"Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block" on Boot after Kernel Upgrade

[Jared Warren]

Linux kernels 2.6.10-5-686_34.4 and 2.6.11-1-686_0.2 panic on load with:

  Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0)

2.6.10-5-386_34.3 works (I'm hesitant to upgrade to 34.4). My root filesystem is
reiserfs. The relevant lines from my grub/menu.lst:

  # kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro
[...]
  # groot=(hd0,0)
[...]
  title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.10-5-686
  root (hd0,0)
  kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.10-5-686 root=/dev/hda1 ro quiet splash
  initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.10-5-686
  savedefault
  boot
[...]
  title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.10-5-386
  root (hd0,0)
  kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.10-5-386 root=/dev/hda1 ro quiet splash
  initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.10-5-386
  savedefault
  boot

[Matt Zimmerman (mdz)]

Please send /boot/initrd.img-2.6.10-5-686, /boot/initrd.img-2.6.10-5-386, and
the output from "lspci".

[Jared Warren (jawarren)]

$ lspci
0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 82855PM Processor to I/O Controller (rev 0 3)
0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82855PM Processor to AGP Controller (rev 03 )
0000:00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) US
B UHCI Controller #1 (rev 01)
0000:00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) US
B UHCI Controller #2 (rev 01)
0000:00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) US
B UHCI Controller #3 (rev 01)
0000:00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB 2.0 EHCI
Controller (rev 01)
0000:00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801 PCI Bridge (rev 81)
0000:00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82801DBM LPC Interface Controller (rev 01)
0000:00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82801DBM (ICH4) Ultra ATA Storage Contro
ller (rev 01)
0000:00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) SMBus Contr
oller (rev 01)
0000:00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4
-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 01)
0000:00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Modem
 Controller (rev 01)
0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon Mobility M6 LY
0000:02:00.0 CardBus bridge: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c476 II (rev aa)
0000:02:00.1 CardBus bridge: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c476 II (rev aa)
0000:02:00.2 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C552 IEEE 1394 Controller (rev
 02)
0000:02:02.0 Network controller: Intel Corp. PRO/Wireless LAN 2100 3B Mini PCI A
dapter (rev 04)
0000:02:08.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corp. 82801BD PRO/100 VE (MOB) Ethernet
Controller (rev 81)
$(In reply to comment #1)
> Please send /boot/initrd.img-2.6.10-5-686, /boot/initrd.img-2.6.10-5-386, and
> the output from "lspci".

[Jared Warren (jawarren)]

Bugzilla won't let me upload files as big as the initrd images unless I declare
them as patches (or did you mean email them to you personally?), maybe this will
help:

$ sudo mount -o loop -t cramfs /boot/initrd.img-2.6.10-5-386
/mnt/initrd.img-2.6.10-5-386
$ sudo mount -o loop -t cramfs /boot/initrd.img-2.6.10-5-686
/mnt/initrd.img-2.6.10-5-686
$ cd /mnt/initrd.img-2.6.10-5-386
$ find | grep -v 'lib/modules' > /tmp/initrd.img-2.6.10-5-386.listing1
$ find | grep 'lib/modules' | cut -f5- -d'/' > /tmp/initrd.img-2.6.10-5-386.listing2
$ cd /mnt/initrd.img-2.6.10-5-686
$ find | grep -v 'lib/modules' > /tmp/initrd.img-2.6.10-5-686.listing1
$ find | grep 'lib/modules' | cut -f5- -d'/' > /tmp/initrd.img-2.6.10-5-686.listing2
$ cd /tmp
$ diff initrd.img-2.6.10-5-386.listing1 initrd.img-2.6.10-5-686.listing1
40d39
< ./lib/ld-linux.so.2
$ diff initrd.img-2.6.10-5-386.listing2 initrd.img-2.6.10-5-686.listing2
32d31
< kernel/drivers/block/ps2esdi.ko
103d101
< kernel/drivers/scsi/53c700.ko
105d102
< kernel/drivers/scsi/NCR53C9x.ko
107,108d103
< kernel/drivers/scsi/NCR_D700.ko
< kernel/drivers/scsi/NCR_Q720_mod.ko
114d108
< kernel/drivers/scsi/aha1740.ko
130d123
< kernel/drivers/scsi/fd_mcs.ko
135d127
< kernel/drivers/scsi/ibmmca.ko
142d133
< kernel/drivers/scsi/mca_53c9x.ko
166d156
< kernel/drivers/scsi/sim710.ko
203a194,195
> kernel/fs/ext2
> kernel/fs/ext2/ext2.ko
225a218
> kernel/fs/mbcache.ko
$

[Jeff Bailey (jbailey)]

Setting milestone to 5.04, this is initrd against a Hoary kernel

[Jared Warren (jawarren)]

(In reply to comment #4)

That is correct. This bug does not occur with
linux-image-2.6.12-9-686_2.6.12-9.20 and initramfs-tools_0.32. (So as far as I'm
personally concerned, I'd rather see effort put to getting initramfs in hoary.)

[Matt Zimmerman (mdz)]

(In reply to comment #5)
> (In reply to comment #4)
>
> That is correct. This bug does not occur with
> linux-image-2.6.12-9-686_2.6.12-9.20 and initramfs-tools_0.32. (So as far as I'm
> personally concerned, I'd rather see effort put to getting initramfs in hoary.)

That wouldn't be a very practical use of resources, considering that we're
issuing a fully supported stable release (5.10) next week, including the new
initramfs infrastructure.

However, it would be useful to find the cause of your problem, in case it can be
fixed easily in Hoary. For some reason, your initrd was generated correctly in
the first place, but then later incorrectly.

Do you have any hoary-backports, breezy or otherwise non-hoary packages
installed on your system?

[Jared Warren (jawarren)]

(In reply to comment #6)

Ah right, I had forgotten about the preview. What I meant was that since this
bug hasn't had much activity, I don't care if it's abandonded.

The only non-hoary packages I have are the ones I just installed to test initramfs.