RHEL AS4.0 installation problem on rx7640

[arkie]

After successful completion of Installation, i am getting the following message:-

ELILO boot: Uncompressing Linux... done
Loading initrd initrd-2.6.9-5.EL.img...done
audit(1185269336.355:0): initialized
i8042.c: i8042 controller self test timeout.
Red Hat nash version 4.1.18 starting
mkrootdev: label / not found
mount: missing mount point
mount: error 2 mounting none
switchroot: mount failed: 22
umount /initrd/dev failed: 2
Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!

I have two 73GB U320 SCSI HDDs, where i have created /boot/efi (100MB), SWAP (32GB) and / (big enough)

Can anybody help!

[skt_skt]

Looks like /boot or / partition is NOT labeled.

#:root [/opt/local/unix/data/hostfiles]
# e2label /dev/sda9
/
#:root [/opt/local/unix/data/hostfiles]
# e2label /dev/sda1
/boot

[arkie]

Hi Santhosh

Thanx for replying. But how can i 'label'. I cannot enter into rescue mode, ultimately i cant get a # prompt. Can I use the 'vol' command in EFI Shell to label. I only have a fs2 partition and that has no label.

[Yogeeraj_1]

hi,

have you already attempted a re-install?

revert
kind regards
yogeeraj

[skt_skt]

"I cannot enter into rescue mode"--If the attempt to get in rescue mode fails the what is the error it is giving?did u try boooting from an iso image?

"i cant get a # prompt. Can I use the 'vol' command in EFI Shell to label"- i am not sure as i have not done it myself

[arkie]

hi Yogeeraj

Yes I have already attempted reinstallation several times. C the Smart Setup CD creates two partitions of type vfat (one EFI-related and one HPSP), after that i am creating three partitions
1) /boot/efi - type vfat
2) swap - 32768 MB (since my RAM is half that) and
3) / - say 12 GB type ext3
The installation is clean, but when i reboot, the / is never found (root= option doesn't work, no rescue mode available)

I cant find a way out

[Dheeraj Kabra]

Why cant you boot into rescue mode?
what is the error message if you try booting in rescue?
if you could boot into rescue, then
# e2label /dev/sdx /
this command should set hte label for root partition, and then try booting normally.

[arkie]

Hi Dheeraj

I am unable to boot into rescue mode
Every time I give the option "linux rescue" at the ELILO Boot: prompt, I land into the same kernal panic. There is no difference between booting normally and in rescue mode. Also i dont get any rescue option from the Linux installation disk 1. is there any other way

[Stuart Browne]

err, 'rescue' is from the installation media only.

You can try single user mode, or emergency mode, to see if that gets you any further.

At the elilo prompt, use 'linux s', or 'linux emergency' respectivly.

(Note: Single user can be gotten into (usually) using either 's', 'S', or 1).

Emergency will attempt to get you into a minimal mode, without trying to mount all the disks etc.. If you're lucky, you'll be able to do something with it like that.

Given the kernel revision, you might try downloading a newer kernel from Redhat, and install it in emergency mode (if possible).

[arkie]

Hi Stuart

Sorry, but 'linux s', 'linux emergency' and 'linux single', all of them lands me at the same place. I am not getting any further

[Stuart Browne]

Well, you're reduced to going back to media to get into rescue.

If my suspicion is correct, it's not loading the drivers for the SCSI controller from the initrd.

I still think you should download the latest kernel from Redhat, but install it from the rescue mode (assuming it can succesfully mount your /boot and / filesystems).

[arkie]

Stuart my big question is how do i get the rescue mode from the media. Disk 1 does not show any option besides 'Re-install'. Is it by passing 'linux rescue' at the ELILO of the media

[arkie]

i could get into the rescue mode from Installation media 1. Then i did 'e2label /dev/sda5 /' becoz my / was /dev/sda5 during installation and rebooted. But its the same place. If the SCSI drivers are not being loaded, how can that be done

[skt_skt]

did u label /boot?

[Stuart Browne]

When in rescue mode, do an 'lsmod' to find out what drivers are loaded.

It should be fairly straight forward as to which one is your SCSI drivers.

Once you've done that, chroot to the rescue environment, and check the contents of '/boot/initrd-2.6.9-5.EL.img':

gzip -cd /boot/initrd-2.6.9-5.EL.img | cpio -vit

Under the 'lib' directory, you should see things like 'ext3.ko'. The SCSI driver listed from the 'lsmod' should be listed here also. If it isn't, then you need to re-generate the initrd.

Thankfully, this is pretty simple.

Make sure there's a matching 'alias scsi_hostadapter' matching this driver, then use the 'mkinitrd' command to regenerate the initrd.

[arkie]

In rescue mode, before chroot, lsmod shows "mptscsih" - guess this is the one.

Then initrd-2.6.9-5.EL.img, this file was not in /boot by default. I copied it from /boot/efi/efi/redhat/

I did "gzip -cd /boot/initrd-2.6.9-5.EL.img|cpio -vit" as u said, but there was no ext3.ko under lib. It was in /lib/modules/2.6.9-5.EL/kernel/fs/ext3. Again i copied that to /lib. Further there is nothing like "mptscsi". There is one "mptscsih" directory at /lib/sys/modules. Should i copy again.

Pls guide me a little more on this and how to mkinitrd after that

[skt_skt]

In my case i was compiling the lpfc driver to this kernel.From my memory

i modified /etc/modules.conf

mkinitrd /boot/initrd-2.4.9-e.59smp.img 2.4.9-e.59smp

reverted change on /etc/modules.conf.