[Solved]Boot from USB HDD - Root device doesn't exist. Major/minor

My problem is that the kernel seems (or starts) to load, but then I get an error:
Root device 'UUID=1234 . . .' doesn't exist.
Attempting to create it.
ERROR: Unable to determine major/minor number of root device "UUID=1234 . . .'
You are being dropped into recovery shell
I found a few links on the web and in the forums, but nothing that really solved it for me. The solved ones usually downgraded the kernel. I haven't done that yet. I thought I'd try here first.
I have a 320GB USB HDD that I have been using to experiment with different linux distros. I have a few working successfully (OpenSUSE,Mint,Ubuntu,Debian,Fedora,etc). I'm very new at this but have been reading a lot and putting a lot of time into it. I have legacy grub loaded on the MBR and use the menu.lst on my openSUSE partition to boot everything. Because the partitions for some of the distros are so far into the disk I needed to create directories on openSUSE's /boot directory to contain the kernel and initrramfs files (like /boot/fedora). This seems to work for the other distros. I did the same thing for Arch.
So when I installed Arch I haven't used the bootloader section of the installation.
I'm using the 2011.08.09-netinstall-i686.iso Live CD.
I tried a few things including:
1. changing the HOOKS in /etc/mkinitcpio.conf
a. adding usb to the "HOOKS"
b. removing and adding autodetect
c. adding and removing "sata_sil" (although I'm not even sure if my device uses it)
2. changing the kernel line:
a. from using "UUID=" to (hd0,1) to sdb1.
b. added rootdelay=8
3. repartition all of my arch partitions using cfdisk from my Live CD and reinstall. I used gparted on OpenSUSE to do it the first time.
This may be connected. When I fdisk -l from the Arch Live CD I get extra data and an error for each of my arch partitions (and only my arch partitions):
Disk does't contain a valid partition table
When I fdisk -l from OpenSUSE I don't get the data paragraphs or errors about the arch partitions?
Here is my /etc/fstab:
# /etc/fstab: static file system information
# <file system> <dir> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
tmpfs /tmp tmpfs nodev,nosuid 0 0
UUID=0e7556ef-b832-43e9-a8ba-c68dd2cd6143 /var reiserfs defaults 0 1
UUID=510bb601-13c1-46ec-87c0-a800dd2efb8b / ext4 defaults 0 1
UUID=cd78ab04-742d-4ba5-9727-90727de2dd14 swap swap defaults 0 0
UUID=dc5685e3-35b0-46d4-b259-61f2530ff36a /home ext3 defaults 0 1
And my HOOKS:
HOOKS="base udev autodetect pata scsi sata usb filesystems usbinput"
And my menu.lst:
1
default 0
timeout 32
gfxmenu (hd0,1)/boot/message
###openSUSE on sda2 - legacy grub
title openSUSE 11.4 - Celadon - gnome
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.37.6-0.7-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/usb-Seagate_FreeAgent_GoFlex_NA0E702X-0:0-part2 resume=/dev/disk/by-id/usb-Seagate_FreeAgent_GoFlex_NA0E702X-0:0-part1 splash=silent quiet showopts nomodeset vga=0x314
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.37.6-0.7-default
###openSUSE failsafe on sda2 - legacy grub
title Failsafe -- openSUSE 11.4 - 2.6.37.6-0.7
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.37.6-0.7-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/usb-Seagate_FreeAgent_GoFlex_NA0E702X-0:0-part2 showopts apm=off noresume nosmp maxcpus=0 edd=off powersaved=off nohz=off highres=off processor.max_cstate=1 nomodeset x11failsafe vga=0x314
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.37.6-0.7-default
###floppy###
#title Floppy
# rootnoverify (fd0)
# chainloader +1
###Fedora on sda5 - legacy grub
title Fedora 15-Lovelock gnome
root (hd0,4)
configfile /boot/grub/grub.conf
###Mint on sda6 - grub2
title Mint 9 Lucid Lynx gnome
root (hd0,5)
kernel /boot/grub/core.img
savedefault
boot
###PCLinux on sda7 - legacy grub
title PCLinuxOS 2011.6 KDE
root (hd0,6)
chainloader +1
###Ubuntu on sda8 - grub2
title Ubuntu 10.04.2 gnome
root (hd0,7)
kernel /boot/grub/core.img
savedefault
boot
####arch on sda10 - legacy grub
title ARCH
root (hd0,1)
#root UUID=XXXXXXXXXX44c5a3cd-dcb5-4cf1-933e-7a8ebac2a992
kernel /boot/arch/vmlinuz-linux root=UUID=510bb601-13c1-46ec-87c0-a800dd2efb8b ro rootdelay=8
#kernel /boot/arch/vmlinuz-linux root=(hd0,9)
#kernel /boot/arch/vmlinuz-linux root=/dev/sda10
initrd /boot/arch/initramfs-linux.img
savedefault
boot
###Debian on sda11 - grub2
title Debian 6.0.2.1 squeeze gnome
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/debian/vmlinuz-2.6.32-5-686 root=UUID=2b6052e2-ecdf-4796-81c8-b9e9142ca159 ro
initrd /boot/debian/initrd.img-2.6.32-5-686
savedefault
boot
###Mandriva on sda12 - legacy grub
title Mandriva 2011 KDE
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/mandriva/vmlinuz-2.6.38.7-desktop-1mnb2 root=UUID=5033f7fb-cac7-4db5-920c-c8bd2b51365f ro
initrd /boot/mandriva/initramfs-2.6.38.7-desktop-1mnb2.img
savedefault
boot
Here is my fdisk -l from OpenSUSE. I'm not quite swift enough to mount the hard drive and use the script utility from the Live CD yet, at least not tonight:
Disk /dev/sda: 320.1 GB, 320072932864 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders, total 625142447 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000c3bbb
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 2048 4208639 2103296 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda2 4208640 46153727 20972544 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 46153728 87113727 20480000 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 87115770 614031755 263457993 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 87115776 128075775 20480000 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 128077824 169037823 20480000 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 169039872 209999871 20480000 83 Linux
/dev/sda8 210001920 250961919 20480000 83 Linux
/dev/sda9 250963968 291923967 20480000 83 Linux
/dev/sda10 291924031 332886015 20480992+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda11 332888064 373848063 20480000 83 Linux
/dev/sda12 373848678 414992383 20571853 83 Linux
/dev/sda13 414994432 435474431 10240000 83 Linux
/dev/sda14 435474495 455956829 10241167+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda15 455958528 578881535 61461504 b W95 FAT32
/dev/sda16 578881599 614031755 17575078+ 83 Linux
Disk /dev/sdb: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, total 312581808 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x95aa95aa
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 63 294889139 147444538+ 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sdb2 294889140 312576704 8843782+ 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
That's it for now.
Last edited by newbie55 (2011-09-23 22:19:58)

I'm IN! Thanks everyone for your suggestions!
The arch system didn't like the identifier I was using for the root partition. By looking at the /dev/disk/by-id while the arch system was running, I could see what the system wanted me to call the partition. So after the system error'd-out and I was in the recovery shell at the [ramfs /] prompt:
# ls -lF /dev/disk/by-id > by-id.txt
# vi by-id.txt
I could have used any of the identifiers listed in the by-id (there were 3), by-uuid(1), by-label(1) or by path(1). I tried them all. I had to write these down by hand because it is a ram filesystem.
The article that finally got me there is:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pe … ice_naming
Anyway my openSUSE grub menu.lst ended up like this:
####arch on sda10 - legacy grub
title ARCH
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/arch/vmlinuz-linux root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/510bb601-13c1-46ec-87c0-a800dd2efb8b ro rootdelay=8 rootfstype=ext4
initrd /boot/arch/initramfs-linux.img
savedefault
boot
It's easy once you: 1. beat your head against the wall
2. read further
3. repeat 1 and 2
Back to the "Beginner's Guide",4 Post-Installation. Yikes!

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[Solved] Root device doesn't exist

Hi!
EDIT SOLVED: Booted from a arch-core CD and did a;
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pacman -U /var/cache/pacman/pkg/kernel26-2.6.25-4-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
Seems like a had a configuration error in my old mkinitcpio.conf file and kernel install failed.
.. But should it install when the kernel install failes?
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[2008-05-24 20:04] >>> Generating initial ramdisk, using mkinitcpio. Please wait...
[2008-05-24 20:04] ==> Building image "default"
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[2008-05-24 20:04] :: Parsing hook [autodetect]
[2008-05-24 20:04] :: Parsing hook [pata]
[2008-05-24 20:04] :: Parsing hook [scsi]
[2008-05-24 20:04] :: Parsing hook [sata]
[2008-05-24 20:04] :: Parsing hook [usbinput]
[2008-05-24 20:04] ==> FAIL
[2008-05-24 20:04] ==> Building image "fallback"
[2008-05-24 20:04] ==> Running command: /sbin/mkinitcpio -k 2.6.25-ARCH -c /etc/mkinitcpio.conf -g /boot/kernel26-fallback.img -S autodetect
[2008-05-24 20:04] :: Begin build
[2008-05-24 20:04] :: Parsing hook [base]
[2008-05-24 20:04] :: Parsing hook [udev]
[2008-05-24 20:04] :: Parsing hook [pata]
[2008-05-24 20:04] :: Parsing hook [scsi]
[2008-05-24 20:04] :: Parsing hook [sata]
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BINARIES=""
FILES=""
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I think it was the keymap it complained about
---- Original message
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ERROR: root fs cannot be detected
Waiting for device to settle...done
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at startup.
The fallback entry at grub, gives the same message.
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Last edited by cybe-arch (2008-05-24 18:40:56)

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1. Enter bios
2. Select boot
3. If you do not see the boot device you require use the down cursor key until the "Excluded from boot priority order" becomes visible.
4. Select the device you require (in my case USB HDD)
5. Save and exit.
You can now boot from a usb stick and install the Linux distro of your choice :-)
Cheers

[Solved]Boot from USB HDD - Root device doesn't exist. Major/minor

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