[Luks dm-crypt] device mapper cannot find root at boot.

I'm using the current netinstall cd which seems to have support for creating dm-crypt partitions from within the installer.
I used cfdisk to create 3 partitions:
100mb boot
4096mb swap
100000mb for root
Then I manually configured the block devices using the UUID option
sda1 raw_fs -> Boot with ext2
sda2 raw_fs -> Swap
sda3 raw_fs -> dm-crypt named root
device_mapper/root -> / with JFS
I entered my passwords and it continued through the rest of the installation without issue.
I made sure the my mkinitcpio hooks were present: udev autodetect pata sata scsi usb usbinput keymap encrypt filesystem
Then once I booted, I waited 10 seconds for "sda3 to settle" then waited another 10 seconds for "device_mapper/root to settle" and then I guess gave up and pushed me to the ramfs shell.
What did I do wrong and how can I not do that again?

I use uuid, too. You just need the correct data. That's why I suggested to run fsarchiver probe simple command, I'm sure it will give you the correct uuid. Unfortunately I have no idea where did blkid get that false(?) uuid in my case from.
And make sure that you use the correct syntax: /dev/disk/by-uuid/.....

Similar Messages

[SOLVED] cannot find root device after pacman -Syu

Today I had a problem after pacman -Syu. Of course, my problem stemmed from not paying attention to the following (from https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=57205):
<b>Read pacman's output while upgrading.</b>
I could no longer boot. I received a message "cannot find root device" or something similar indicating a device with the appropriate UUID had not been found and I was being dropped into a recovery shell, then, when I typed exit, an emergency shell, followed shortly by a freeze.
After some investigation it appeared my initramfs was broken/non-existent/something after the install. I booted into a live CD and found that updating pacman again, and mkinitcpio -p linux both displayed the following error: "Failed to create temporary working directory in /tmp". Long story short: mktemp was segfaulting. This should be extremely easy to check if you're having a similar problem. I replaced it with the version on the live CD and ran the pacman update again. Success. If you do this, you may need to make sure your live cd architecture and installed kernel architecture are the same.
I'm not sure of the etiquette here, so I'm posting this in case someone else has the same problem I did; and benefits from a similar solution. I have checked the etiquette post and I don't think it's clear whether it's kosher to post things that don't actually require a solution. However, if I have misinterpreted the rules/etiquette and/or this type of post is considered extraneous please remove it.

You have to use lvm first. As all those vg*, lv*, and pv* commands are actually links to the lvm command, you should have to do something like "lvm vgscan" instead of just "vgscan".
Edit: oh and at that point in the boot process, you are actually in the initramfs still (ash to be specific).
Edit2: I was having issues with a USB keyboard and a new machine (actually just a new bios), and found out that because of windows 8's requriement for a fast POST, the default is to turn off the scanning for usb devices. Though this was for UEFI, and I am not sure if the same would apply for a bios booting machine...
Last edited by WonderWoofy (2013-03-26 23:10:40)

Random cannot find root device at boot

Every so often when I boot my arch install I get the error saying that it cannot find my root device. After a reboot sometimes everything is fine other times it will will repeat. It seems to be about a 40-60 chance that the error will occur. This same issue is also happening with a co-worker. I began to notice this issue when I upgraded my laptop with an SSD which my co-worker also has. I am beginning to wonder if it is related to the SSD because I have not had this issue until then. Anyone have any ideas?

Welcome to the Arch Linux forums.
In order to get proper support for your issues, you need to be much more explicit about your problems. An inability to find the root device can be caused by all kinds of things. So simply saying that you switched to an SSD and started to experience these problems is really not anything to go on. You need to also give a description of how your system is actually set up. That is, how is it partitioned? Is it the only OS on the machine? Do you use LVM, mdadm, Luks/dm-crypt, btrfs, etc?
These forums are quite active and there are all kinds of people here who are willing to help. But you have to help us help you. We cannot see your machine, and the very nature of Arch Linux brings about vast differences in how each individual machine is configured.

Can't get lvm/luks to boot - cannot find root partition

Hi,
I'm trying to get a dm-crypt on top of lvm to boot but without success so far. I followed http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Sys … r_dm-crypt and http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ins … AID_or_LVM, everything works fine (I can mount the partition) but when I try to boot from it, it cannot find the crypted partition and fails.
USELVM="yes"
HOOKS="base udev usb usbinput lvm2 encrypt filesystems"
root=/dev/mapper/sda2 cryptdevice=/dev/sda2:root2-lvol0 ro
jan@jan ~/src/xf86-video-ati $ ll /dev/mapper/
insgesamt 0
crw-rw---- 1 root root 10, 62 21. Feb 2008 control
brw------- 1 root disk 254, 0 21. Feb 2008 root
brw------- 1 root disk 254, 1 21. Feb 2008 root2-lvol0
brw------- 1 root disk 254, 2 21. Feb 2008 sda2
/dev/mapper/root is my current encrypted / without lvm
The boot process successfully identifies the lvm /dev/mapper/root2-lvol0 and continues with hook 'encrypt' but doesn't ask me for a passphrase but goes on to hook 'filesystems' and fails then because it can't mount the correct root-partition obviously.
There's only /dev/mapper/root2-lvol0 and /dev/mapper/control when I'm in the rescue sh from initrd.
Anyone got that combination to work?
- Jan

Reboot, at the sound of the chime (not before) depress the option key, when the startup manager appears choose OSX.

[SOLVED] Installing on ZFS root: "ZFS: cannot find bootfs" on boot.

I have been experimenting with ZFS filesystems on external HDDs for some time now to get more comfortable with using ZFS in the hopes of one day reinstalling my system on a ZFS root.
Today, I tried installing a system on an USB external HDD, as my first attempt to install on ZFS (I wanted to try in a safe, disposable environment before I try this on my main system).
My partition configuration (from gdisk):
Command (? for help): p
Disk /dev/sdb: 3907024896 sectors, 1.8 TiB
Logical sector size: 512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): 2FAE5B61-CCEF-4E1E-A81F-97C8406A07BB
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 3907024862
Partitions will be aligned on 8-sector boundaries
Total free space is 0 sectors (0 bytes)
Number Start (sector) End (sector) Size Code Name
1 34 2047 1007.0 KiB EF02 BIOS boot partition
2 2048 264191 128.0 MiB 8300 Linux filesystem
3 264192 3902828543 1.8 TiB BF00 Solaris root
4 3902828544 3907024862 2.0 GiB 8300 Linux filesystem
Partition #1 is for grub, obviously. Partition #2 is an ext2 partition that I mount on /boot in the new system. Partition #3 is where I make my ZFS pool.
Partition #4 is an ext4 filesystem containing another minimal Arch system for recovery and setup purposes. GRUB is installed on the other system on partition #4, not in the new ZFS system.
I let grub-mkconfig generate a config file from the system on partition #4 to boot that. Then, I manually edited the generated grub.cfg file to add this menu entry for my ZFS system:
menuentry 'ZFS BOOT' --class arch --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
load_video
set gfxpayload=keep
insmod gzio
insmod part_gpt
insmod ext2
set root='hd0,gpt2'
echo 'Loading Linux core repo kernel ...'
linux /vmlinuz-linux zfs=bootfs zfs_force=1 rw quiet
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /initramfs-linux.img
My ZFS configuration:
# zpool list
NAME SIZE ALLOC FREE CAP DEDUP HEALTH ALTROOT
External2TB 1.81T 6.06G 1.81T 0% 1.00x ONLINE -
# zpool status :(
pool: External2TB
state: ONLINE
scan: none requested
config:
NAME STATE READ WRITE CKSUM
External2TB ONLINE 0 0 0
usb-WD_Elements_1048_575836314135334C32383131-0:0-part3 ONLINE 0 0 0
errors: No known data errors
# zpool get bootfs
NAME PROPERTY VALUE SOURCE
External2TB bootfs External2TB/ArchSystemMain local
# zfs list
NAME USED AVAIL REFER MOUNTPOINT
External2TB 14.6G 1.77T 30K none
External2TB/ArchSystemMain 293M 1.77T 293M /
External2TB/PacmanCache 5.77G 1.77T 5.77G /var/cache/pacman/pkg
External2TB/Swap 8.50G 1.78T 20K -
The reason for the above configuration is that after I get this system to work, I want to install a second system in the same zpool on a different dataset, and have them share a pacman cache.
GRUB "boots" successfully, in that it loads the kernel and the initramfs as expected from the 2nd GPT partition. The problem is that the kernel does not load the ZFS:
ERROR: device '' not found. Skipping fsck.
ZFS: Cannot find bootfs.
ERROR: Failed to mount the real root device.
Bailing out, you are on your own. Good luck.
and I am left in busybox in the initramfs.
What am I doing wrong?
Also, here is my /etc/fstab in the new system:
# External2TB/ArchSystemMain
#External2TB/ArchSystemMain / zfs rw,relatime,xattr 0 0
# External2TB/PacmanCache
#External2TB/PacmanCache /var/cache/pacman/pkg zfs rw,relatime,xattr 0 0
UUID=8b7639e2-c858-4ff6-b1d4-7db9a393578f /boot ext4 rw,relatime 0 2
UUID=7a37363e-9adf-4b4c-adfc-621402456c55 none swap defaults 0 0
I also tried to boot using "zfs=External2TB/ArchSystemMain" in the kernel options, since that was the more logical way to approach my intention of having multiple systems on different datasets. It would allow me to simply create separate grub menu entries for each, with different boot datasets in the kernel parameters. I also tried setting the mount points to "legacy" and uncommenting the zfs entries in my fstab above. That didn't work either and produced the same results, and that was why I decided to try to use "bootfs" (and maybe have a script for switching between the systems by changing the ZFS bootfs and mountpoints before reboot, reusing the same grub menuentry).
Thanks in advance for any help.
Last edited by tajjada (2013-12-30 20:03:09)

Sounds like a zpool.cache issue. I'm guessing your zpool.cache inside your arch-chroot is not up to date. So on boot the ZFS hook cannot find the bootfs. At least, that's what I assume the issue is, because of this line:
ERROR: device '' not found. Skipping fsck.
If your zpool.cache was populated, it would spit out something other than an empty string.
Some assumptions:
- You're using the ZFS packages provided by demizer (repository or AUR).
- You're using the Arch Live ISO or some version of it.
On cursory glance your configuration looks good. But verify anyway. Here are the steps you should follow to make sure your zpool.cache is correct and up to date:
Outside arch-chroot:
- Import pools (not using '-R') and verify the mountpoints.
- Make a copy of the /etc/zfs/zpool.cache before you export any pools. Again, make a copy of the /etc/zfs/zpool.cache before you export any pools. The reason for this is once you export a pool the /etc/zfs/zpool.cache gets updated and removes any reference to the exported pool. This is likely the cause of your issue, as you would have an empty zpool.cache.
- Import the pool containing your root filesystem using the '-R' flag, and mount /boot within.
- Make sure to copy your updated zpool.cache to your arch-chroot environment.
Inside arch-chroot:
- Make sure your bootloader is configured properly (i.e. read 'mkinitcpio -H zfs').
- Use the 'udev' hook and not the 'systemd' one in your mkinitcpio.conf. The zfs-utils package does not have a ported hook (as of 0.6.2_3.12.6-1).
- Update your initramfs.
Outside arch-chroot:
- Unmount filesystems.
- Export pools.
- Reboot.
Inside new system:
- Make sure to update the hostid then rebuild your initramfs. Then you can drop the 'zfs_force=1'.
Good luck. I enjoy root on ZFS myself. However, I wouldn't recommend swap on ZFS. Despite what the ZoL tracker says, I still ran into deadlocks on occasion (as of a month ago). However, I cannot say definitely the cause of the issue; but it resolved when I moved swap off ZFS to a dedicated partition.
Last edited by NVS (2013-12-29 14:56:44)

Initramfs cannot find root partition in initramfs

Hi,
I recently changed the Mainboard in my PC and ran into some GRUB issues afterwards. After reinstalling it, it at least is able to boot the kernel.
But when i select my installation I`m dropped in to the recovery shell with the message "Unable to find root device". In the recovery shell i cannot find it either, in /dev the whole SSD isnt listed. This confuses me, since the kernel is on a partition of that disk and obiously loaded already and i can access the device from a liveiso without any problems.
My partitions are setup as follows:
sda: (the missing device)
1: /boot/efi
2: /boot
3: /
4: swap
sdb:
1: /home
Could the error be produced by the fact that sda is an SSD?
Last edited by SpacePirate (2013-10-23 08:32:53)

That worked! I generated new initramfss using mkinitcpio (was that necessary) and now the normal boot works, either.

Any USB Device Installs Cannot Find Drivers - x40 SP3

I am running Windows XP SP3 on an X40 2371-HU3. I am unable to install new USB devices such as an RF mouse + keyboard and a multifunction printer. Importantly, I *am* able to connect new removable storage devices with no trouble.
The error occurs when I reach the stage of the install process where Windows prompts me to direct it to the driver. I manually direct the driver installation wizard to whatever location the driver files are located in... the wizard looks in the location, and promptly reports that there is no appropriate driver to be found.
This happens with the following USB devices:
Brother MFC-8660DN
Logitech Cordless Desktop EX 110
Belkin portable USB hub
HP OfficeJet 4255
This problem has been going on for months without me fully realizing it, so I cannot point at the installation or uninstallation of any particular piece of hardware of software that created this problem.
This one has me stumped, folks. Thanks in advance for your help.

OK I have an idea what might be going on here. Let's try this:
1. Unplug the Brother MFC-8660DN USB cable.
2. Download and install the Windows XP driver package for the MFC-8660DN from the Brother web site.
3. Plug the USB cable back in.
Windows XP includes drivers for nearly all USB storage devices, so they usually work without any additional drivers.
Windows XP cannot find drivers for the printers you list because it has none. Before plugging into USB, you have to install them from the manufacturer's web site downloads or from the CDs which came with them.
I confess I am a bit puzzled as to why XP doesn't find drivers for the USB hub - is it a fancy model? I would also have expected Windows XP to have some basic drivers for the mouse and keyboard, but usually there are manufacturer drivers which give access to more advanced features.
Hope this helps get you a step in the right direction!
I don't work for Lenovo. I'm a crazy volunteer!

OrgChart 3.0 Live 'Cannot find root..' error

I'm a novice on the Nakisa system and this might be a rookie question but I couldn't quite find the answer for my issue on this forum. I apologize if this is a repeat question.
Im on Product version - 7.0 Build version - 0700038500 and I just started setting up the Org Chart app.
I've set up the data connection to my SAP system (connection string to my SAP client, Data table =>BAPI_3_DataSets_O2O , Data filter => Type='O') and when I launch the application, here's the error I get -
'Cannot find the root of your orgchart. The orgchart box may have been deleted or incorrectly specified, or no valid org structure can be found for the selected effective date. Please change the root of the chart or select another effective date.'
I see the following error in my cds.log file -
51. 23 Aug 2011 08:55:48 INFO com.nakisa.Logger - FunctionRunner : ensurePool : Current pool size:1
52. 23 Aug 2011 08:57:35 INFO com.nakisa.Logger - FunctionRunner.executeFunctionDirect: HCM_GET_ORGSTRUCTURE_AS_XML took: 107593ms
53. 23 Aug 2011 08:57:35 ERROR com.nakisa.Logger - com.nakisa.integration.sap.BuildingBlocks : while trying to invoke the method org.w3c.dom.Node.getNodeType() of an object loaded from local variable 'node'
54. 23 Aug 2011 08:57:35 ERROR com.nakisa.Logger - java.lang.NullPointerException: while trying to invoke the method org.w3c.dom.Node.getNodeType() of an object loaded from local variable 'node'
55. 23 Aug 2011 08:57:35 ERROR com.nakisa.Logger - Nakisa.SAP.SAPProcessor.BAPI_Hroci : while trying to invoke the method com.nakisa.framework.data.DataTable.select(java.lang.String) of an object loaded from local variable '<6>'
56. 23 Aug 2011 08:57:35 ERROR com.nakisa.Logger - java.lang.NullPointerException: while trying to invoke the method com.nakisa.framework.data.DataTable.select(java.lang.String) of an object loaded from local variable '<6>'
57. 23 Aug 2011 08:57:35 ERROR com.nakisa.Logger - com.nakisa.framework.data.paging.PageObject_Dynamic : executeSQL : java.lang.IndexOutOfBoundsException: Index: 0, Size: 0
Here's what I found when I put a debugger in the function module HCM_GET_ORGSTRUCTURE_AS_XML..
The application sends an input parameter for viewid = 'ZVW0SP'. The FM tries to look this value up in either table TWPC_V_C or TWPC_V. The FM cannot find the view id and so returns a blank/null as the XML_STRING output.
Is this the cause for the error or am I way off? If it is, how do I get this view into my SAP client? Should I ask the basis person to look it up in client 00?
Thanks
Pooja

Hi Pooja,
Did you import the Nakisa Transport Package and ABAP Add-on into the SAP system? The Nakisa Transport Package contains the HR-OCI views etc that you need.
Best regards,
Luke

ORA-20002 - Cannot find root process

Hello --
My oracle item type monitor display (java applet) went offline today and this is what is happening when using the oracle home page to view the processes:
I can see all the non-completed processes for the item type is the process list
When I click on the process name the, the process summary is displayed
When I click on the view Diagram button, the applet does not initiate
The error from the java console is below.
Has anyone seen this before and know how to fix it; I tried reloading the workflow into the database and the results are the same. I would really appreciate any help offered.
Error from java console:
Cp1252 URL2 : http://oi2.ghpd.com:7777/pls/wfprod/WF_MONITOR.GetProcess?x_item_type=GHPAPINV&x_item_key=20071005162749x4470858&x_admin_mode=yes&x_access_key=2030210590&x_proc_name=&x_proc_type=
network: Connecting http://oi2.ghpd.com:7777/pls/wfprod/WF_MONITOR.GetProcess?x_item_type=GHPAPINV&x_item_key=20071005162749x4470858&x_admin_mode=yes&x_access_key=2030210590&x_proc_name=&x_proc_type= with proxy=DIRECT
network: Connecting http://oi2.ghpd.com:7777/pls/wfprod/WF_MONITOR.GetProcess?x_item_type=GHPAPINV&x_item_key=20071005162749x4470858&x_admin_mode=yes&x_access_key=2030210590&x_proc_name=&x_proc_type= with cookie "WF_SYSTEM_COOKIE=::; SSO_ID=v1.2~1~6400206ABB8D7F50C4C4D0B1BA6ED548F6E1A35E32A7320E813D30F26723C3E843A44D293AB0AF621981788F01FBA16FC28C536BB72B4BABF4A80DAB98E9B7BD711E289981B8B90FD673CB764AEF3FAC0330D0D1FADDA152ECD1F8D0A62FC48702627EEB73C8A4E40AFA0D61628D6E8ECF20F1EAA781A746E17A1A9CE7514AE674D41A183041C83990859D2F816807226C13D508214679F328B619794099CC59C8CE95CA51F831F3DB45F49D0BBD3592AE5BC080C58A66EAB058F933FC330259EAA808EEEEA419B06D36AECB83AE4D35472A3E4E40260B59775DCB0F1EC37879422E2F64FCBDE1BBC930E5B220E803AE; OHS-oi2.ghpd.com-7777=AE4C4E5BD5ED4D098A3925036B052DEAEC9FDB926E680AC07CA49E935A779722FEE395CEF0547E400E50F5710FA38EDB6ECCACB1560EDBB12F13B09A3600A14356F3929667D73B200FE3EA98CAB189AAC27C496D721DDC0D9FBF0ADD8BC940335BE301B2076F5ACF05B03ED6DA49648C456F265E3B4AAEE0C23A1AD38411134D3DA49B4C059E41FD65F49EABF853AC1551B4BD76943A19F8EEBEB46C99EDDE5BCDE3510BDE58CD9399F71F3DC61623AB59A34A89A844C7101DB2B4388E8F47F5546B0B30298CA11C828513C03B1D373A638BF6D56C1775DC19ED79F5E11A34F7; WF_WORKLIST_MODE=PRIORITY:OPEN:SYSADMIN:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:-1:*:0:*"
Unknown token "ERROR", couldn't parse line:ERROR:Internal Error in GetRootProcess
java.lang.NullPointerException
     at oracle.apps.fnd.wf.WFProcess.<init>(WFProcess.java:76)
     at oracle.apps.fnd.wf.Monitor.init(Monitor.java:310)
     at sun.applet.AppletPanel.run(Unknown Source)
     at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)
basic: Exception: java.lang.NullPointerException

This is from alert log file .
Could someonle help pls.
ALTER DATABASE OPEN
Beginning crash recovery of 1 threads
parallel recovery started with 7 processes
Started redo scan
Completed redo scan
read 29 KB redo, 24 data blocks need recovery
Started redo application at
Thread 1: logseq 1224193, block 3, scn 11096620271064
Recovery of Online Redo Log: Thread 1 Group 1 Seq 1224193 Reading mem 0
Mem# 0: /u01/oradata/igoast1/redo01.log
Completed redo application of 0.02MB
Completed crash recovery at
Thread 1: logseq 1224193, block 61, scn 11096620291403
24 data blocks read, 24 data blocks written, 29 redo k-bytes read
Thread 1 advanced to log sequence 1224194 (thread open)
Thread 1 opened at log sequence 1224194
Current log# 2 seq# 1224194 mem# 0: /u02/oradata/igoast1/redo02.log
Successful open of redo thread 1
MTTR advisory is disabled because FAST_START_MTTR_TARGET is not set
SMON: enabling cache recovery
[10921] Successfully onlined Undo Tablespace 2.
Undo initialization finished serial:0 start:263307193 end:263307528 diff:335 (3 seconds)
Verifying file header compatibility for 11g tablespace encryption..
Verifying 11g file header compatibility for tablespace encryption completed
SMON: enabling tx recovery
Database Characterset is US7ASCII
No Resource Manager plan active
Errors in file /apps/opt/oracle/diag/rdbms/igoast1/igoast1/trace/igoast1_ora_10921.trc:
ORA-18008: cannot find OUTLN schema
Errors in file /apps/opt/oracle/diag/rdbms/igoast1/igoast1/trace/igoast1_ora_10921.trc:
ORA-18008: cannot find OUTLN schema
Error 18008 happened during db open, shutting down database
USER (ospid: 10921): terminating the instance due to error 18008
Instance terminated by USER, pid = 10921
ORA-1092 signalled during: ALTER DATABASE OPEN...
opiodr aborting process unknown ospid (10921) as a result of ORA-1092
Fri Sep 09 07:07:47 2011
ORA-1092 : opitsk aborting process

Persistent device naming - cannot mount root as rw

hello people,
i started using persistent block device naming but quickly realized i can only use it for non-root (/) partitions in fstab otherwise it will only get mounted as readonly and my system (arch current) will cease to boot.
# this line only mounts fs as ro
#/dev/disk/by-uuid/d02a0ef4-8cb3-460c-a48a-471f2798e4ad / ext3 default 0 1
# i get stuck while mounting fs as ro when using this line
#UUID=d02a0ef4-8cb3-460c-a48a-471f2798e4ad / ext3 default 0 1
# so i have to use the old format (non persistent device naming)
/dev/sda6 / ext3 defaults 0 1
# the other partitions (same disk) work just fine
/dev/disk/by-uuid/cc295f7d-3927-433d-bcc0-2d2267e0d672 /home ext3 defaults 0 1
/dev/disk/by-uuid/936823be-b9bb-4a9d-a4e4-b4d62972f0af swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/disk/by-uuid/E8A04533A0450A10 /mnt/win-c ntfs-3g locale=sk_SK.utf8,nls=utf8,users 0 0
snippet from menu.lst:
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/d02a0ef4-8cb3-460c-a48a-471f2798e4ad ro
initrd /boot/kernel26.img
does anyone have an idea what may be causing this?
thanks.
jozef

Both of the UUID fstab lines for your root filesystem have 'default' instead of 'defaults'. Is that intentional, or is it a typo in your post?.
I don't know offhand whether 'default' is even a valid option, or what effect it would have if it is.

Apple Mobile Device says cannot find msi file

When I run the Apple Mobile Device support it says the msi file is missing. I have tried repairing but that does nothing. My iPod does not show up in iTunes and in my Computer.

Since this is an actually an iTunes issue and not an issue with an iPod Classic, you would receive much better assistance if you posted your question/issue in the iTunes for Windows forum.
https://discussions.apple.com/community/itunes/itunes_for_windows
B-rock

[Solved] System cannot find inittab at boot

I just installed a fresh, brand-new Arch 64-bit install on an older PC, but on reboot, Arch can't find the "inittab" file.
Specifically, I get this error:
INIT: no inittab file found
Enter runlevel:
And whether I enter init 0, 1, 3, 5, 6, or whatever, it always replys:
INIT: Entering runlevel x
INIT: No processes left in this runlevel
In my Ubuntu 9.04 CD, I can clearly see that "inittab" exists in /etc and I can open it and read it. So why can't Arch find it? I didn't have this problem on my previous installation.
Since I don't know what info you guys need in order to aid me, I'll simply note a few things:
#1) My filesystem
sda5 / ext4 10.0 GiB
sda6 /boot ext2 1.0 GiB
sda7 /etc ext4 1.0 GiB
sda8 /home ext4 130.0 GiB
sda9 /tmp ext4 10.0 GiB
sda10 /usr ext4 20.0 GiB
sda11 /var ext4 10.0 GiB
sda12 swap linux-swap 4.7 GiB
#2) Hardware
Gateway GE614 desktop tower
MSI-6741 motherboard
AMD Athlon64 Processor 3400+ (single-core @ 2.3 GHz)
2 GiB DDR ram
Sapphire ATi RadeonHD 3650
#3) GRUB
Grub's root is defined as "hda (0,5)" which I believe is referring to sda6, or /boot
Last edited by Darkfire Fox (2009-10-21 21:10:56)

D'oh!
I see my error now. I'll have to modify my filesystem. But still, why does the Arch installer allow you to select /etc as a mount point if it will cause so much trouble? /usr and /var had to be specified under "custom mount point", but /etc was actually selectable from the list. Oh well, I'll just avoid it from now on.
Solved.
Last edited by Darkfire Fox (2009-10-21 21:10:22)

Timemachine and mountain lion cannot find harddrive to boot to

So i booted my macbook pro this morning and it came up with the question mark sign. so i restart in recovery mode with command r. tried to repair the drive and it only came up with verify so then i tried to backup from time machine and it found the external harddrive no problem but then the next step is to select the drive to boot to and it just kept searching indefinatly and the same happened when i tried to reinstall yosemite it could not find the drive to boot to.

It is not clear to me what the result was in Internet recovery with the Verify process. Did you run Repair?
Ciao.

[SOLVED] ERROR: Can't find root device /dev/disk/by-uuid/...

Yesterday I upgraded my Lenovo X100e
# pacman -Syu
and rebooted. Upon reboot, I received the error
ERROR: Cannot find root device '/dev/disk/by-uuid/[...]'
just after kernel decompression. I got dropped into the recovery shell
and could not boot.
The problem persisted despite using different root device names (e.g. /dev/sda3, the actual root device). After reading the instructions at https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Chroot I used a core installation image (on a usb stick) to boot the machine, then chrooted into my installation. I ran mkinitcpio and found that the udev hook was missing, i.e. not in /lib/initcpio/hooks. Nor was there a file called 'udev' in /lib/initcpio/install.
I copied these files from a friend's installation and then re-ran mkinitcpio:
# mkinitcpio -p linux
I was able to reboot successfully after that.
The weird thing: I don't know how the udev hook script was deleted from /lib/initcpio/hooks.
If someone else runs into this problem: try to run mkinitcpio (e.g. by using the chroot), and check for this problem. I think the problem was that the root device could not be found because the udev hook had not run, and therefore /dev was unpopulated.

Betwen udev-181-2 and udev-181-5, the hooks have moved from /lib/initcpio to /usr/lib/initcpio. But mkinitcpio -L should still list them.
I have a similar problem since the last update. The kernel doesn't seem to load my raid driver anymore. Upon boot it throws some cryptic udev messages at me and then crashes. Haven't found out what that is about yet.

BIOS-GPT grub cannot find the root device in LVM setup

Greetings Arch Linux Community,
Recently I started my journey of installing Arch Linux on my VMware Workstation.
I successfully installed the non-LVM instance not long before I noticed the advantages of LVM, then I just started a new Arch Linux setup with LVM.
However, after following the Beginners' Guide and LVM Guide carefully, I ran into a problem on boot that I cannot solve by myself due to my poor knowledge on boot/grub.
Here is the error message:
ERROR: device '4b28d500-8ed3-4fe5-ad26-97fbb01f979b' not found. Skipping fsck
ERROR: Unable to find root device '4b28d500-8ed3-4fe5-ad26-97fbb01f979b'
The error message itself is pretty clear; saying that the root device specified by my grub.cfg cannot be found and thus cannot be loaded.
However, I'm 100% sure that the device is actually there and just for some reason grub cannot see it.
Below please see the info from lsblk, pvdisplay, vgdisplay, lvdisplay, and some related info from fstab, grub.cfg and mkinitcpio.conf:
root@archiso / # lsblk -f
NAME FSTYPE LABEL UUID MOUNTPOINT
fd0
sda
├─sda1
├─sda2 swap a576bed1-929a-4ea5-b771-6b2e3b2e3808
├─sda3 ext4 659e5bcf-b34b-4083-b8e5-e336fdd20c3d /mnt/boot
└─sda4 LVM2_member GNznA5-fwUh-Gw6D-JvY4-rZKJ-d6fP-TIyoRZ
├─VolGroup00-lvroot ext4 4b28d500-8ed3-4fe5-ad26-97fbb01f979b /mnt
└─VolGroup00-lvhome ext4 dc1f1322-8d8e-4456-b61d-95966ae4e25d /mnt/home
sr0 iso9660 ARCH_201405 2014-05-01-05-20-54-00 /run/archiso/bootmnt
loop0 squashfs /run/archiso/sfs/root-image
loop1 ext4 f07bfb26-3377-487a-a022-efd840614a0d
└─arch_root-image ext4 f07bfb26-3377-487a-a022-efd840614a0d /
loop2 ext4 f07bfb26-3377-487a-a022-efd840614a0d
└─arch_root-image ext4 f07bfb26-3377-487a-a022-efd840614a0d /
root@archiso / # pvdisplay
--- Physical volume ---
PV Name /dev/sda4
VG Name VolGroup00
PV Size 8.50 GiB / not usable 2.98 MiB
Allocatable yes (but full)
PE Size 4.00 MiB
Total PE 2175
Free PE 0
Allocated PE 2175
PV UUID GNznA5-fwUh-Gw6D-JvY4-rZKJ-d6fP-TIyoRZ
root@archiso / # vgdisplay
--- Volume group ---
VG Name VolGroup00
System ID
Format lvm2
Metadata Areas 1
Metadata Sequence No 3
VG Access read/write
VG Status resizable
MAX LV 0
Cur LV 2
Open LV 2
Max PV 0
Cur PV 1
Act PV 1
VG Size 8.50 GiB
PE Size 4.00 MiB
Total PE 2175
Alloc PE / Size 2175 / 8.50 GiB
Free PE / Size 0 / 0
VG UUID x8VegQ-OKr6-kNNk-HwHe-xxi1-Ecdt-W9Ydj2
root@archiso / # lvdisplay
--- Logical volume ---
LV Path /dev/VolGroup00/lvroot
LV Name lvroot
VG Name VolGroup00
LV UUID q8LxrZ-PXmf-K2Sl-7SNl-DlsF-IZ3s-2m2eHw
LV Write Access read/write
LV Creation host, time archiso, 2014-05-17 16:24:23 +0000
LV Status available
# open 1
LV Size 5.00 GiB
Current LE 1280
Segments 1
Allocation inherit
Read ahead sectors auto
- currently set to 256
Block device 254:1
--- Logical volume ---
LV Path /dev/VolGroup00/lvhome
LV Name lvhome
VG Name VolGroup00
LV UUID 3q32Nf-CRZz-iYpB-5317-075y-ulj3-uurdwE
LV Write Access read/write
LV Creation host, time archiso, 2014-05-17 16:24:49 +0000
LV Status available
# open 1
LV Size 3.50 GiB
Current LE 895
Segments 1
Allocation inherit
Read ahead sectors auto
- currently set to 256
Block device 254:2
root@archiso / # cat /mnt/etc/fstab
# /etc/fstab: static file system information
# <file system> <dir> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
# /dev/mapper/VolGroup00-lvroot
UUID=4b28d500-8ed3-4fe5-ad26-97fbb01f979b / ext4 rw,relatime,data=ordered 0 1
# /dev/mapper/VolGroup00-lvhome
UUID=dc1f1322-8d8e-4456-b61d-95966ae4e25d /home ext4 rw,relatime,data=ordered 0 2
# /dev/sda3
UUID=659e5bcf-b34b-4083-b8e5-e336fdd20c3d /boot ext4 rw,relatime,data=ordered 0 2
# /dev/sda2
UUID=a576bed1-929a-4ea5-b771-6b2e3b2e3808 none swap defaults 0 0
root@archiso / # cat /mnt/boot/grub/grub.cfg | grep "root"
set root='lvmid/x8VegQ-OKr6-kNNk-HwHe-xxi1-Ecdt-W9Ydj2/q8LxrZ-PXmf-K2Sl-7SNl-DlsF-IZ3s-2m2eHw'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint='lvmid/x8VegQ-OKr6-kNNk-HwHe-xxi1-Ecdt-W9Ydj2/q8LxrZ-PXmf-K2Sl-7SNl-DlsF-IZ3s-2m2eHw' 4b28d500-8ed3-4fe5-ad26-97fbb01f979b
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 4b28d500-8ed3-4fe5-ad26-97fbb01f979b
set root='hd0,gpt3'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,gpt3 --hint-efi=hd0,gpt3 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,gpt3 659e5bcf-b34b-4083-b8e5-e336fdd20c3d
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 659e5bcf-b34b-4083-b8e5-e336fdd20c3d
linux /vmlinuz-linux root=UUID=4b28d500-8ed3-4fe5-ad26-97fbb01f979b rw quiet
set root='hd0,gpt3'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,gpt3 --hint-efi=hd0,gpt3 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,gpt3 659e5bcf-b34b-4083-b8e5-e336fdd20c3d
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 659e5bcf-b34b-4083-b8e5-e336fdd20c3d
linux /vmlinuz-linux root=UUID=4b28d500-8ed3-4fe5-ad26-97fbb01f979b rw quiet
set root='hd0,gpt3'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,gpt3 --hint-efi=hd0,gpt3 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,gpt3 659e5bcf-b34b-4083-b8e5-e336fdd20c3d
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 659e5bcf-b34b-4083-b8e5-e336fdd20c3d
linux /vmlinuz-linux root=UUID=4b28d500-8ed3-4fe5-ad26-97fbb01f979b rw quiet
root@archiso / # cat /mnt/etc/mkinitcpio.conf| grep "HOOKS"
# HOOKS
# This is the most important setting in this file. The HOOKS control the
# order in which HOOKS are added. Run 'mkinitcpio -H <hook name>' for
# HOOKS="base"
# HOOKS="base udev autodetect block filesystems"
# HOOKS="base udev block filesystems"
# HOOKS="base udev block mdadm encrypt filesystems"
# HOOKS="base udev block lvm2 filesystems"
HOOKS="base udev autodetect modconf block lvm2 filesystems keyboard fsck"
Last edited by garrio (2014-05-18 00:42:36)

Efka wrote:when i was installing Arch, i installed grub on /dev/sda and my sda (gpt )was - sda1 (ext4)for / and sda2(ext4) for /home so when grub is installed it is installed into SDA ( or im wrong? ) but not into sda1 or sda2, but when i was doing my install i didnt made /boot ext4 partition (sda3 ext4 659e5bcf-b34b-4083-b8e5-e336fdd20c3d /mnt/boot) . i think u trying to mount grub into ext4 partition. is this right ? if yes... is it how it suposed to be ?
Sorry, im newbie ( dont take my advice seriously ), but im very curious about his, because once i couldnt install grub as well so i went for syslinux instead , and i know i will have one more fresh install of arch to do, so im curious
Hi Efka, I used grub-install and specified "/dev/sda" for argument. What I understand is that the sda is the identifier for the hard disk where all the sdaX reside. And if you look into the output of my lsblk, you will see that there is one partition sda1 that has no filetype, label and UUID on display; that is actually the bios boot partition where, as I understand, the grub code embeds itself.
We can have different partition scheme to deploy and having a separate partition for /boot is just my personal preference ans it should work as well.

[Luks dm-crypt] device mapper cannot find root at boot.

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