install fails: busybox (initramfs): can't access tty: (/dev/sda trouble?)

[Achim Bohnet]

Binary package hint: linux-source-2.6.22

booting lifeCD install kubuntu on a Dell Latitude D830 a failed using following CDs:
 * Kubuntu Gutsy Tribe3 i386
 * Kubuntu Gutsy 1-Aug-2007 i386
 * Kubuntu Feisty i386
 * Kubuntu Feisty amd64

Everytime I ended up in the busybox:

   /bin/sh: can't access tty; job control turned off.

Same CDs booted fine on a Dell D600.

Removing with F6: quiet and splash from kernel boot args
showed: 'sda: access beyond 'end of disk?'. Because I don't care
about preinstalled Windows Vista, I've copied /dev/null to /dev/sda
and rebooted.

Now I end up in busybox with the same error. can't access tty, but
the msgs are different: sda is found, the nothing happens for ~ 10 - 15 sec
and then I fall back into busybox. (I'll append a photo of the last screen)

[Achim Bohnet (allee)]

Grrrrr! Three times the kernel fall back to busybox after a longer
'do-nothing' phase and the last console output was:

  sd 0:0:0:0 Attached scisi generic sg0 type 0

Now when I tried the 4th time for the photo, the last output was
about USB (see attached photo).

[Achim Bohnet (allee)]

sorry the console output above with USB msg shows last was with Kubuntu feisty.
Attached below kernel ouput of gusty daily-life 1-aug-2007. Uname -a is

Linux (none) 2.6.22-8-generic #1 SMP Thu Jul 15:59:45 GMT 2007 i686 unknown.

/proc/version_signature does not exists with this kernel. As well as
lspci and dmesg are not available in busybox :(

[Achim Bohnet (allee)]

Dell Latitude D830:

  * Core 2 Duo T7700, 2.4GHz (ID: 06FA)
  * 965GM chipset
  * 1 x 2 GB RAM, 667 MHz, DDR2 SDRAM
  * 160 GB SATA, 7200 rpm
  * X3100 Gfx
  * Intel 4965AGN Wlan
  * Dell 360 Bluetooth card

[Achim Bohnet (allee)]

and last but not least:
  * Bios: A02

[Martin Gros (m-gros)]

Same Problems

Feisty AND Gutsy
x86 AND amd64

Dell Latitude D830:

  * Core 2 Duo T7200, 2.0GHz
  * 965GM chipset
  * 1 x 2 GB RAM, 667 MHz, DDR2 SDRAM
  * 120 GB SATA, 7200 rpm
  * X3100 Gfx
  * Intel 3945ABG Wlan
  * Dell 360 Bluetooth card
  * Bios A02

[Nicolas Spalinger (yosch)]

it now boots and installs with a 2.6.22-9-generic gutsy kernel (taken from a daily snapshot before tribe4 freeze)

[Nicolas Spalinger (yosch)]

forgot to mention it was the alternate install cd.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. It sounds like this bug may be resolved with the 2.6.22-9 kernel which will appear on the Tribe 4 CD. We are currently testing the daily CD build for Tribe 4 at https://iso.qa.stgraber.org/ . So if you could test that out it would be great or you could wait for Tribe 4 to come out later this week. Thanks again and we appreciate your help.

[Martin Gros (m-gros)]

Hi,

tried tribe-4 CD tonight.

Same error. During boot it stops with

busybox (initramfs): can't access tty: Job control turned off.
Workaround that worked with Tribe-3 does not work anymore

(was:

add break=top to kernel parameter

when boot stops in busybox, enter:

modprobe ata_piix

enter exit.
)

now it stops in busybox again.

[Martin Gros (m-gros)]

Tried gutsy-tribe4-desktop-i386 cd

[Martin Gros (m-gros)]

If you need something else pls. let me know.

[Martin Gros (m-gros)]

tried today another hint I found,

I could install Tribe-4 CD now.

Passed generic.all_generic_ide=1 to the kernel parameter and it bootet
perfect, but was a little bit slow.
I was able to install with graphical installer and system started wll
with correct intel X driver.

But:

No CD / DVD drive was present
no sound

added ide_generic to /etc/modules, CD/DVD works now.

Hope that helps

Martin

PS: I used the X86_64 version of Kubuntu Tribe 4

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Martin - since you have an installed system now could you please provide the full output of 'sudo lspci -vvn' as an attachment to your bug report? Thanks in advance.

[Curtis (curtis-maurand)]

I never got my Feisty Fawn CD to boot for the same reasons as listed above. I got gentoo onto the machine and lspci is lspci and here is the output. Its too bad, because gentoo is just too much work. Oh, yeah, here's the kernel info.

Linux localhost 2.6.22-gentoo-r2 #10 SMP PREEMPT Mon Aug 13 08:44:04 Local time zone must be set- i686 Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T7500 @ 2.20GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

00:00.0 0600: 8086:2a00 (rev 0c)
        Subsystem: 1028:01fe
        Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
        Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort+ >SERR- <PERR-
        Latency: 0
        Capabilities: [e0] Vendor Specific Information

00:01.0 0604: 8086:2a01 (rev 0c) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
        Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B-
        Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
        Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
        Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=0
        I/O behind bridge: 0000d000-0000dfff
        Memory behind bridge: fa000000-feafffff
        Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 00000000e0000000-00000000efffffff
        Secondary status: 66MHz- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- <SERR- <PERR-
        BridgeCtl: Parity- SERR+ NoISA- VGA+ MAbort- >Reset- FastB2B-
        Capabilities: [88] Subsystem: 1028:01fe
        Capabilities: [80] Power Management version 3
                Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1- D2- AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0+,D1-,D2-,D3hot+,D3cold+)
                Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-
        Capabilities: [90] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask- 64bit- Queue=0/0 Enable-
                Address: 00000000 Data: 0000
        Capabilities: [a0] Express Root Port (Slot+) IRQ 0
                Device: Supported: MaxPayload 128 bytes, PhantFunc 0, ExtTag-
                Device: Latency L0s <64ns, L1 <1us
                Device: Errors: Correctable- Non-Fatal- Fatal- Unsupported-
                Device: RlxdOrd- ExtTag- PhantFunc- AuxPwr- NoSnoop-
                Device: MaxPayload 128 bytes, MaxReadReq 128 bytes
                Link: Supported Speed 2.5Gb/s, Width x16, ASPM L0s L1, Port 2
                Link: Latency L0s <256ns, L1 <4us
                Link: ASPM L0s L1 Enabled RCB 64 bytes CommClk+ ExtSynch-
                Link: Speed 2.5Gb/s, Width x16
                Slot: AtnBtn- PwrCtrl- MRL- AtnInd- PwrInd- HotPlug+ Surpise-
                Slot: Number 1, PowerLimit 75.000000
                Slot: Enabled AtnBtn- PwrFlt- MRL- PresDet- CmdCplt- HPIrq-
                Slot: AttnInd Off, PwrInd On, Power-
                Root: Correctable- Non-Fatal- Fatal- PME-
        Capabilities: [100] Virtual Channel
        Capabilities: [140] Unknown (5)

00:1a.0 0c03: 8086:2834 (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
        Subsystem: 1028:01fe
        Control: I/O+ Mem- BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
        Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- ...

[Peter (sunspots-deactivatedaccount)]

I'm also getting the BusyBox error when I tried Kubuntu Gutsy Gibbon 7.10 Tribe 4 AMD64.

Busybox v1.1.3 (Debian 1:1.1.3-5ubuntu1) built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for list of built-in commands
/bin/sh : can't access tty; job control turned off
(initramfs)

Setup is
- Fujitsu Lifebook S6410P
- Intel Centrino Core 2 Duo (64-Bit processor)
- 2 gig RAM
- 160 gig harddisk (2 * 80 gig disks)

Cross reference this to my original post
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-source-2.6.20/+bug/125815

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Peter some people have reported that passing "generic.all_generic_ide=1" to the kernel allows the system to boot have you tried that?

[Michael R. Head (burner)]

I'm getting this with Ubuntu Tribe 4 on a brand new Thinkpad T61p. There's a BIOS setting that I was able to tweak to put the SATA controller into "compatability mode" rather than AHCI (or some other acronym) which allowed me to get past this boot failure. I still haven't been able to get any Live CD to boot yet (tried Tribe 4 and a shipit 7.04 CD), though.

[Peter (sunspots-deactivatedaccount)]

Brian, I can try passing "generic.all_generic_ide=1" to the kernel, but how do I achieve that?

If you or someone give me step by step instructions or point me to a site documenting it, then I'll give it a whirl.

[Michael R. Head (burner)]

Isn't this a dupe of 106864?

[Michael R. Head (burner)]

err... bug 106864

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Peter, you may find https://help.ubuntu.com/community/GrubHowto helpful with regards to adding boot options to the kernel. Thanks for testing this.

[Bjelleklang (bjelleklang)]

I'm on a Toshiba U300, with the same problems as described above. Passing generic.all_generic_ide=1 to the kernel during boot, allows me to get into the livecd for Feisty and linux mint 3.0, and also lets me install and boot into linux mint (didn't try feisty)

[Martin Gros (m-gros)]

As requested:

Output of lspci -vvn

[Martin Gros (m-gros)]

Sorry, lspci -vvn again as root

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

This bug seems to be a duplicate of 127163 about there not being support for pciid 0x8086 0x2850, a patch has been added to the kernel and should be available in the the next kernel update.

[Peter (sunspots-deactivatedaccount)]

Before seeing your link I found details about editing the boot options on the CD. Basically press F6 and that gives the command line entered.

In my case, the boot options contained:
file=/cdrom/preseed/kubuntu.seed boot=casper initrd=/casper/initrd.gz quite splash --

I added the option generic.all_generic_ide=1 after the "-- " in the first instance and the second time placed the command before "-- ". In each case when I pressed enter to continue booting for the live CD it gave an error.

The error presented "unknown boot option" and "ignoring". Somewhere along that line it placed the command I entered, ie "generic.all_generic_all_generic_ide=1".

Even though I got the above error, the live CD booted into Kubuntu Gutsy Tribe 4. I was able to run Konqueror and other applications on the live CD. I did not install the system.

I also noted the following error when the system was booting:
[ 221.785488] sd:5:0:0:0:0 [sdb] Assuming drive cache write through
[ 221.787235] sd:5:0:0:0:0 [sdb] Assuming drive cache write through
[ 222.372453] sd:5:0:0:0:0 [sdb] Assuming drive cache write through
[ 222.376822] sd:5:0:0:0:0 [sdb] Assuming drive cache write through

Attached is the output from the lspci -vvn command.

I'll go back and read the GRUB manual to see if I can spot what I did wrong. If anyone spots my mistake please let me know.

If you want me to test anything else, or execute any other command, etc, then let me know as well.

[Peter (sunspots-deactivatedaccount)]

Here is the output from the dmesg command.

[Michael R. Head (burner)]

This seems to be fixed with Tribe 5 (at least on my T61P).

[Achim Bohnet (allee)]

With daily-life from 23-Aug-2007, I was able to install the D830 yesterday.
So it looks like the problem I reported is fix-released ;)

Thx a lot,
Achim

[Achim Bohnet (allee)]

Uhm, forgot kernel version: kubuntu i386 with

   linux-image-2.6.22-10-generic 2.6.22-10.30

on Dell Latitude D830.

Achim

[Peter (sunspots-deactivatedaccount)]

Hi Brain,
I was able to start the LiveCD with Tribe-5 on my Fujitsu S6410P laptop. Thanks for the help and sorting out this bug. Will now try to have it installed.
Peter

[Roger Noriega (rnoriega)]

Fixed on Dell pre-production machine with Gutsy Tribe 5 as well (Tribe 4 exhibited the problem).

[Martin Gros (m-gros)]

I confirm, that this problem is fixed on my Dell Latitude D830 with Tribe-5 amd64
Thanks
Martin

[Kathy Iler (kiler)]

I'm having the same problem with installing Edubuntu 9.04 that I downloaded recently. We are a classroom and I'm excited to find this product. It installed and also net booted to the server we setup on all computers EXCEPT our Dells (Optiplex GX 150). We get the same error whether trying to boot live and cannot netboot.
I'm sorry I am brand new to this program and so I'm not sure if Edubuntu Feisty has a fix like the Gutsy Tribe 5. Please help, we start classes tomorrow so I'm only operating with half a classroom of computers.

Thanks,
Kathy

[Roger Noriega (rnoriega)]

Kathy,

Boot to the LiveCD press F6 at the menu, then at end of the kernel line
add all_generic_ide press enter the install should continue. Let me know
if this works for you.

Thanks Roger

-----Original Message-----
From: <email address hidden> [mailto:<email address hidden>] On Behalf Of
Kathy Iler
Sent: Tuesday, September 04, 2007 9:58 PM
To: Noriega, Rogelio
Subject: [Bug 129817] Re: install fails: busybox (initramfs): can't
accesstty: (/dev/sda trouble?)

I'm having the same problem with installing Edubuntu 9.04 that I
downloaded recently. We are a classroom and I'm excited to find this
product. It installed and also net booted to the server we setup on all
computers EXCEPT our Dells (Optiplex GX 150). We get the same error
whether trying to boot live and cannot netboot.
I'm sorry I am brand new to this program and so I'm not sure if Edubuntu
Feisty has a fix like the Gutsy Tribe 5. Please help, we start classes
tomorrow so I'm only operating with half a classroom of computers.

Thanks,
Kathy

--
install fails: busybox (initramfs): can't access tty: (/dev/sda
trouble?)
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/129817
You received this bug notification because you are a member of The Dell
Team, which is the bug contact for Dell Ubuntu Project.

[Gaspard Leon (gaspard.leon)]

hmm
Tried the Tribe 5 CD... can't access tty
Tried the 21.1 Live CD... worked the first time I tried it, but now returns the same can't access tty

This "can't access tty" issue at Live CD boot, although I did boot once successfully, so I think perhaps it's a timing issue...

I think the all_generic_ide parameter may work (untested) but I would like to read what it actually does...

My system:
Abit NF7-S Motherboard (nForce 2 chipset)
Athlon XP 3200+
2GB RAM
Nvidia Geforce 5900XT w 128mb

1x LG DVD-RW on it's own PATA IDE channel
1x 160GB Seagate on it's own PATA IDE channel

1x 120GB Seagate SATA (on the onboard Sil 3112 SATA controller)

3x 18GB U160 SCSI drives (on an Adaptec 19160 PCI Controller)

[Gaspard Leon (gaspard.leon)]

Still doesn't start with latest daily live CD 27th Sep i386

BUT... Using the all_generic_ide parameter works great!

I'm typing this from inside the ubuntu live session..

It says "fix released" at the top of this bug does that mean the all_generic_ide parameter is going to be default in future?

Cheers,

Gaspard

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Gaspard - Fix Released means that this particular bug has been fixed and that you should not have encountered it with the latest daily CD or the beta CD. Please open a new bug report regarding linux-source-2.6.22 and include the information at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeamBugPolicies (after booting with all_generic_ide) and feel free to subscribe me (brian-murray) to the bug report. Thanks in advance.

[Michael R. Head (burner)]

It worked for me with Tribe 5 (as I reported), but seems to have regressed with the beta release and no longer works on my T61p.

[Gaspard Leon (gaspard.leon)]

thanks Brian,

There was already a new one from Jason Smith, so I've added my details to that one, and subscribed you.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/146287

Cheers,
Gaspard

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Per a decision made by the Ubuntu Kernel Team, bugs will longer be assigned to the ubuntu-kernel-team in Launchpad as part of the bug triage process. The ubuntu-kernel-team is being unassigned from this bug report. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeamBugPolicies for more information. Thanks.

[Timothy R. Chavez (timrchavez)]

The bug task for the somerville project has been removed by an automated script. This bug has been cloned on that project and is available here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1305599