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SATA DRIVE AND KERNEL PANIC !!

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Guest

SATA DRIVE AND KERNEL PANIC !!

#1 Post by Guest »

Hello, I'm the one who couldn't install due to SATA drives. I must register sooner or later.

Now, having run the testing net install and selected the correct SATA driver, the installer was able to find my HD, the partitioner was able to partition the free space, and the installation ended successfully. SUCCESSFULLY??

Upon rebooting, this is the message I received:
PIVOT_ROOT: NO SUCH FILE OR DIRECTORY
/SBIN/INIT: 432: CANNOT OPEN DEV/CONSOLE: NO SUCH FILE
KERNEL PANIC: ATTEMPTED TO KILL INIT!
I found some documentation on the problem, but my knowledge is not enough to understand what is going on. Briefly:

apparently the SATA drivers handle partitions differently, swapping places (or drive IDs ??) to partitions, so that after rebooting, the system looks for the init in the wrong partition. This is the pivot_root problem. A suggested solution is to edit GRUB (I think, can't remember exactly) changing the drive name from hda to sda, whatever this means. But the people were talikng about problems in upgrading from kernel 2.4 to 2.6, and not doing a fresh install. BTW, seems like SATA drives were handled better in kernel 2.4

I really don't understand how I can possibly access grub, or any other Linux file for that matter, if I don't have a working Linux system. I doubt I can do such a thing with Windows. Maybe a recovery disk or something?

I would also need someone who could really drive me step by step through the process, as my Linux knowledge is <0

A final consideration: is it possible that I am the only one who needs to install Debian on a SATA drive? Or have I the only problematic SATA drive? How can it be that noone else has problems like me? Wouldn't it me a good idea for the Debian staff to look into this SATA problem seriously? Can my problem be considered as a bug?

Again (and for the second day in a row), if someone could be so kind as to help me out, I would really appreciate it...

And to think that yeasterday morning the install on my other computer went so smoothly. I could hardly believe it was so easy setting up Debian.

Durandal
Posts: 12
Joined: 2005-08-22 00:10

Re: SATA DRIVE AND KERNEL PANIC !!

#2 Post by Durandal »

Anonymous wrote: Upon rebooting, this is the message I received:
PIVOT_ROOT: NO SUCH FILE OR DIRECTORY
/SBIN/INIT: 432: CANNOT OPEN DEV/CONSOLE: NO SUCH FILE
KERNEL PANIC: ATTEMPTED TO KILL INIT!

A final consideration: is it possible that I am the only one who needs to install Debian on a SATA drive? Or have I the only problematic SATA drive? How can it be that noone else has problems like me? Wouldn't it me a good idea for the Debian staff to look into this SATA problem seriously? Can my problem be considered as a bug?

Again (and for the second day in a row), if someone could be so kind as to help me out, I would really appreciate it...
.
Well. I'm just a n00b and I'm having my own travails with Debian:

Why has GNOME taken over booting? I didn't think I'd hear myself say it, but can I boot to the command line again? Where (and how) do I edit GRUB to make the default time to pick an OS longer? Why does it take 3 mins of boot time to load "Starting MTA:," and can I make it load faster? Why does Debian recognize I'm connected to the internet via CLI (which I can't get to) via a DHCP config/connect, but GNOME doesn't have a clue? Why does it seem like every "default" set by Debian is horribly incorrect for my comps settings? Does Debian hate me?

So even tho I'm a n00b I'm here to try to help you. I also have a SATA drive and have gotten Debian (sortof) working. My problem was that the drives were being recognized as SCSI disks. This is possibly why you'd want to identify the drives as /dev/sd# vs /dev/hd#, as you referred to in your post.

First, I have Debian DVD's. When I booted the machine with them, it loads up to a Boot prompt, saying to hit Enter to boot. Instead of just hitting enter, as I'm sure you were told, you should type "Linux26" to load with the 2.6 Linux kernal... seems to work better. I'm not sure if this is because it calls the SATA drive an SCSI drive or what, but it worked for me.

Now, my questions for you...

What other OSes do you have already installed, if any?

What method are you using to install Debian?

When it rebooted, did it not reboot into GRUB first? GRUB has a shell you can use, type "help" for commands or "help -all" for more.

And I'll keep an eye open for your problem while I'm surfing for the answers to mine. Honestly, the most helpful thing has been looking at the back logs of Debian help forums. I have been using this one plus these two:

www.debianhelp.org
and
http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/forum-37.html

Don't wait for people to reply, just find someone who's had your problem or similar before. The forums plus the debian/installer/grub documentation on the site (www.debian.org) should be very helpful.


Durandal

Guest

#3 Post by Guest »

Hey, I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one using a SATA drive! Thanks for your reply!

First to answer your questions:

1) Other OS: usual XP Home Edition. On my other computer (IDE drive), the grub thing works OK, and at startup I can choose between OS. A little too quick, I agree.

2) On the computer where Debian works, I used, like you, a DVD

3) Yes, when I reboot it goes to grub and gives me the choice between OS

Now my story:

I have 2 computers: on the first (IDE drive), the installation took me approx. 1/2 an hour, with no problem whatsoever. I still have to configure it though, since I immediately went to install Sarge on the second computer.

On the second computer (SATA drive), this is my THIRD day of trial and error: I just get a Debian system to work:

- I tried Sarge install as Linux26: couldn't find my hard drive

- I tried Sarge install as Expert26: same thing

- I followed a good suggestion to try the Etch testing net install, and hey! It couldn't find my drive, but gave me the option to install SATA drivers. I Installed the SATA ULI driver, and finally my drive was recognized, partitioned, and the system installed.

- But when I rebooted...The kernel panic thing.

- Don't worry, I'm not just waiting to receive help. I've already spent 2 FULL nights (duk till dawn), searching and searching....but to no avail. The only GOOD help, I found it here. I will look into those 2 links you gave me, and many thanks.

- I will try to to get into the grub shell, like you said, and hopefully from there correct the drive letter problem. Hopefully.

- I will give the thing 1 more try, then revert either to installing a second, IDE drive, and install it there, or change distro. I tested SuSE and Mandrivia and they seem to have no problems with my drive. Maybe its because they use a newer version of kernel 2.6. But I would really like to have Debian though.

Please keep me informed if you run into something interesting, and thanks again. If you have questions that I can answer (remember that on 1 of my computers Debian is running), I will try as hard as I can to help you.

Bye,

Luca

User avatar
dawgie
Posts: 430
Joined: 2004-06-16 21:30
Location: New Hampshire USA

#4 Post by dawgie »

Grub only uses hd* for both ide scsi, sata, etc.
BUT the path to your OS uses the device name.

Example of a grrub /boot/grub/menu.lst entry:

Code: Select all

title            GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.11
root            (hd0,1)
kernel         /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.11 root=/dev/sda2 ro
boot

Option #1:

As soon as grub starts, use the up/down arrow keys to select the entry.
Hit the "e" key to edit the entry.
Then use the up/down arrow keys to select the line of the entry that you want to edit.
when you are finished editing, hit "b" to boot the entry.
Once you get Debian to boot, then edit the /boot/grub/menu.lst file to make the changes permanent

Option #2

Boot with a live CD. Mount your drive and edit /boot/grub/menu.lst

Harold
Posts: 1482
Joined: 2005-01-07 00:15
Been thanked: 3 times

#5 Post by Harold »

The problem is a (bad) combination of the use of initrd images and SATA technology that is just different enough from EIDE to confuse the GRUB and LILO bootloaders. Here is a reasonably understandable explanation what initrd is and does. Pivot_root is the point in the boot process where control is passed from the initrd image to the kernel. Obviously, the handoff is not going well for those people with SATA drives.

First, post your problem to the Debian-Boot mailing list, as those are the people who will have to implement the permanent solution.

Short-term, the only 100%-reliable Debian solution I know is to reconfig the kernel so that it does not use initrd. This means making sure that support for your hardware is rolled directly into the kernel. This is a cakewalk for anyone who has been around Linux for awhile, but it is certainly not something that a newbie should be asked to do.

You said that you have installed other distros and they worked. I assume that those distros do not use initrd. Using a different distro until Debian-Boot gets this under control is another alternative.

If you have an IDE drive laying around, you might try installing it and removing the SATA drive. But, I have never laid eyes or fingers on a motherboard with SATA capabilites, and the motherboard might still play games with you. But, you won't know unless you try.

Again, fastest solution to you present predicament will come from Debian-Boot mailing list.

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