Mount Root Files System Failed

* http://forum.ubuntu-fr.org/viewtopic.php?id=42036
* http://forum.ubuntu-fr.org/viewtopic.php?id=38921

initscripts ??? or Kernel??? or other???

Normal Boot:

[4294667.296000] Linux version 2.6.15-23-686 (buildd@rothera) (gcc version 4.0.3 (Ubuntu 4.0.3-1ubuntu5)) #1 SMP PREEMPT Tue May 23 14:03:07 UTC 2006
[4294667.296000] BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
[4294667.296000] BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009fc00 (usable)
[4294667.296000] BIOS-e820: 000000000009fc00 - 00000000000a0000 (reserved)
[4294667.296000] BIOS-e820: 00000000000e8000 - 0000000000100000 (reserved)
[4294667.296000] BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 000000003ffb0000 (usable)
[4294667.296000] BIOS-e820: 000000003ffb0000 - 000000003ffc0000 (ACPI data)
[4294667.296000] BIOS-e820: 000000003ffc0000 - 000000003fff0000 (ACPI NVS)
[4294667.296000] BIOS-e820: 000000003fff0000 - 0000000040000000 (reserved)
[4294667.296000] BIOS-e820: 00000000ffb80000 - 0000000100000000 (reserved)
[4294667.296000] 127MB HIGHMEM available.
[4294667.296000] 896MB LOWMEM available.
[4294667.296000] found SMP MP-table at 000ff780
[4294667.296000] On node 0 totalpages: 262064
[4294667.296000] DMA zone: 4096 pages, LIFO batch:0
[4294667.296000] DMA32 zone: 0 pages, LIFO batch:0
[4294667.296000] Normal zone: 225280 pages, LIFO batch:31
[4294667.296000] HighMem zone: 32688 pages, LIFO batch:7
[4294667.296000] DMI 2.3 present.
[4294667.296000] ACPI: RSDP (v000 ACPIAM ) @ 0x000fad80
[4294667.296000] ACPI: RSDT (v001 A M I OEMRSDT 0x02000425 MSFT 0x00000097) @ 0x3ffb0000
[4294667.296000] ACPI: FADT (v002 A M I OEMFACP 0x02000425 MSFT 0x00000097) @ 0x3ffb0200
[4294667.296000] ACPI: MADT (v001 A M I OEMAPIC 0x02000425 MSFT 0x00000097) @ 0x3ffb0390
[4294667.296000] ACPI: OEMB (v001 A M I OEMBIOS 0x02000425 MSFT 0x00000097) @ 0x3ffc0040
[4294667.296000] ACPI: DSDT (v001 A0030 A0030006 0x00000006 INTL 0x02002026) @ 0x00000000
[4294667.296000] ACPI: PM-Timer IO Port: 0x808
[4294667.296000] ACPI: Local APIC address 0xfee00000
[4294667.296000] ACPI: LAPIC (acpi_id[0x01] lapic_id[0x00] enabled)
[4294667.296000] Processor #0 15:2 APIC version 20
[4294667.296000] ACPI: LAPIC (acpi_id[0x02] lapic_id[0x01] enabled)
[4294667.296000] Processor #1 15:2 APIC version 20
[4294667.296000] ACPI: IOAPIC (id[0x02] address[0xfec00000] gsi_base[0])
[4294667.296000] IOAPIC[0]: apic_id 2, version 32, address 0xfec00000, GSI 0-23
[4294667.296000] ACPI: INT_SRC_OVR (bus 0 bus_irq 0 global_irq 2 dfl dfl)
[4294667.296000] ACPI: INT_SRC_OVR (bus 0 bus_irq 9 global_irq 9 high level)
[4294667.296000] ACPI: IRQ0 used by override.
[4294667.296000] ACPI: IRQ2 used by override.
[4294667.296000] ACPI: IRQ9 used by override.
[4294667.296000] Enabling APIC mode: Flat. Using 1 I/O APICs
[4294667.296000] Using ACPI (MADT) for SMP configuration information
[4294667.296000] Allocating PCI resources starting at 50000000 (gap: 40000000:bfb80000)
[4294667.296000] Built 1 zonelists
[4294667.296000] Kernel command line: root=/dev/sdb1 ro quiet splash
[4294667.296000] mapped APIC to ffffd000 (fee00000)
[4294667.296000] mapped IOAPIC to ffffc000 (fec00000)
[4294667.296000] Initializing CPU#0
[4294667.296000] PID hash table entries: 4096 (order: 12, 65536 bytes)
[4294667.296000] Detected 2798.598 MH...

Error on boot:

... drivers/usb/input/hid-core.c: usb-submit-urb(ctrl) failed
... drivers/usb/input/hid-core.c: timeout initializing reports

initramfs-tools
init...

Installer Partition:
parted_server: Closing infifo and outfifo
parted_server: main_loop: iteration 5
parted_server: Opening infifo
Device: yes
Model: Maxtor 6Y080L0
Path: /dev/hda
Sector size: 512
Sectors: 160086528
Sectors/track: 63
Heads: 255
Cylinders: 9964
Partition table: yes
Type: msdos
Partitions: # id length type fs path name
(0,0,0) (0,0,62) -1 0-32255 32256 primary label /dev/hda-1
(0,1,0) (9962,254,62) 1 32256-81948464639 81948432384 primary ntfs /dev/hda1
(9963,0,0) (9963,254,62) -1 81948464640-81956689919 8225280 pri/log free /dev/hda-1
(9964,0,0) (9964,235,62) -1 81956689920-81964302335 7612416 primary label /dev/hda-1
Dump finished.
/lib/partman/init.d/35dump: IN: DUMP =dev=sda
parted_server: Read command: DUMP
parted_server: command_dump()
parted_server: Opening outfifo
parted_server: OUT: OK

parted_server: Closing infifo and outfifo
parted_server: main_loop: iteration 6
parted_server: Opening infifo
Device: yes
Model: ATA Maxtor 6L160M0
Path: /dev/sda
Sector size: 512
Sectors: 320173056
Sectors/track: 63
Heads: 255
Cylinders: 19929
Partition table: yes
Type: msdos
Partitions: # id length type fs path name
(0,0,0) (0,0,62) -1 0-32255 32256 primary label /dev/sda-1
(0,1,0) (19928,254,62) 1 32256-163921605119 163921572864 primary fat32 /dev/sda1
(19929,0,0) (19929,216,62) -1 163921605120-163928604671 6999552 primary label /dev/sda-1
Dump finished.
/lib/partman/init.d/35dump: IN: DUMP =dev=sdb
parted_server: Read command: DUMP
parted_server: command_dump()
parted_server: Opening outfifo
parted_server: OUT: OK

parted_server: Closing infifo and outfifo
parted_server: main_loop: iteration 7
parted_server: Opening infifo
Device: yes
Model: ATA Maxtor 6L160M0
Path: /dev/sdb
Sector size: 512
Sectors: 320173056
Sectors/track: 63
Heads: 255
Cylinders: 19929
Partition table: yes
Type: msdos
Partitions: # id length type fs path name
(0,0,0) (0,0,62) -1 0-32255 32256 primary label /dev/sdb-1
(0,1,0) (2557,254,62) 1 32256-21040266239 21040233984 primary ext3 /dev/sdb1
(2558,0,0) (19928,254,62) 2 21040266240-163921605119 142881338880 primary extended /dev/sdb2
(2558,0,0) (2558,0,62) -1 21040266240-21040298495 32256 logical label /dev/sdb-1
(2558,1,0) (2650,254,62) 5 21040298496-21805217279 764918784 logical linux-swap /dev/sdb5
(2651,0,0) (2651,0,62) -1 21805217280-21805249535 32256 logical label /dev/sdb-1
(2651,1,0) (19928,254,62) 6 21805249536-163921605119 142116355584 logical ext3 /dev/sdb6
(19929,0,0) (19929,216,62) -1 163921605120-163928604671 6999552 primary label /dev/sdb-1
Dump finished.
/lib/partman/init.d/70update_partitions: *******************************************************
/lib/partman/init.d/70update_partitions: IN: PARTITIONS =dev=hda
parted_server: Read command: PARTITIONS
parted_server: command_partitio...

http://forum.ubuntu-fr.org/viewtopic.php?id=42589

    I think there may be a problem in the order of recognition of your disks. In your boot log, interesting messages are :

[4294674.173000] ata1: no device found (phy stat 00000000)

[4294674.532000] ata2: dev 0 cfg 00:0040 49:2f00 82:7c6b 83:7b09 84:4003 85:7c69 86:3a01 87:4003 88:407f 93:0000
[4294674.532000] ata2: dev 0 ATA-7, max UDMA/133, 240121728 sectors: LBA
[4294674.532000] sata_get_dev_handle: SATA dev addr=0x40000, handle=0x00000000
[4294674.532000] ata2: dev 0 configured for UDMA/133

[4294675.834000] ata3: disabling port

[4294675.845000] sda: sda1 sda2
[4294675.863000] sd 1:0:0:0: Attached scsi disk sda

[4294680.351000] sdb: sdb1 sdb2 sdb3 sdb4
[4294680.365000] sd 3:0:0:0: Attached scsi disk sdb

[4294680.365000] sdc: sdc1
[4294680.386000] sd 4:0:0:0: Attached scsi disk sdc

    A trick to know who is who and how it is recognized :
- sda has 2 partitions
- sdb has 4 (primary) partitions
- sdc has 1 partition

    Is this what you expected ?

Resolved on change SATA Controler

Controler SATA Sil > BUG
Controler NV > OK ;)

This issue is happening to me also but I am not able to even get Dapper installed. The following happens at end of attempt to install from Dapper release CD.

After the following lines during mounting root file system the install stops.

usbcore: registered new driver usbhid
drivers/usb/input/hid-core.c: v2.6:USB HID core driver
ata2: BUG: timeout without command

I have tried various BIOS settings and tried switching out hardware (ie mouse, keyboard, harddrive, cdrom drive) with no success.

I tried installing Dapper a week ago and had a problem because it would stop at the "Root File System" Portion of the boot (The second "OK") on the LiveCD. For unrelated reasons I reformatted and reinstalled Windows on the same machine. During this I detached everything but the monitor, mouse and PC. After doing this I tried booting/installing Dapper again and it worked fine. Today I plugged in my USB Hub while in Dapper. Worked fine. However, I rebooted to go into Windows for a moment then booted back into Dapper. Froze on the Mounting root file system "OK". Booted again without the hub and it worked fine.

HW: Stock HP A230N save a Creative Audigy 2 sound card and an Nvidia 5600 video card. Stratitec model USB Hub. Firmware, BIOS, etc. up to date on the HP.

Let me know if anymore info would be helpful.

That's exactly the same symptoms on my system. (bug# 43950)
I solved the problem removing USB2 support in bios.
But the bug still exists!
I expected a solution today updating the kernel to 2.6.15-25-386.
But the bug still alive!

I do have a built in USB hub on the ACER that will not install. It sits on
top of the pc and you press down to expose four usb ports. This may be the
problem. I will have to try and install with the the hub discontected from
the mother board.

On 6/15/06, Brett <email address hidden> wrote:
>
> I tried installing Dapper a week ago and had a problem because it would
> stop at the "Root File System" Portion of the boot (The second "OK") on
> the LiveCD. For unrelated reasons I reformatted and reinstalled Windows
> on the same machine. During this I detached everything but the monitor,
> mouse and PC. After doing this I tried booting/installing Dapper again
> and it worked fine. Today I plugged in my USB Hub while in Dapper.
> Worked fine. However, I rebooted to go into Windows for a moment then
> booted back into Dapper. Froze on the Mounting root file system "OK".
> Booted again without the hub and it worked fine.
>
> HW: Stock HP A230N save a Creative Audigy 2 sound card and an Nvidia
> 5600 video card. Stratitec model USB Hub. Firmware, BIOS, etc. up to
> date on the HP.
>
> Let me know if anymore info would be helpful.
>
> --
> Mount Root Files System Failed
> https://launchpad.net/bugs/47768
>

on one test machine i have the same problem, it seems to be a problem with some chipsets and newer kernel ? -hal? (hoary, breezy and demudi (sarge) had no problems on that machine).
If there is anything connected to any USB port at boot time, i get a freeze at "Mounting root filesystem" (without usplash i can see it hanging in the USB initialisation), if i boot without anything connected to USB the system starts up normally. But if i connect any USB device i get a total machine freeze again (GUI or not).
Disabling "USB Legacy Support" in BIOS helped as workaround for this machine.
Because it may be chipset related this is the output of lspci and others:

rich@Catdog2:~$ lspci
0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 746 Host (rev 10)
0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SG86C202
0000:00:02.0 ISA bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS963 [MuTIOL Media IO] (rev 25)
0000:00:02.1 SMBus: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS961/2 SMBus Controller
0000:00:02.5 IDE interface: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 5513 [IDE]
0000:00:02.7 Multimedia audio controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] Sound Controller (rev a0)
0000:00:03.0 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 1.0 Controller (rev 0f)
0000:00:03.1 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 1.0 Controller (rev 0f)
0000:00:03.2 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 2.0 Controller
0000:00:09.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. IEEE 1394 Host Controller (rev 43)
0000:00:0a.0 Ethernet controller: 3Com Corporation 3c905 100BaseTX [Boomerang]
0000:00:0b.0 Multimedia video controller: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Video Capture (rev 11)
0000:00:0b.1 Multimedia controller: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Audio Capture (rev 11)
0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: STMicroelectronics STG4000 [3D Prophet Kyro Series] (rev 07)
rich@Catdog2:~$ uname -a
Linux Catdog2 2.6.15-25-k7 #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed Jun 14 11:43:20 UTC 2006 i686 GNU/Linux
rich@Catdog2:~$ cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor : 0
vendor_id : AuthenticAMD
cpu family : 6
model : 10
model name : AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2800+
stepping : 0
cpu MHz : 2087.826
cache size : 512 KB

I installed and booted "Ubuntu 6.06 "Dapper Drake" - Beta" with no problem in my laptop asus w3v.
Then, I installed all the updates with the "Update Manager".
After that, I rebooted and apeared in the grub menu a new kernel.
"kernel 2.6.15-25-386" -> the new one
"kernel 2.6.15-20-386" -> the one that comes with the beta release
And when I try to boot with the new version apears the same error described above!
With the old version all works just fine.

Let me know if anymore info would be helpful, and how to aquire it!
keep the good work

I think I have found the cause of the issue. It seems that the udev persistent storage rules that should be found in the initrd under the directory {initrd}/etc/udev/rules.d/65-persistent-storage.rules don't exist for some unknown reason. It is my belief that since grub only passes a UUID to indicate the root storage device, the kernel is unable to make the correlation with out this file in it's initrd.

I checked to verify that the appropriate statement existed in /usr/share/initramfs-tools/hooks/udev to copy that file into the initrd and it does. It may not have when my machine made the initrd originally, I have no idea.

A simple `sudo apt-get --reinstall install linux-generic` should do the trick of fixing this problem.

attached is the initrd cpio archive that contains the missing edev rule set

I have the same problem in a HP laptop with Ubuntu 'Feisty'.
The problem becomes after updating initramfs-tools to version 0.85dubuntu5.
My system is not able to boot with initrd images generated with this version, but dowgrading to 0.69ubuntu20, I can generate valid images for kernel 2.6.19 and 2.6.20.
I think the problem is not related to kernel or udev, but only to initramfs-tools.

The problem is in fact with initramfs-tools, but you can work around this problem by using yaird to generate your initrd. Had this problem quite often lately and searched for an alternative. yaird is a quite good one (at least for me ; and I',m using raid + lvm ; bootloader is lilo).

You cannot remove initramfs-tools from ubuntu, so you have to install yaird in addition to initramfs-tools. There are some dependencies wrong IMHO, because with debian you can replace initramfs-tools with yaird.

After installing yaird the only thing you need to do to get kernel packages to generate their initrd with yaird is to add this to kernel-img.conf:

--- snip ---
ramdisk = /usr/sbin/mkinitrd.yaird
--- snap ---

Just reinstall you kernel package and the initrd should be generated correctly.

Under Feisty, I get the error

"/bin/sh : can't access tty : job control turned off
(initramfs)"

It then awaits user input. I'm using 01-11-07 live-cd on an Inspiron 6000D with an ATI x300 64MB and 512MB RAM.

Arthur, do you have any reason to believe that this bug is the problem you are experiencing ? If not, please file a new bug for your problem, as they are almost certainly unrelated.

Michael, we need to fix the root cause of the problem : do you know what yaird does differently to initramfstools - does it copy the /etc/udev/rules.d/65-persistent-storage file correctly ?

Andrew, does the initrd get created correctly for you with feisty's initramfs-tools ? (If so, its probably a case of backporting the fix to dapper).

try adding "irqpoll" to grub :

e (edit)
go to the ligne "kernel /boot/..."
e (edit)
add "irqpoll"
b (boot)

Not sure if it could work, but cost nothing to try !

If it works, you will have to modify your /boot/grub/menu.lst

Please guys answer Robert Collins questions.

As he mentioned, we would like to know if this problem is still happening with a daily image of Feisty (http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/). Thank you.

I have a similar problem on edgy.

initramfs stops and produces a prompt on boot because it can't find the root filesystem (root=/dev/md1)

typing 'mdadm -As' from initramfs gives errors as the /etc/mdadm.conf file built into initramfs contains only the UUID numbers of my RAID sets. No keywords or anything else like the proper /etc/mdadm.conf on my real root filesystem.

If I assemble the md devices manually in initramfs and then mount the one that contains my root filesystem (-o ro) to /root i can exit initramfs and it will boot my RAIDed machine correctly.

I've reinstalled my kernel (2.6.17-50-generic and 2.6.17-11-generic and 2.6.17-10-generic), and it rebuilds the initramfs with the useless mdadm.conf I mentioned above.

This is with initramfs-tools version 0.69ubuntu20

So i have to manually boot every single time now. Bleah. This worked fine until very recently (a month? two? I have highish uptimes). I suspect the most recent initramfs-tools update has a bug.

The recent daily build works great for me now. Loving feisty, and the live cd works great.

I just updated on Feisty to kernel 2.6.20-14 and when I try to reboot (with -quiet removed from the grub config) I get the following:
--
Loading essential drivers ... OK
Running /scripts/init-premount... OK
Mounting root file system ...
Running /scripts/local-top ... OK
Waiting for root file system ...
--

And that is it, nothing further, I waited at least 10 minutes.
If I run in single user mode I see these lines before it stops:
--
[ 12.344000] ata3: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300)
[ 12.344000] ata3.00: ata_hpa_resize 1: sectors = 625142448, hpa_sectors = 4385456
[ 12.344000] ata3.00: ATA-6: WDC WD3200JD-22KLBO, 08.05J08, max UDMA/100
[ 12.344000] ata3.00:625142448 sectors, multi 16: LBA48
--
These lines refer to my one and only SATA hard disk.
I can still boot with 2.6.20-13. It looks like the SATA controller may have changed between -13 and -14, is there any way (if so) to change it back temporarily until a fix is in place?

I am not convinced anyone else here is having the exact same issue as
I was. It almost looks to me as if there are at least 3 separate
issues expressed in this bug. The machine that was affected by this
bug is a production machine, I can't really install feisty until it's
official release. I am more than confident this will not be an issue
when I upgrade, I have rebuilt my initrd a number of times since then
and have had no issues.

I suggest we close this ticket. Yes there is a problem someplace but
this bug has been open for almost a YEAR now and is spinning into a
discussion about general booting problems.

aedwards, I agree with you, this ticket does not seem to be capable to trigger any actions. If an of the mentioned Issues still exist in feisty a new bug should be filed (imho).

I've exactly the same problem as Martyn Russell.

I've upgraded my distro to Feisty, and now when i try to reboot i get :

Loading essential drivers ... OK
Running /scripts/init-premount... OK
Mounting root file system ...
Running /scripts/local-top ... OK
Waiting for root file system ...

And nothing more...
If i boot with the old kernel 2.6.17-10 and initrd 2.6.17-10 it works well and my new feisty boot.

I think there's a problem with the new initrd and sata controllers...

mouhubert@ubuntu:~$ mount
/dev/sda6 on / type ext3 (rw,errors=remount-ro)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
/sys on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
varrun on /var/run type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=0755)
varlock on /var/lock type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=1777)
procbususb on /proc/bus/usb type usbfs (rw)
udev on /dev type tmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
devshm on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)
lrm on /lib/modules/2.6.17-10-generic/volatile type tmpfs (rw)
/dev/sda2 on /boot type ext2 (rw)
/dev/sda1 on /media/sda1 type ext3 (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
/dev/hdb1 on /media/hdb1 type ext3 (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
binfmt_misc on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw)
/dev/sdb1 on /media/SOPHIE_ type vfat (rw,nosuid,nodev,shortname=mixed,uid=1000,utf8,umask=077)

How could help you to debug that?

Some additional info...

My sata controller is a sata_nv

hubert@ubuntu:~$ cat /proc/scsi/scsi
Attached devices:
Host: scsi0 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00
  Vendor: ATA Model: HDS728080PLA380 Rev: PF2O
  Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 05
Host: scsi2 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00
  Vendor: Model: USB DISK 2.0 Rev: 1.16
  Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02

I ran into a similar problem - the system wouldn't boot, but stop at some USB HID message, or it would drop me into
busybox (similar to Arthur's case here). Turned out it was because I had edited /etc/initramfs-tools/initramfs.conf,
and set BOOT=nfs instead of BOOT=local (for building an initramfs for use on a different system). Reverting and
dpkg-recongfigure initramfs-tools fixed it for me. Perhaps dpkg could check whether this setting is appropriate for the
currently runnings system, and if not, print a warning message?

-k

Unsetting dapper.2 milestone since this problem is not understood at all at the moment.

I report same issue in Gutsy beta (up to date).
Machine: Acer Aspire 1600
Kernel: 2.6.22-12.30
Initramfs-tools: 0.85eubuntu19

Kernel stop booting on line "Root System File". The log is similar to the one on first post.

Thank you

Please close this bug!!! There are at least 4 different issues from
various people described here. The bug report spans at least 3
versions and it's almost a year and half old. The Confirmed status is
falsely stated, no issue has been conclusively found. This bug report
has little ability to resolve an issue. I highly recommend we close
this bug now.

Hello! First of all let me say I am truly regretting doing this. This is a spam message sent to all critical bug message lists. It's purpose: making this (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/acpi-support/+bug/59695) bug critical too. This is a long standing bug and has a very serious impact on laptop type of hardware. It's priority is set to "wishlist" and I just cannot take this anymore. I DO NOT CARE if my account gets suspended. I am doing what's right for all my friends using Ubuntu on their laptops.

I have found this to occur in Feisty.

I attempted to update the kernel to that in Gutsy - added Gutsy to the repository list.
On rebooting, the boot stops at the point where it tries to mount the hard disc (inferred from symptoms).

After many minutes, I get a prompt from busybox.

When I check /dev, there are no nodes for hard discs (please excuse the Australian spelling).

If I copy the deb to a debian (etch/lenny) system and install, then copy the initrd.img to the ubuntu system, it all works. This initrd is larger than the native ubuntu one.

Looking at the descriptions in this post it seems that the following occurs:

Installing a kernel from the next version i.e during an upgrade, creates a faulty initrd.img.
Booting this new system with the old kernel, then re-installing the new kernel creates a good initrd.img.

This is not related in any way to any USB configuration.

I agree that there is more than one bug reported here, but both need attention..

My comments about "this post" actually refer to bug #32123 which describes one of the issues mentioned in this bug. Please excuse my error.

Hi!

Well, I had an idea what could be the problem about USB drives, and began to create this report. Meanwhile I was googling around and realized the true error, and have written down some solutions, and so reedited the text. But finally the whole thing became a little fuzzy, and now I don't have the mood to fix it. So there it goes, solution, problem, reason of the problem, and everything, but very mixed. Read through.

The ubuntu system uses the UUID of the disks and partitions to identify them at boot time. If you open /etc/fstab and /boot/grub/menu.lst - if you use grub which is used on ubuntu by default boot manager, if you use lilo i don't know what is the proper file - you will see, that there are no /dev/hdaX names, as it should, when humans create it by hand, but very long alphabetical strings tagged with minus signs. These are UUID's created to indetify disks independent from boot order, master-slave structure, and way of connection. So if you unplug your ata drive, put it in a rack, and reconnect with USB you should still have the same UUID, and so the booting system could find it in the same way. When using /dev/sda-s this could be a problem, because your disk's device name would be changed from /dev/hdX to sdX

Ooops...
But... Maybe the problem is, that your ubuntu system doesn't use this UUID's. Well, I admit, that I only installed gutsy a few months ago, and I don't know the older systems - before I used Gentoo. Gutsy uses these UUID's, but maybe earlier releases don't, and so You might have a release where it is handled differently. Anyway You should look after the generation of UUID's, and see if this could be a problem. If I had to bet, I would put a lot of money on, that this is the source of the problem.

I just looked for this UUID thing, and realized, that this feature is usable only from 2.6.20 kernel, which means only after feisty. So this might be not your problem. Well, still, my report can give you some thoughts.

Well I don't know how these strings are counted, but I know, that ACPI USB support means that if you connect an USB tool at boot time, which is recognized as data storage, then it will be categorized either as usb pen, or as usb hard drive. This categorizing happens simply by guessing about the size. If the USB storage is bigger than a specific size limit, then it is used as a drive, otherwise as a pen. This size limit can be changed but, I have never met a BIOS where this size limit was current. Usually the maximum of this value was always about the average USB pen size on the market, but there are chances, that you couldn't even set this size limit.

If that's the case, then I don't know if it has something to do with the UUID-s generated for drives, but it might be. The hardware configuration has changed, new drives are in, and so the uuid's could be changed too. (later post) Well this is definitely what UUID should NOT work. And I think it works well. The problem of yours was not using UUID's.

Why UUID's, and what is this all about:
UUID's are created so that it could identify your drive, even if it is connected to a different place. This is useful in a desktop computer, where you might put in a new...

Well I got my email about this bug, what I wrote and so I realised, that my fix wasn't for the first bug reported, but for the bugs reported by

brett: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/initramfs-tools/+bug/47768/comments/12

and

richard hau: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/initramfs-tools/+bug/47768/comments/15

Also I realized that the fstab lines became unreadable. Try remove most of the spaces to make it readable.

Gábor

similar bug in https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/262588
i had same issue.

i typed down what bootup says:
""
after choosing kernel 2.6.27.1,
after pages of scrolldown,

usbhid: V2.6: USB HID core driver
(waits a bit here..)

Gave up waiting for root device. Common Problems:
- Check rootdelay=....
- Check root= ...

....
ALERT! /dev/disk/by-uuid/e106675b-3a7d-4ab2-9f88-029edf3700ba does not exists. Dropping to a shell.

BUSYBOX v.1.10.2
..

İ look here for that device,

cd /dev/disk
ls
by-id ... (no by-uuid)

cd by-id
ls
SCSI-IATA_SAMSUNG......(mydrive)

but there is no device in /dev/disk/by-uuid/

i think the problem is this.
new kernel cannot build up /dev dir properly...

hope this will give you an idea.

This thread on the forums seems related (29 pages long):
  http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=765195

Near the end of the thread the suggested work around becomes 'use Fedora 10', so it seems like something that needs to be dealt with.

I was stung with a very similar issue with Hardy, and through my advocacy I've had several non-technical friends who decided to take a look at linux and nearly turned back because of this issue in Hardy and Intrepid.

In my little group it seems that changing the BIOS SATA settings from IDE to RAID seems to be the top fix, followed by adding all_generic_ide to the kernel options. Looking at the forum post there seems to be 4 or 5 different things that might be needed as workarounds, which may suggest several bugs with the same symptoms.

Per a decision made by the Ubuntu Kernel Team, bugs will longer be assigned to the ubuntu-kernel-team in Launchpad as part of the bug triage process. The ubuntu-kernel-team is being unassigned from this bug report. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeamBugPolicies for more information. Thanks.

This bug is not a duplicate of https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/262588

This bug has probably something to do with USB stuff while the so called duplicate is a DKMS issue.

I have found similar hang in Hardy when installed on dual-boot mode with XP on Sony Vaio desktop.
Only occurs after first major update. If I re-install from CD it works fine.

I have since discovered same on Acer Aspire 1 with 8.10 after replacing Linpus. Ubuntu is sole OS this time. Workaround was once again to reinstall (this time from USB) and NOT update.

If Ubuntu ain't broke I ain't fixing it!

Move the status back to New since it was changed by an currently inactivated user that doesn't seem to be working on this bug.

it has been a long while since this bug was reported and Ubuntu has evolved dramatically since Ubuntu 6.10 Dapper Drake. Can anyone actually still reproduce this bug?

Well Yes I just got hit bad,, I got a new update on a semi stable version of 10.04 beta2 and then got an update released today 4/22/10 of Intrafms and it appeared to install fine then crashed on reboot have filed bug here https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/568580
Re: Intrmfs New update borks!! & RC1 cannot boot...
I am getting the same issue with RC1,, that is the video is set wrong at boot (the screen is displaying larger fonts than previous) then I get a flash like it is trying to reset the video then everything dies.. I have a somewhat older gateway mx6028 laptop with Intel integrated graphics and a new 160 gb hard drive.

I was able to install beta 2 but painfully; installing all the open gl updates last.. I was running well.... and then the Intramfs update came and blew me a way...

Just received Intramfs update, within the hour (4/22/10 11:47 central) , installs correctly on a new 10.04 install but now machine cannot boot,, <<< after this I tried the RC1 which just got posted...

It is somehow resetting the video it appears as the boot screen comes up in different (larger) type. then blanks and all activity stops,, I have been having similar problems if I apply all updates after an initial install of 10.04 but if I hold the opne gl modules the system will work but a backup taken with Remastersys made after the open GL installs will not work while the one made prior to the open GL install will restore the system so I'm guessing some sort of erroneous HW reset sequence

I wish I understood all this lingo--new to u

Try a diagnostic of your partitions.
Get GParted:
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/download.php
Uses ubuntu-like Gnome UI.

Everybody! Just close this bug, and file your own. Better to merge duplicates than to argue over every single bootup problem possible. A bug report is made for 1(ONE!) bug, not 4.

I'm sorry that this bug did not receive attention to get it fixed in the dapper release; but dapper is now end-of-life, and the issue described here should not occur in supported Ubuntu releases. If you encounter other bugs in Ubuntu 8.04 and later, please file new bug reports for those issues.