help needed-boot failed after 1st install

bshearer · n00b Joined: 13 Apr 2005 Posts: 12 Location: VA

hello,

after downloading the cds yesterday and installing today (i followed the docs from the web site). mine failed to boot with:

Block device /dev/hda3 is not a valid root device
The root block device is unspecified or not detected

i rebooted with the CD but i am not quite sure what i need to do so that i can make changes. in fact, i noticed on some other postings that you like to see certain files. how would i do this from a system that does not have a floppy device. is it easier to setup ftp to get the files out or is there something simpler?

and which files do i need to get beside grub.conf and fstab configuations?

THANKS

nixnut · Posted: Thu May 05, 2005 6:53 pm Post subject:

Did you use genkernel, i.e. genkernel --udev all? If so, try appending udev to the kernel line in grub.conf.
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bshearer · n00b Joined: 13 Apr 2005 Posts: 12 Location: VA

yes i did. i tried to follow the defaults as close as could

ok. sorry for the stupidity on this end but after i boot with the cd i can't seem to see the files that i configured before.

nixnut · Posted: Thu May 05, 2005 7:15 pm Post subject:

Ok, just boot the livecd and mount your root and boot partition as described in the handbook. You can then find grub.conf in /mnt/gentoo/boot/grub/
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bshearer · n00b Joined: 13 Apr 2005 Posts: 12 Location: VA

i issued:

mount /dev/hda3 /mnt/gentoo

and a warning appeared
EXT2-fs warning (device hda3): ext2_fill_super: mounting ext3 filesystem as ext2

and when i cd to /mnt/gentoo/boot there is nothing there

nixnut · Posted: Thu May 05, 2005 7:43 pm Post subject:

bshearer · n00b Joined: 13 Apr 2005 Posts: 12 Location: VA

it comes back and tells me that special device /mnt/hda1 does not exist

pacde · n00b Joined: 03 May 2005 Posts: 60

now that you mounted /mnt/gentoo can you see your fstab file? I suspect your problem is somewhere in there

bshearer · n00b Joined: 13 Apr 2005 Posts: 12 Location: VA

i issue a ls and nothing shows - at all.

nixnut · Posted: Thu May 05, 2005 8:32 pm Post subject:

pacde · n00b Joined: 03 May 2005 Posts: 60

bshearer · n00b Joined: 13 Apr 2005 Posts: 12 Location: VA

it cannot find it. I'm rebooting to see if that does anything

bshearer · n00b Joined: 13 Apr 2005 Posts: 12 Location: VA

ok - reboot done

mount: can't find /dev/hda1 in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab

nixnut · Posted: Thu May 05, 2005 8:50 pm Post subject:

Well, since you have seem to forgotten the hint about the installation handbook :wink:

1 boot the cd
2 mount /dev/hda3 /mnt/gentoo
3 mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/gentoo/boot
4 nano -w /mnt/gentoo/boot/grub/grub.conf
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pacde · n00b Joined: 03 May 2005 Posts: 60

bshearer · n00b Joined: 13 Apr 2005 Posts: 12 Location: VA

i rebooted a third time and now i'm in

i then

nano -w /mnt/gentoo/boot/grub/grub.conf

so i can get to it now

i did
more /etc/fstab

and it gave me a warning that it was showing me the fstab from the livecd

nixnut · Posted: Thu May 05, 2005 9:05 pm Post subject:

bshearer · n00b Joined: 13 Apr 2005 Posts: 12 Location: VA

okay. i see it now.

so how do i post a copy from there to here? work day over! I will pick back up at home

thanks for the help so far!!!

bshearer · n00b Joined: 13 Apr 2005 Posts: 12 Location: VA

Here is my grub.conf file:

default 0
timeout 30
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz

title=Gentoo Linux 2.6.11-r3
root (hd0,0)
kernel /kernel-2.6.11-gentoo-r3 root=/dev/ram0 init=/linuxrc ramdisk=8192 real_root=/dev/hda3 udev
initrd /initrd-2.6.11-gentoo-r3

Would the ='s be causing the problem? I read in one response to remove them.

Thanks

upalom00 · Posted: Fri May 06, 2005 4:32 am Post subject:

pacde · n00b Joined: 03 May 2005 Posts: 60

I dont think the grub.conf is the problem. Give us your fstat, come on, you can do it .. :wink: