kernel image 2.6.16 boot error: /root/proc failed

[xucaen]

---

Over the last few days I have been trying to upgrade my Debian testing system. So far so good.. except I have no usb, and no printer (cups reports no permissions on /dev/lp0).

Well, I figured out that all of this is related to another obscure error message that flies by during boot: that udev requires kernel 2.6.15 to work.

Then during my googles I find that the udev is necessary to get /dev functioning properly. (at least that is the gist of it)

So, I installed kernel-image-2.6.16 and I ran update-grub to set up my boot process. But when I boot kernel 2.6.16 and it halts half way through and dumps me into something called BusyBox.

Then, I reboot back into my kernel 2.6.7 and hit google.

There is not much information out there on this issue, so I assume it is either a rare incident, or it is so new that not many people have experienced it yet. But I did find this:

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/archive/.../t-185396.html


Therein, it suggests that the new kernel (or udev, I haven't figured out which) is detecting my drives and/or partitions in a different order than before!

So, is this true??? Do I have to change my fstab in order to get the new kernel to boot??

And does this also means that once I make the change, I can never boot my old kernels again without changing fstab back again?

Any information on how to fix this new error is greatly appreciated.

Jim

[jonantice]

I know this might be a stupid question but did you update udev after you installed the kernel?

[xucaen]

I know this might be a stupid question but did you update udev after you installed the kernel?

Hi, when I do apt-get install udev, it says: "udev is already the newest version."

I just looked in the man page for udev and it says:
All udev configuration files are placed in /etc/udev/*.

but I don't have an /etc/udev directory. Why this wasn't created during the installation and setup of udev I can't imagine.

Jim

[antidrugue]

Perhaps

dpkg-reconfigure udev

could help.

[jonantice]

You can try

apt-get --reinstall

but I really don't know if that will solve your problem.

[xucaen]

As a test, I removed udev. (apt-get remove udev.)

My old kernel 2.6.7 still boots fine, and I still do not have access to usb and printer.

Kernel 2.6.16 still does not boot, same error as before.

So I am inclined to believe that udev is not the problem. (what the hec is udev for anyways?)



Jim

[antidrugue]

what the hec is udev for anyways?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Udev

It is possible that udev is not needed for your 2.6.7 kernel, but it is essential to your 2.6.16 kernel, that's for sure (and for kernels >= 2.6.12, check the kernel documentation for more details).

[xucaen]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Udev

It is possible that udev is not needed for your 2.6.7 kernel, but it is essential to your 2.6.16 kernel, that's for sure (and for kernels >= 2.6.12, check the kernel documentation for more details).

But the thing I don't understand is, when I have udev installed, and I boot kernel 2.6.16, why does it stop booting and dump me into BusyBox? I can't find any cures on google, and only a few people have had this happen..

I even installed yaird and initramfs-tools, and then installed linux-image-2.6.17-2-k7. My hope was that 2.6.16 had a bug and that 2.6.17 was the fix. But unfortunately it does the same thing: stops booting and dumps me into BusyBox.


jim

[xucaen]

Here's the problem: from http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/util...tplug/udev-FAQ

Q: I really like the devfs naming scheme, will udev do that?
A: Yes, udev can create /dev nodes using the devfs naming policy. A
configuration file needs to be created to map the kernel default names
to the devfs names. See the udev.rules.devfs file in the udev
release.
Note that the devfs scheme is not recommended or officially supported
cause it is a really stupid idea to simply enumerate devices in a world
where devices can come and go at any time. These numbers give you nothing
but problems, and are not useful to identify a device. Have a look at the
persistent disk rules for an example how to do it correctly in userspace
without any stupid device enumeration.

So, udev expects different names for all of my devices.. I don't think that was very nice. So I assume the udev people have figuered out a way around the fstab issue. Like, if udev doesn't use devfs names, then it should not even need fstab to mount my drives. At the very least, they could have made this easy for us to convert over to udev. Now I have to dig in and learn all the new udev syntax. and Why? The old way works well, and I understand it..

This is very frustrating.