instead of /dev/hda or /dev/sda devices (which seemes to be a common issue for some people).
I can still boot with 2.6.20-13. It looks like the SATA controller may have changed between -13 and -14.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Thanks for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. This is probably a duplicate of bug 106063. Could you look at it and let us know if it's symptoms look the same to you. Thanks in advance.

[ski (skibrianski)]

No, this is a different error. I just received it on one of my machines. It seems that the problem is that /boot/grub/menu.lst is not being updated correctly. Grub still boots the old kernel (2.6.17-11 in my case), but doesn't like something about the new install. Manually telling grub to use vmlinuz- and initrd- 2.6.20-15 instead fixes the problem for me, but I'd be interested if someone could explain why exactly grub is having this problem.

[ski (skibrianski)]

My mistake, I misread the initial post incorrectly. My error was different, but since I fixed it and there is probably another bug report for it, nevermind :)

[J.G. (j.gorski)]

I had also the problem: "waiting for root file system...". The problem arised due to kernel upgrade. Ubuntu changed partition names from hda to hdc, so i modificated /boot/grub/menu.lst line:

kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.15-26-386 root=/dev/hda7
to:
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.15-26-386 root=/dev/hdc7

and i also modificated /etc/fstab on points where hda appears i changed it to hdc.
If you have mounted partitons, leave only names of the directory in /etc/fstab like they was:
example:
/dev/hdc5 /media/hda5 vfat defaults,utf8,umask=007,gid=46 0 1

Also, i do not know what changed, but my Ubuntu partition was on hda3, and now is on hdc7.
You can verify on which partition Ubuntu is by running gparted on Ubuntu Live CD.

That's all.

[Dave Talmage (talmage)]

It sounds like it sees your Ubuntu drive as being on the second IDE
controller, and as though it is treating it as a logical drive rather
than a primary partition.

At 05:31 AM 5/20/2007, you wrote:
>*** This bug is a duplicate of bug 106063 ***
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/106063
>
>I had also the problem: "waiting for root file system...". The problem
>arised due to kernel upgrade. Ubuntu changed partition names from hda to
>hdc, so i modificated /boot/grub/menu.lst line:
>
>kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.15-26-386 root=/dev/hda7
>to:
>kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.15-26-386 root=/dev/hdc7
>
>and i also modificated /etc/fstab on points where hda appears i
>changed it to hdc.
>If you have mounted partitons, leave only names of the directory in
>/etc/fstab like they was:
>example:
>/dev/hdc5 /media/hda5 vfat defaults,utf8,umask=007,gid=46 0 1
>
>Also, i do not know what changed, but my Ubuntu partition was on
>hda3, and now is on hdc7.

[J.G. (j.gorski)]

Me again. The problem occured due to change of IDE cabel of the hard disk and the cd-rom.

[Dave Talmage (talmage)]

That would explain going from hda to hdc, but not to hdc7. Why did
you switch your hard drive to the cable for the second IDE channel?

At 06:00 AM 5/20/2007, you wrote:
>*** This bug is a duplicate of bug 106063 ***
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/106063
>
>Me again. The problem occured due to change of IDE cabel of the hard
>disk and the cd-rom.
>
>--
>Boot hangs with "Waiting for root file system" since kernel 2.6.20-14
>https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/106260
>You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
>of the bug (via bug 106063).

[Pablo De Nápoli (pdenapo)]

I'm having this same problem