Re: "Waiting for root file system" problem

• Daniel Burrows <dburrows@debian.org> wrote:

> On Wed, Jan 02, 2008 at 10:24:07AM -0800, Andrew
> Sackville-West <andrew@farwestbilliards.com> was
> heard to say:
> > On Wed, Jan 02, 2008 at 06:24:07AM -0500, dave N
> wrote:
> > If you wait long enough (at least 30 seconds,
> maybe a couple minutes,
> > I can't remember) you should get dropped to a
> busybox shell. Then look
> > at /scripts/local-top and see what it's trying to
> run there. That may
> > provide a clue.
>
> You can also pass "break" at the kernel command
> line. See
> initramfs-tools(8) for more boot options, including
> places you can break
> the init script.
>
> Daniel
>

Well finally got in, followed somewhat what the other user did who had a similar problem and the messages on this thread. I've also found that the drive assignment varies depending on the boot device in my BIOS.

If CDROM is 1st boot device and Hard drive is second:

• my root partition, etc is on /dev/sda

If Hard drive is 1st boot device and CDROM is second

• my root partition, etc is on /dev/sdc

ODD!! Setting labels in fstab caused many fsck errors and other problems, going back to device assignments everything worked fine. It seems that the partition devices and labels showed up differently with the older knoppix DVD I'm using and what is showing up with the Debian install. I'll need to verify this & get an updated live DVD.

Question: In the menu.lst grub file, how would I use the label assignment in the line:

 kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18-5-686 root=/dev/sdc2 ro

Do you need help?

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Thanks to everyone for the help.
  Dave

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