[ale] Boot issues - OR - why Mafia$oft hurts/disappoints everyone endlessly

[Michael H. Warfield]

On Sun, 2010-11-28 at 23:29 -0500, Narahari 'n' Savitha wrote:


> How to do this aka which file ?

Back up a bit.  I think Chris is jumping the gun (maybe - maybe not but
- maybe).  What I saw in that image you posted did NOT indicate to me
you were set up using UUIDs.  In fact, even with Fedora, most of the
time if you are using LVM, it's going to be by label or device mapper
name, which this appeared to be.  Refer back to some of my questions in
an earlier message about the root= line.  That refers to your grub
configuration and the kernel command line.  That was looking for an LVM
logical volume that should have appeared under /dev/mapper but I was
questioning the specific string there.

> I would boot up on a LiveCD and make sure Ubuntu could mount the
> 
> > partition.

This is what I was saying before.  But use a full fledged LiveCD, or
run-live, not some stripped down rescue CD.  Avoid any GUI interfaces at
this time till we know what's broken in the low level stuff.  I know you
said that the Ubuntu LiveCD's failed on you (but you didn't say where or
how they failed) and Ubuntu is harder to diagnose simply because the
gods-be-damned GUI is constantly getting in the way.  I don't use Ubuntu
which is limiting my guesswork here.  My personal preference is for
Fedora even though my wife has both a Fedora desk unit and an Ubuntu
laptop and by grandsons both use Ubuntu.

You said you used an earlier Debian boot and got it booted.  What kernel
version was running there?  That could be important.  Have you tried
other Ubuntu LiveCD's?

> > I would then modify the group entry to specify the root as hd1,0
> instead
> > of those darn UUID names :)

That won't work.  The failure is that it can't find the rootfs and the
rootfs is not specified in grub device terminology like that.  Even more
so, since it appears that the rootfs is on an LVM logical volume.  That
error message also seemed to indicate the kernel didn't recognize ANY
partitions.

> > If that does not work it may be possible that the initramfs does not
> > have the proper driver loaded for the hardware.

This is very possible as is the possibility that it's not firing up the
device manager and LVM properly.  Something's broken early on, no bout a
doubt that.

Mike
-- 
Michael H. Warfield (AI4NB) | (770) 985-6132 |  mhw at WittsEnd.com
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