Debian kernel 2.6.2x bug

[bad_brain]

I had to make a full new setup for my Debian Lenny system, I did the network install, this way the 2.6.18 kernel is installed. after doing the dist-upgrade the new 2.6.24 kernel is installed, but it was not possible to boot into it....the boot procedure got stuck at:

Code: Select all

Waiting for root file system

the same happened when I installed the 2.6.22-k7 kernel (for my AMD XP 32bit CPU, with the default kernel only 900mb RAM can be used, but I have 2 GB).

and now the solution:
my root file system is on hda1, which works fine for the 2.6.18 kernel, but since the 2.6.2x kernels it seems NOT to use hdX anymore, it's sdX instead...which is pretty weird because "sd" is usually for SATA or USB-devices, NOT for ATA ones.
so the trick was to open /boot/grub/menu.lst and change the path for the "kernel" entry from /hda1 to /sda1

this problem maybe affects other Debian-based distros too...

[uid0]

This is just another one of those cases when you see that there's a hole in the comunication channel between developers and maintainers. Although for many people was easy to blame the PATA drivers for this bug (just in case, I'm not saying your one of them), the problem was at the maintain level of most distributions.

Basically what happened was that PATA drivers were used as primary drivers in most recent kernels (which is understandable since the drivers can read ata and sata device which gives you portability) but, even when an update process that involves a kernel might update the boot files (to show the new versions and such), the drive references aren't updated, they should be, but they aren't ^^

So, yep, you as the user, have to be the one that make those changes to reference the correct devices (or what the kernel expect them to be).




Regards

[bad_brain]

yeah, but what I find pretty weird is the fact that the entry in menu.lst is generated automatically, so it really should be no big deal to adjust the device name properly by default.
but well, I guess it's also because of my system which is not really up to date anymore...nowadays SATA is almost the standard, but on the other side the same happened with the k7-kernel and for boards with k7 CPUs SATA is definitely no standard.
the development of k7 kernels has been ended on version 2.6.22 as it seems, which is also pretty annoying for me, so I have the choice between using a kernel which is not the newest version or using the newest kernel which has no HIGHMEM option so only 900MB RAM can be used.

time I'll make my wet dreams about a brand new AMD quad-core system come true..

[uid0]

yeah, but what I find pretty weird is the fact that the entry in menu.lst is generated automatically, so it really should be no big deal to adjust the device name properly by default.

Indeed, if you think on the fact that both, "sdx" and "hdx" will be read as sdx, if the kernel update is going to add "activated" pata drivers by default the most logic thing will be adding a little function that will look over the boot files for device names, if sdx is found then the function let them as they are, if it found hdx then replace the "h" for "s", or even more easy, tell the function to replace the kernel device for sdx keeping device's numbers.

I've also read about problems with the update of the fstab, I don't use any debian based so can't prove it, but it seems that the problem goes more beyond that just updating the grub or lilo configuration files, the fstab isn't updated either and that's a big problem if you have all your fstab and mtab configurated to read hdx devices =/



Regards