Can't find root device, boot drops to BusyBox

[rage9]

Updated to 8.10 and can't boot into the new kernel 2.6.27-7. Many people are having the same problem, over various hardware setups. The most common issue is this error:

----------error------------------
Loading, please wait...
Gave up waiting for root device. Common problems:
- Boot args (cat /proc/cmdline)
- Check rootdelay= (did the system wait long enough?)
- Check root= (did the system wait for the right device?)
- Missing modules (cat /proc/modules; ls /dev)
ALERT! /dev/disk/by-uuid/*** does not exist. Dropping to a shell!

BusyBox v1.10.2 (Ubuntu 1:1.10.2-1ubuntu6) built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.

(initramfs)

---------end---error-----------------

I keep also getting:
ata2: SRST failed (errno=-16)
ata2: SRST failed (errno=-16)
ata2: reset failed, giving up

I can boot into former kernel 2.6.24-21.

Some people have been able to solve this with the option: rootdelay=
Doesn't work for most of us it seems.

[tjbk_tjb (tjbk123)]

I will back this up. My error messages look identical to those above. I would like to note that I use an nVidia MCP55 SATA controller, which uses the sata_nv driver.

[kernel-janitor (kernel-janitor)]

Hi rage9,

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 294747

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.]

[rage9 (affiliate)]

Actually what fixed it was to change the grub boot timeout [not exactly
sure what the actual variable name was] to a pretty large number. Looks
like my old laptop sata drive just wasn't mounting fast enough and
needed some extra time, if I remember right I had to crank the number
pretty high.

Probably not too likely to see that happen in a more modern system. My
lappy was an old 2ghz Pentium 4 with 512 ram and a hard drive from who
knows where, not exactly zippy by any means. I however have got rid of
my old laptop and built a new system and haven't even run into the
problem again.

rage9

kernel-janitor wrote:
> Hi rage9,
>
> 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 294747
>
> 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.]
>
>
> ** Tags added: needs-kernel-logs
>
> ** Tags added: needs-upstream-testing
>
> ** Tags added: kj-triage
>
> ** Changed in: linux (Ubuntu)
> Status: New => Incomplete
>
>

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

Thanks for the update, I'll go ahead and close this bug out.