cant boot into latest kernel

[Richardrahl]

Re: cant boot into latest kernel

i have no troubles using the command line (even though i still have a million things i could learn to do with it )

as for pasting and changing 20-15 to 22-14 no dice it still hangs at the kubuntu loading screen

[dibl]

Re: cant boot into latest kernel

As an experiment, when your boot menu comes up, highlight the 22-14 kernel line, and press "e". Then back up your cursor to the point where you can delete "quiet" and "splash" and type in "single" in their place. Cursor right to the end of that line, hit "Enter", then when it puts you back on the kernel boot line, hit "b" and it will try to boot. I'll be interested to see what happens.

If it happens to boot, you will end at a "#" prompt. Just hit Ctrl-D to let it proceed.

[Richardrahl]

Re: cant boot into latest kernel

ok quick update it still hangs at the same point as my first post with the same error, im just going to do a quick experiment of my own and # out the /proc partition in the /etc/fstab and see if that does anything

[Richardrahl]

Re: cant boot into latest kernel

ok that did nothing also,

i tell ya's what this ones a beauty of a problem

[Snowhog]

Re: cant boot into latest kernel

The /proc entry in fstab is necessary.

"What Is /proc?

The proc filesystem is a pseudo-filesystem rooted at /proc that contains user-accessible objects that pertain to the runtime state of the kernel and, by extension, the executing processes that run on top of it." (taken from the linked article following)

The article: The Linux /proc Filesystem as a Programmers' Tool does a good job of explaining this 'in detail.'

There is a 'file' in the /proc directory named cmdline. ls -l cmdline shows this file as zero bytes in size (as most file entries in /proc are), but it does contain data. pg cmdline (from within the /proc directory) results in the contents (?) of the booted kernel entry in fstab. Try it. Then compare the result with blkid results for the partition you are booting from, and with the kernel line entry in fstab, also for the booted kernel option. All three will be the same.

So, when you are booting from the 'problem' kernel option, the cmdline entry in /proc (it would seem to me) isn't getting the uuid from menu.lst parsed correctly (it's missing that critical digit). This thought is a total guess on my part. But, it makes a degree of sense. That said, I don't have a solution for it. Someone else with more 'nuts-and-bolts' knowledge/experience with the underlying operation of Linux and the boot process could, I'm sure, expand upon this.

A quick Google search of linux /proc/cmdline finds:
"This file shows the kernel parameters that were passed during boot."

[Richardrahl]

Re: cant boot into latest kernel

richard@RichardRahl:~$ blkid
/dev/hda1: UUID="88b0fb01-9809-4ca2-9e58-1462613b126a" SEC_TYPE="ext2" TYPE="ext3"
/dev/hda5: UUID="b73817a5-b815-404c-8869-379797385b28" TYPE="swap"
/dev/hdb1: TYPE="ntfs"
richard@RichardRahl:~$ cd /proc
richard@RichardRahl:/proc$ cd /proc
richard@RichardRahl:/proc$ ls -l cmdline
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 2008-01-27 13:15 cmdline
richard@RichardRahl:/proc$ pg cmdline
root=UUID=88b0fb01-9809-4ca2-9e58-1462613b126a ro quiet splash
(EOF):

thats the result of all those commands but i have (other than the fact that they are the HDD) no idea what im looking for

[Snowhog]

Re: cant boot into latest kernel

There is one more thing you can try. Edit the /boot/grub/menu.lst file and change the method of identifying the location of the kernel.

In the stanza towards the top of the menu.lst file you find:

## e.g. kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro
## kopt_2_6_8=root=/dev/hdc1 ro
## kopt_2_6_8_2_686=root=/dev/hdc2 ro
# kopt=root=UUID=a2357a43-de81-4157-91ff-4fe745f01a79 ro

The first three entries are examples of the syntax for the kernel line root= entry. In your case, you are using the uuid syntax. Instead of using the uuid syntax, you can change it to the /dev/hdxx ro syntax instead. Pointing directly to the partition the kernel is in is a no-brainer (to the system), where as the uuid syntax is a 'link' that depends on being parsed correctly.

To try this, you would change the # kopt=root=UUID= entry in this stanza to kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro (where hda1 needs to be changed to you actual partition you are booting from). Then too, on the actual kernel line entry that you are selecting from the displayed boot menu, you want to change the root=UUID= to root=/dev/hda1 (again, replacing hda1 with the actual partition you are booting from).

[Richardrahl]

Re: cant boot into latest kernel

OK now instead of getting ALERT! /dev/disk/by-uuid/88b0fb01-9809-4ca2-9e58-1462613b12a does not exist. dropping to shell
im getting ALERT! /dev/hda1 does not exist. dropping to shell

[Richardrahl]

Re: cant boot into latest kernel

just tried reinstalling the kernel (for the 3rd time) to no avail

i must admit I'm completely intrigued by this, i haven't had this much fun since i learnt how to break/fix win$ i mean theres so many things i've tried from here as well as quite a few other sites and it persists and im not sure if i should be boggled or dancing a jig

[Snowhog]

Re: cant boot into latest kernel

!@!!! NOW that simply can't be!! /dev/hda1 is the main partition that you have your system installed on. It's the same partition that is referenced by the 'working' system.

Qqmike hasn't yet posted to this thread (has he?). I think that there must be something going on in the GRUB boot loading that isn't quite right. What you are experiencing should not be happening.

[Richardrahl]

Re: cant boot into latest kernel

don't i know it this is just all wrong i mean it finds the 20-15 kernel just fine no troubles at all but when it tries to find 22-14 which is on the same partition that partition doesn't exist, that just blows me away

and no Qqmike hasnt posted that i know of

[Snowhog]

Re: cant boot into latest kernel

Open a console and type:

sudo fdisk -l

copy and paste the results. Then, type:

df -hT

copy and paste also.

[Richardrahl]

Re: cant boot into latest kernel

Disk /dev/hda: 20.0 GB, 20020396032 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2434 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x3e843e83

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 2327 18691596 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 2328 2434 859477+ 5 Extended
/dev/hda5 2328 2434 859446 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/hdb: 40.0 GB, 40020664320 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4865 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x42f242f1

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdb1 * 1 4864 39070048+ 7 HPFS/NTFS

Filesystem Type Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda1 ext3 18G 4.2G 13G 26% /
varrun tmpfs 506M 152K 506M 1% /var/run
varlock tmpfs 506M 0 506M 0% /var/lock
udev tmpfs 506M 128K 506M 1% /dev
devshm tmpfs 506M 0 506M 0% /dev/shm
lrm tmpfs 506M 15M 491M 3% /lib/modules/2.6.20-15-generic/volatile
/dev/hdc iso9660 2.8G 2.8G 0 100% /media/cdrom0
/dev/hdb1 fuseblk 38G 27G 11G 72% /media/hdb1

[Snowhog]

Re: cant boot into latest kernel

Nothing wrong with the data here also. Didn't think there would be. Again, what you are experiencing just should not be happening! It's going to turn out to be something simple (of course) that we have just overlooked. But I'll be darned if I know what it is.

When Qqmike has an opportunity to review all of this, he may be able to provide some additional insight. This is just to weird!!

[toad]

Re: cant boot into latest kernel

After a decent night's sleep and another review of the data I noticed that you have a bunch of hdX instead of sdX 8)

After a long spell without Kubuntu and on a recent install of 7.10 I was surprised to see that my IDE drive was referred to as sda and my SATA as sdb.

My guess is that your kernel gets confused when it needs to access an hdX drive because it does not know where to look.

For starters you could wait for the grub menu to come up, select the kernel you want to boot, press e for edit and add

root=/dev/sda1

Then try to boot...