Mary Gardiner wrote:
I'm trying to upgrade a Debian machine to kernel-image-2.6.9-1 from the
Debian archives (as a prelude to being able to run the current
lm-sensors package). However, when I try and boot into the new kernel, I
get the same error message as in [1]:
pivot_root: No such file or directory
Is this the first error? Did the mount command prior to the pivot_root
command fail?
The mount command might fail because /initrd is AWOL or because one
of the modules needed for the filesystem or it's disk didn't load
correctly from the initrd image. It might be the wrong version of
the module for the kernel you are trying to boot (ie: the order is
"make install_modules", "make install"). Or the module might fail
due to some internal error. Or it might fail because it can't find
any device to drive.
Most distros annoying lack verbosity at this very point. So mount
the initrd (ungzip it and loopback mount it). Kill any nasty
moves to quiet the process. Add a lsmod to the initrd and run
that after the mount.
/sbin/init: 424: cannot open dev/console: No such file
This is a subsequent error. There's no /, so there's no /dev.
The motherboard is a ASUS Nforce A7N8X. The harddrive with the root
partition is a SATA drive running from the motherboard's Silicon Image
SATA controller. It does seem to be identified by the kernel prior to
the panic.
The SATA module looks the likely cause of the mount failing. The
identification is good, as that means the kernel will try and load
the module. Find out which one. Make sure it appears in the lsmod
above. Maybe the mkinitrd doesn't know about SATA yet? Have a look
at linuxrc on the initrd and make sure there's some way that module
will get loaded.
Sorry I can't help further than this. I don't use Debian, mainly
because the machine I want to load it on will only boot from the
hard disk, so there's a whole lot of stuff that needs to happen
to make that PC boot the Debian installer.
--
Glen Turner Tel: (08) 8303 3936 or +61 8 8303 3936
Australia's Academic & Research Network www.aarnet.edu.au
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