initramfs created instead of initrd - can't boot new kernel

Jongi · #1 12th October 2009, 08:12 PM

I have the following grub.conf

Code:

default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,13)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Fedora (2.6.31.1-56.fc12.x86_64)
	root (hd0,13)
	kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31.1-56.fc12.x86_64 ro root=UUID=887364f0-20ea-4439-b3db-88df548aa180 rhgb quiet LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 KEYBOARDTYPE=pc KEYTABLE=us
	initrd /boot/initramfs-2.6.31.1-56.fc12.x86_64.img
title Fedora (2.6.31-0.125.4.2.rc5.git2.fc12.x86_64)
	root (hd0,13)
	kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-0.125.4.2.rc5.git2.fc12.x86_64 ro root=UUID=887364f0-20ea-4439-b3db-88df548aa180 rhgb quiet LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 KEYBOARDTYPE=pc KEYTABLE=us
	initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.31-0.125.4.2.rc5.git2.fc12.x86_64.img

The git2 kernel with initrd boots. The latest rawhide kernel does not..When I try to enter my root password the skewed messages repeat with key press.

When I try to run mkinitrd, I get the following error

Code:

# mkinitrd /boot/initrd-2.6.31.1-56.img 2.6.31.1-56
No modules available for kernel "2.6.31.1-56".

Any ideas how I can fix this?

SlowJet · #2 12th October 2009, 09:02 PM

initrd has been replaced by dracut and initramfs.

reboot into older kernel with initrd.
then
rpm -e kernel 56
then yum install
dracut dracut-kernel
then yum install
perf kernel-firmware(from noarch of kernel 56.), , kernel 56, (optionally kernel-headers kernel-devel as needed)

It will take while to and you will see a couple of missing fireware messages, then another minute.

For best results, these need to be sync'd with xorg, plymouth, and your video drv also.

SJ

#3 12th October 2009, 11:00 PM

kerenl 56 typo SJ?

SlowJet · #4 13th October 2009, 04:21 AM

Fixed.

<deleted>
(Never mind, they trimmed the kernel logs. )

SJ

Zanpactou · #5 13th October 2009, 05:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jongi

The git2 kernel with initrd boots. The latest rawhide kernel does not..When I try to enter my root password the skewed messages repeat with key press.

I know what's going on here and I think that we should collaborate in a bug report.
I also know how you can fix this.

Boot up and get to grub.
Press any key to show the menu. press e when grub appears and press the down key and then e again to edit the kernel command line. You'll see a long string that goes off to the left. Press down the left key and scroll the cursor to the left until you get to the rhgb quiet part. Now delete rhgb quiet. Press the end key and make sure that there is a space right at the end of the line and type nomodeset. Press enter.

The line should look something like this :

Code:

kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31.1-56.fc12.x86_64 ro root=UUID=887364f0-20ea-4439-b3db-88df548aa180 LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 KEYBOARDTYPE=pc KEYTABLE=us nomodeset

Now press b.

When you are asked for your root password, you will be able to enter it without the text scroll looping.
So enter your root password and press enter. Then type fdisk -l and press enter which will list your hard disk partitions.
(Note : On my system at this point I have to press each key twice, like this : ffddiisskk --ll to input fdisk -l
but not for the password. Does that happen to you too?)
Now you can see your partitions, workout which one is your root partition and then do :
fsck /dev/sd??
(If your root partition is sda3 then change sd?? above to that. Mine is sdb2, for example.)
Again you may need to press each key twice to make the input to screen.
If you are asked to fix/repair anything press the y key (Maybe even twice.)
The check/repair will finish and you'll be back at the prompt in the shell.
Type reboot. Press enter and boot back in without modifying the command line in grub.
(You can press esc to drop plymouth down to see the output like you did in the screen shot you took to see if it boots ok.)

Good luck! (That's how I sorted mine, in fact many times so far. Especially when trying moblin, which did not work.)

diamond_ramsey · #6 13th October 2009, 06:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jongi

I have the following grub.conf
...
The git2 kernel with initrd boots. The latest rawhide kernel does not..When I try to enter my root password the skewed messages repeat with key press.

When I try to run mkinitrd, I get the following error

Code:

# mkinitrd /boot/initrd-2.6.31.1-56.img 2.6.31.1-56
No modules available for kernel "2.6.31.1-56".

Any ideas how I can fix this?

Jongi, is this on a multi-core system?

Jongi · #7 13th October 2009, 07:56 AM

So I did the following

Remove kernel 56 related packages:

Code:

yum remove kernel- 2.6.31.1-56.fc12.x86_64 kernel-headers- 2.6.31.1-56.fc12.x86_64 kernel-devel-2.6.31.1-56.fc12.x86_64 kernel-firmware-2.6.31.1-56.fc12.x86_64 perf

There were some dependency issues with trying to install dracut kernel:

Code:

yum remove dracut

Clear everything for good measure:

Code:

yum clean all

Reinstalled dracut:

Code:

yum install dracut dracut-kernel

Reinstalled kernel 56 and related packages:

Code:

yum install kernel kernel-headers kernel-devel kernel-firmware perf

As you say it takes a short while during the kernel install and shows some modules missing messages.

Reboot into new kernel. Same problem.

---------------------------

Zanpactou – I’ll try that. But why would it have that problem under the new kernel but as son as I boot into the old one it boots with out an issue (doesn’t even run fsck under the old kernel).

leigh123linux · #8 13th October 2009, 11:04 AM

Well the screenshot in post #1 is clear

give root password then run fsck to fix the superblock error

Change dev address to suit

Code:

fsck -f -y /dev/****

SlowJet · #9 13th October 2009, 11:29 AM

What screenshot? Oh the one in the link labeled blah, blah blah. Show the errors plainly, please.
Liegh could have answered you 12 hours ago.

If you already had dracut installed there was no need to redo it. dah!
Just rpm -e kernel and rpm -ivh kernel and initramfs would be rebuilt.

And I did not notice it was 64 bit although it probably doesn't make any difference (Because the file system is screwed up.)
No more soup for you!

SJ

Zanpactou · #10 13th October 2009, 05:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jongi

Zanpactou – I’ll try that. But why would it have that problem under the new kernel but as son as I boot into the old one it boots with out an issue (doesn’t even run fsck under the old kernel).

I wouldn't like to speculate at this point because I really don't know. I believe there's some problem with plymouthd and the kms settings code but that's mere speculation.

I have a much easier way to do what I said will let you do an fsck without the text scroll looping.
Just boot into the old kernel and duplicate the entry for the new kernel in /boot/grub/menu.lst so that it has no rhgb quiet and has nomodeset. Then select it when you boot. That way you can avoid the time it takes to modify grub manually. (Sorry I didn't recommend this first, I have a cold.)

So you edit /grub/menu.lst as root and change what you posted above to this :

Code:

default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,13)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Fedora (2.6.31.1-56.fc12.x86_64)
	root (hd0,13)
	kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31.1-56.fc12.x86_64 ro root=UUID=887364f0-20ea-4439-b3db-88df548aa180 rhgb quiet LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 KEYBOARDTYPE=pc KEYTABLE=us
	initrd /boot/initramfs-2.6.31.1-56.fc12.x86_64.img

title Fedora (2.6.31.1-56.fc12.x86_64) Rescue
	root (hd0,13)
	kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31.1-56.fc12.x86_64 ro root=UUID=887364f0-20ea-4439-b3db-88df548aa180 LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 KEYBOARDTYPE=pc KEYTABLE=us nomodeset
	initrd /boot/initramfs-2.6.31.1-56.fc12.x86_64.img

title Fedora (2.6.31-0.125.4.2.rc5.git2.fc12.x86_64)
	root (hd0,13)
	kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-0.125.4.2.rc5.git2.fc12.x86_64 ro root=UUID=887364f0-20ea-4439-b3db-88df548aa180 rhgb quiet LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 KEYBOARDTYPE=pc KEYTABLE=us
	initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.31-0.125.4.2.rc5.git2.fc12.x86_64.img

Zanpactou · #11 13th October 2009, 06:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by leigh123linux

Well the screenshot in post #1 is clear

give root password then run fsck to fix the superblock error

Change dev address to suit

Code:

fsck -f -y /dev/****

Hi leigh,
The problem is that when you go to press the first letter of your root password, the "Give root password" Message appears again and for every time you press a key. So it won't take input correctly and it's kind of looping. Normally the screen does not change until you input the password and press enter.
It totally prevents you from putting in your root password to get to the rescue shell.
The only way round it here was to boot without plymouth and without kernel mode settings.
What's fustrating is that I can't use that as a default whilst testing because nomodeset means no x here. It just hangs.
It's a very strange error.

Jongi · #12 13th October 2009, 06:18 PM

zanpactou - as soon as i booted (after following your instructions) the maintence mode prompt didn't even appear. like you x did not run.

slowjet - what's with the stroppiness?

Zanpactou · #13 9th November 2009, 01:17 AM

@Jongi in response to your pm
I think that this problem is all fixed now with updates to plymouth, etc.
I haven't tried to reproduce the x not starting from init 3 problem recently. I probably should.
[EDIT]Yes it is fixed and so is the starting x from init 3 issue, however it pushes my install straight into a root kde desktop session instead of starting kdm and it's chooser with no auto login.
dracut is being used to generate initramfs as of Fedora 12 and it works like :

Code:

dracut [OPTION]... <image>  <kernel-version>

So like :

Code:

dracut /boot/initramfs-2.6.31.1-56.fc12.x86_64.img 2.6.31.1-56.fc12.x86_64

As root.
The only problem with using dracut like that is that I'm sure other options are supposed to be set (man dracut) So that only the modules to mount the rootfs are added. Using that produces an initramfs that takes a loooooong time to get to udev.[/EDIT]