Re: "Waiting for root file system" problem

[This message has also been posted to linux.debian.user.] This is becoming a FAQ. There is a problem with udev. Before udev, there was a strong association between device names and devices. With udev, that association is much weaker.
There's new randomness in how partitions are named during boot.
Debian and other installers have not
yet worked around this relatively new problem.

What you're seeing is an effect of that. The udeb installer kernel got a different set of device names than the installed kernel did, and the root file system never appears where the installed kernel has been told it would.

The workaround is to use file system labels or UUIDs not device names in /etc/fstab and /boot/grub/menu.lst. But the Debian 4.0 installer doesn't know that.

Please read the discussion at
http://www.debianhelp.org/node/11653

In article <9H9Ej-5g8-29@gated-at.bofh.it>, dave N wrote:
>
> I've installed Etch r1 and the only real thing I've done to the
>system is updated the system, though during the update it updated the
>kernel to the same kernel that was installed during the installation
>(used the medium to try and get more control over Grub install).
>
>
> During boot the system appears to find all the drives OK when I am
>reading as fast as I can, but then I get the following (from a photo of
>the screen messages)
>
> Begin: Mounting root file system... ...
> Begin: running /scripts/local-top ...
> ide0: I/O resource 0x1F0-0x1F7 not free.
> ide0: ports already in use, skipping probe
> ide1: I/O resource 0x170-0x177 not free.
> ide1: ports already in use, skipping probe
> Done.
> Begin: Waiting for root file system... ...
>
> And it stops right there. 0's above may be 8's, can't tell from the picture.
>
> I booted with Knoppix live and there is nothing in /var/log/messages,
>none of the logs appear to have changed since I last booted 2 days ago.
> I have not run fsck or anything else on this yet.

Apparently Knoppix doesn't use udev.

Cameron

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