LVM install incorrectly sets root partition in lilo.conf

[Brian Murray]

Binary package hint: debian-installer

Using the ubuntu-server amd64 daily CD from 20070411 I choose to do an LVM + LAMP installation. Upon rebooting the system after the successful installation I was presented with a busybox shell. Error messages on boot include:

"Begin: Mounting root file system... ...
Begin: Running /scipts/local-top ...
Done.
/init: /init: 1: cannot open /dev/root: No such device or address
Begin: Running /scripts/local-premount ...
Done." ...
"Target filesystem doesn't have /sbin/init"

My '/etc/lilo.conf' lists "root=/dev/mapper/vgtest-lvtest". Passing "root=/dev/vgtest/lvtest" to the kernel at the lilo prompt caused the system to boot successfully.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Actually passing "root=/dev/mapper/vgtest-lvtest" works too. Using "break=top" and a cat of /proc/cmdline revealed that "root=fe00".

[Scott James Remnant (Canonical) (canonical-scott)]

The problem is that lilo will pass root=fe00 to the system, meaning that the root device is a device with major 254, minor 0

This has two problems. First the initramfs parses this, and makes /dev/root with those parameters setting $ROOT to that. Then later, when it loops for that to exist, it does, so the loop completes immediately -- before LVM or devmapper have even been run! Mounting fails, so udev is killed, thus the /dev/mapper devices never appear.

The second problem is that there's no guarantee that the device will be dm-0 anyway

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Confirming based off Scott's comment.

[Fabio Massimo Di Nitto (fabbione)]

Proposed fix for feisty

[Fabio Massimo Di Nitto (fabbione)]

better proposed fix.

[Fabio Massimo Di Nitto (fabbione)]

package uploaded.