Cannot update to FC5 kernel versions 2.6.16*

Sat May 27 05:49:12 UTC 2006

On 5/26/06, Joao Batista Gomes de Freitas <boaojatista at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
> This is my first email for this list and hope it is the beginning of a
> very useful and friendly exchange. I have installed my first fedora OS

Welcome!

> (FC5 - 32 bits) just a few weeks ago in my new computer (my wife thinks
> that it has cost half the real figures). No troubles at all, but then I
> ran "yum update" and found a new kernel version (2.6.16-1.2096). This is
> my box hardware :
>
> AMD 64 3000+

When you feel adventurous, you should try the 64-bit version ; ).  It
works quite well.

> MoBo ASUS A8N-E
> 2 S-ATA Hd Samsung SP2504C (RAID 0 - VolGroup00)
> 1 IBM IDE - VolGroup01
> nVidia CK804 Serial ATA Controller
> RAID 0 enabled (BIOS) VolGroup00 only

Hmmm, this is a red flag of sorts.  This is sometimes termed "fake
RAID" since it is basically a software RAID with limited hardware
support.  It is also very newly supported in Linux.  RAID 0 is also
not really RAID since it's not redundant and I think you can do
basically the same thing (create one big drive/partition) with LVM if
you really want that.  Unless there is some reason you need it, I'd
suggest turning this off.  Of course, you'll have to reinstall
afterwards if you do...

> LVM enabled
>
> Every time I try to boot a version 2.6.16* (it is happening with any
> other after 1.2096) it panics. Here is the message :
>
> Root (hd0,0)
> Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
> kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.16-1.2122_FC5 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb
> quiet

Remove the "rhgb quiet" from this command line to possibly get more
information on what is going on.  You can edit this in /etc/grub.conf
or at the GRUB boot screen by pressing 'a' when selecting a kernel to
boot.

> [Linux-bzImage, setup=0x1e00, size=0x16e862]
> initrd /initrd-2.6.16-1.2122_FC5.img
> [Linux-initrd @ 0x37e3c000, 0x1b3698 bytes]
>
> Uncompressing Linux... Ok, booting the kernel.
> Red Hat nash version 5.0.32 starting
> device-mapper: dm-stripe: Target length not divisible by chunk size
> device-mapper: reload ioctl failed: Invalid argument

Something is wrong with dm.  This is where removing the "quiet" may
help some.  Then again, there might not be much more to see, but it's
worth a shot.

> Unable to open /dev/mapper/nvidia_acaafeee – unrecognised disk label.
> Reading all physical volumes. This may take a while...
> No volume groups found

First you must read the RAID device before you can see anything else.

> Unable to find volume group "VolGroup00"
> Unable to access resume device (/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01)
> mount: could not find filesystem `/dev/root`
> setuproot: moving /dev failed: No such file or directory
> setuproot: error mounting /proc: No such file or directory
> setuproot: error mounting /sys: No such file or directory
> switchroot: mount failed: No such file or directory
> Kernel panic – not syncing: Attempted to kill init!
>
> I was suspicious of initrd. I have created my own versions of intrd
> making sure that all the important stuff (sata_nv, dm*,..)

The initrds are usually good to include everything that is needed.

> were available but got no luck. then I went to forums
> (here are the threads :
> http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?t=447666 and
> http://forum.fedoraforum.org/forum/showthread.php?t=110478)
> and have follow the clues received (udev and so). At that time I was
> thinking of an error at updating process, them I installed a new IDE
> disk (please, don't tell missus) and now FC5 is installed in both
> VolGroup disks and 2 kernel version in each (2.6.15-1.2054 and
> 2.6.16-1.2122). So now when it boots the 2.6.15.-1.2054 version, I have
> no problems it doesn't matter from which disk I am booting. But when I
> use kernel version 2.6.16-1.2122 it issues the same error related to
> VolGroup00 and the only difference is that when I use IBM disk it boots
> anyway because it does not need anything from VolGroup00. So I googled
> for nVidia CK804 sata_nv FC5 and found many bugs posted, some fixed
> others not. I also have posted a bug at
> https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=192165. Now I am
> convinced that there is bug in libsata or sata_nv or dm*, i am not sure
> in which of them.

Like above, the issue is probably with the dmraid (I think that's the
right program) reading your RAID setup.  Especially since you don't
have any issues with the new disk (which I assume is not RAIDed in any
way).  It could be a bug or just something that has changed with the
new version.  I did a quick google search on your error message above
and found this:
http://www.redhat.com/archives/dm-devel/2006-March/msg00140.html

I've not dealt with dmraid any,  but if there is some way for you to
set up your size to be an even multiple of the chunk-size, then it
seems like it might work.  Though, as I mentioned above, I don't
really see what the RAID buys you.

> OK. I am not expecting to have the solution as zap, but I would
> appreciate if somebody could give me a help in speeding up to get it
> fixed. I want to install that wonderful drivers for my new Nvidia
> Geforce.(oh. missus, again). Is it fine to try to contact the guys from

For when you get a kernel that will work with both your RAID and the
nvidia driver, look up http://rpm.livna.org/ for the nvidia drivers
nicely packaged, if you have not yet found it.

> RedHat directly ? I mean, the names listed in the bugzilla ? I am not
> sure if that is the right thing to do.

If you post comments to the Bugzilla entry, they get emailed to the
pertinent people.  That or on this list are probably the ways to go.

> Hope to hear from you soon and thank you for your attention.
> Next one will be shorter, I promise.

Haha, no problem.
Jonathan