can't boot, "block device is not a valid root device"
Tamer Higazi
I have installed the latest gentoo linux distribution and I don't know
what I am missing in my installation, specially the last gentoo
installation worked for me fine.
At booting I recive the error message:
"Block device /dev/sda5 is not a valid root device."
Hard disk is a SATA one, with a Core2Duo machine.
What am I doing wrong?
for any help solving my problem, I would thank you kindly.
Tamer
content of my fstab:
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# noatime turns off atimes for increased performance (atimes normally aren't
# needed; notail increases performance of ReiserFS (at the expense of
storage
# efficiency). It's safe to drop the noatime options if you want and to
# switch between notail / tail freely.
#
# The root filesystem should have a pass number of either 0 or 1.
# All other filesystems should have a pass number of 0 or greater than 1.
#
# See the manpage fstab(5) for more information.
#
# <fs> <mountpoint> <type> <opts>
<dump/pass>
# NOTE: If your BOOT partition is ReiserFS, add the notail option to opts.
/dev/sda1 /boot ext2 noauto,noatime 1 2
/dev/sda5 / ext3 noatime 0 1
/dev/sda6 /opt ext3 noatime 0 1
/dev/sda7 /usr/local ext3 noatime 0 1
/dev/sda8 /home ext3 noatime 0 1
/dev/sda9 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom audo noauto,ro 0 0
#/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto 0 0
# glibc 2.2 and above expects tmpfs to be mounted at /dev/shm for
# POSIX shared memory (shm_open, shm_unlink).
# (tmpfs is a dynamically expandable/shrinkable ramdisk, and will
# use almost no memory if not populated with files)
shm /dev/shm tmpfs
nodev,nosuid,noexec 0 0
and grub.conf:
grub.conf:
# This is a sample grub.conf for use with Genkernel, per the Gentoo handbook
#
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml?part=1&chap=10#doc_chap2
# If you are not using Genkernel and you need help creating this file, you
# should consult the handbook. Alternatively, consult the
grub.conf.sample that
# is included with the Grub documentation.
default 0
timeout 30
title Gentoo Linux 2.6.25-r7
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/kernel-genkernel-x86_64-2.6.25-gentoo-r7 root=/dev/ram0
init=/linuxrc ramdisk=8192 real_root=/dev/sda5
initrd /boot/initramfs-genkernel-x86_64-2.6.25-gentoo-r7
Tamer Higazi
J.O. Aho
> Hi people,
> I have installed the latest gentoo linux distribution and I don't know
> what I am missing in my installation, specially the last gentoo
> installation worked for me fine.
Don't multipost, it's a bad way to do things, if you have to post something to
more than to one newsgroup, then do a cross post (similar to email cc), to a
handful relevant newsgroups. When multiposting, you have easier to see if
someone has replied, others will see if you got an answer and has the
possibility to give further help.
Suggestions: Check that you did compile ext3 support.
Check that you did store the files on sda5 and not on a different slice.
Suggestion: Compile in everything you need for the boot process into the
kernel, then you don't have to use initrd and your bootup sequence will be faster.
--
//Aho
Tamer Higazi
Thanks for your reply.
J.O. Aho schrieb:
> Don't multipost, it's a bad way to do things, if you have to post
> something to more than to one newsgroup, then do a cross post (similar
> to email cc), to a handful relevant newsgroups. When multiposting, you
> have easier to see if someone has replied, others will see if you got an
> answer and has the possibility to give further help.
sorry, won't make it again. I thought different newsgroups, different
people with different ideas.
> Suggestions: Check that you did compile ext3 support.
> Check that you did store the files on sda5 and not on a different slice.
root fs IS /dev/sda5.
> Suggestion: Compile in everything you need for the boot process into the
> kernel, then you don't have to use initrd and your bootup sequence will
> be faster.
>
Produces the same nonsense as built-in the kernel version or as module
only.
Any further ideas?!
Unruh
>Hi J.O. Aho,
>Thanks for your reply.
>J.O. Aho schrieb:
>> Don't multipost, it's a bad way to do things, if you have to post
>> something to more than to one newsgroup, then do a cross post (similar
>> to email cc), to a handful relevant newsgroups. When multiposting, you
>> have easier to see if someone has replied, others will see if you got an
>> answer and has the possibility to give further help.
>sorry, won't make it again. I thought different newsgroups, different
>people with different ideas.
Then cross post. Note that you posted twice to this group.
>> Suggestions: Check that you did compile ext3 support.
>> Check that you did store the files on sda5 and not on a different slice.
>root fs IS /dev/sda5.
/ MUST have /etc, /lib, /bin on it(together with their contents) . If you decided for some reason to put
those onto a different partition, you destroyed yourself.
Arthur Hagen
> Hi people,
> I have installed the latest gentoo linux distribution and I don't know
> what I am missing in my installation, specially the last gentoo
> installation worked for me fine.
>
> At booting I recive the error message:
>
> "Block device /dev/sda5 is not a valid root device."
>
> Hard disk is a SATA one, with a Core2Duo machine.
>
>
> What am I doing wrong?
Not enough information.
What kind of boot loader (lilo, grub, syslinux, loadlin, ...)?
And what does "fdisk -l /dev/sda" report?
--
*Art
fredericf
kernel (hd0,0)/kernel-genkernel-x86_64-2.6.25-gentoo-r7 root=/dev/ram0
init=/linuxrc ramdisk=8192 real_root=/dev/sda5
initrd (hd0,0)/initramfs-genkernel-x86_64-2.6.25-gentoo-r7
or :
kernel /kernel-genkernel-x86_64-2.6.25-gentoo-r7 root=/dev/ram0
init=/linuxrc ramdisk=8192 real_root=/dev/sda5
initrd /initramfs-genkernel-x86_64-2.6.25-gentoo-r7
Jerry Peters
The error message indicates that you're missing part of the driver
stack for SATA, hence the disk does not exist to the kernel.
Did you include sd-mod? You need all of the drivers for SATA, from the
chipset to the upper level SCSI drivers. If they're modular they need
to be included in the initrd _and_ actually loaded. Also check the
dependencies for all of the modules, you need them also.
Jerry