F17 boot fails. Drops to dracut debug shell.

[AlFrugal]

I've begun having a problem booting F17. I get "dracut warning: unable to process initqueue" and then "dracut warning: /dev/disk-by-uuid .... does not exist". I'm then dropped into a dracut debug shell.

The PC has a single HDD, no RAID or LVM. The HDD has multiple partitions. The PC is dual-boot: F17 and Ubuntu 12.04. The grub2 entry for F17 contains a kernel line "vmlinuz.....root=UUID=.......". The UUID in this line is the same UUID listed in the dracut warning message. Ubuntu 12.04 continues to boot normally.

From the dracut debug shell when I issue "ls /dev/disk", the only thing listed is "by-id" (no by-uuid). When I issue from the dracut shell "ls /dev/disk/by-id",the only thing I get for my HDD: ata-ST3100011A_4LH0F8VT. By comparison when I boot Ubuntu and then issue from a terminal "ls /dev/disk/by-id" I get individual entries for each partition, e.g. ata-ST3100011A_4LH0F8VT-part6.

This problem started happening about ten days ago, after I got a batch of updates which included an update to kernel version 3.5.0-2. I had upgraded from F16 to F17 using preupgrade on June 21. F17 had been running fine until August 4. The last entries in /var/log/messages, /var/log/boot.log and /var/log/dracut.log are on August 4.

Full disclosure: The HDD has had an issue for several months. During boot, I get "invalid CHS sector 0". Fedora boot takes several minutes for error recovery, but the boot eventually completes. For Ubuntu, I had to edit the grub2 kernel line to include rootdelay=150. Once booted, Fedora and Ubuntu perform flawlessly. Adding "rootdelay=150" to the grub2 kernel line for Fedora did not solve my current problem.

I just noticed on my other PC that today, August 15, there was an update shipped for dracut. Could I use system-rescue-CD to install this on my non-booting Fedora?

Any suggestions on how to go about fixing this problem?

[jnoake]

I have the same problem, I have an external USB harddisk (all internal disks removed for the upgrade) with a LVM.
I use the disk as a portable Linux with generic drivers - I can choose a work laptop, or my wifes laptop and use it for personal activities without disturbing the integral disk.

Did preupgrade from f15 to f17, the upgrade completed normally. the next reboot came up with this problem.

I have recently used preupgrade to upgrade two other similar machines (without LVM's) successfully.

I am interested in any potential solutions here...

In my case I also get 'Unable to open $devnode'
set shows that devnode is undefined...

[AlFrugal]

I'm the OP. In my case, I've come to the tentative conclusion that my problem is caused by a deteriorating HDD. In my original post under "full disclosure", I mentioned that for several months I had been getting a message during boot "invalid CHS sector 0". Fedora would still boot, but boot took several minutes to do HDD error recovery. I did several more boots after my original post. I noticed additional error messages: 1. sda: unable to read rdb block 0 2. sda: unable to read partition table. dracut can't access the initramfs because it can no longer recognize the partitions on my HDD. What is puzzling to me is that Ubuntu still boots on this PC.

[AlFrugal]

I'm the OP again. I now believe the problem I described in my original post is a software bug. Today, Sept. 8, I succesfully booted an earlier F17 kernel, 3.4.6-2. Running this, I updated to the current kernel 3.5.2-3, as well as receiving many other updates including an updated dracut. This new kernel failed to boot in exactly the same fashion as described in my original post (which failed to boot kernel 3.5.0-2).

So, contrary to what I posted in post #3 in this thread, I don't believe my HDD has deteriorated any further.

I would appreciate any suggestions on how to make further progress in debugging this problem. Something changed after kernel 3.4.6-2.

[jnoake]

Hi OP,
I decided to take a backup of my disk (dd) and then install a fresh F17 on it from DVD. That was successful so F17 *can* find external USB HDD when it needs to. My next plan was to compare the boot,initramfs and grub configs to see where the original diverges from the valid path. I am also curious to see what happens at the next kernel release too.
I have not got around to this yet. You could try this also? - if your disk is not too big to snapshot.
I'm still following the suggestions here, so hope you get it sorted.
Glad to hear your disk is OK - I was sceptical of the failing disk hypothesis.

---------- Post added at 01:20 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:16 AM ----------

Oh, btw, I got a step further by copying the initramfs from a working installation on another disk - of the same version, it got past the 'dracut warning: unable to process initqueue' but failed later because it could not find the boot volume by name.

I found I could manually mount /boot after getting to a root prompt, so everything was ready, just that dracut seems to have dropped the ball.

[LongTimeDabbler]

Jnoake - once you get your root prompt can't you just rerun dracut and generate the correct intramfs and all would (hopefully) be OK?

From an old forum post

su-
cd /boot
mv initramfs-`uname -r`.img initramfs-`uname -r`.img-original
dracut -v /boot/initramfs-`uname -r`.img `uname -r`

[jnoake]

Yeah, tried that. I just got back to the first stage.
Thanks for the the suggestion though, keep 'em comming.

Originally Posted by LongTimeDabbler

Jnoake - once you get your root prompt can't you just rerun dracut and generate the correct intramfs and all would (hopefully) be OK?

From an old forum post

su-
cd /boot
mv initramfs-`uname -r`.img initramfs-`uname -r`.img-original
dracut -v /boot/initramfs-`uname -r`.img `uname -r`