Bug 25692

Summary: Cannot boot kernel-desktop-5.3.7-4.mga7
Product: Mageia Reporter: U <25u>
Component: RPM PackagesAssignee: Mageia Bug Squad <bugsquad>
Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME QA Contact:
Severity: normal    
Priority: Normal CC: kafra2005, lewyssmith
Version: 7   
Target Milestone: ---   
Hardware: x86_64   
OS: Linux   
Whiteboard:
Source RPM: kernel-desktop-5.3.7-4.mga7 CVE:
Status comment:

Description U 2019-11-13 23:20:13 CET
I have problem booting kernels. I installed Mageia 7 with kernel-desktop-5.1.14-1.mga7 - Linux Kernel for desktop use with x86_64​. It upgraded without problems to kernel-desktop-5.1.20-2.mga7.
Now, however I cannot boot kernel-desktop-5.3.7-4.mga7.

My error: kernel panic screen, first lines are:
0.945770] Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0)
0.945839] CPU: 4 PID: 1 Comm: swapper/0 Not tainted 5.3.7-desktop-4.mga7 #1
last line is:
0.946353] ---[end Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount fs on unknown-block(0,0) ] ---

My hardware: Dell Inspiron 7786
My setup: dualboot Windows-Mageia. Mageia has encrypted partitions.
Possible troublemaker: some time earlier I ran mageia-prime-install, reboot and mageia-prime-uninstall 
How to diagnose the problem? 

Had similar problems with kernel-desktop-5.2.7-1.mga7
Error: kernel panic screen, first lines are:
0.963339] Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0)
0.963410] CPU: 1 PID: 1 Comm: swapper/0 Not tainted 5.2.7-desktop-1.mga7 #1
last line is:
0.964022] ---[end Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount fs on unknown-block(0,0) ] ---

Had also problems with kernel-desktop-5.1.18-1.mga7, bug report 25683
Comment 1 Alexander Krylov 2019-11-14 01:38:26 CET
It looks like initrd images are not being built for your newer kernels installations for some unknown reason. It's possible, that you /boot partition is full?


What you can try is: 

1. Boot into the system with a working kernel

2. Uninstall all other installed kernel versions

3. Make sure that /boot partition has available space

4. Install the latest kernel 5.3.7-desktop-4.mga7 again

5. Additionally, just in case, in root terminal run the following command:

dracut -f /boot/initrd-5.3.7-desktop-4.mga7.img 5.3.7-desktop-4.mga7


If the above command fails, post the terminal output here.

6. Try to reboot into the system with kernel 5.3.7 again

CC: (none) => kafra2005

Comment 2 Lewis Smith 2019-11-14 20:40:07 CET
*** Bug 25683 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 3 Lewis Smith 2019-11-14 21:59:51 CET
@Alexander : Thank you for your constructive suggestions in comment 1.

@U : Remember to keep the working kernel-desktop-5.1.20-2.mga7. 
In https://bugs.mageia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=25683#c2 you said:
> My boot partition is small, so I have to uninstall some kernels to try new
which has a bearing on Alexander's idea. List /boot to see all the files that go with each kernel.
The kernel panics are different here from Bug 25683.

Can you say whether your system is BIOS/MBR or EFI/GPT?
If the problem persists after you have tried what is suggested in c1, the bug will be investigated.

CC: (none) => lewyssmith

Comment 4 U 2019-11-17 22:14:50 CET
System is EFI/GPT.
I will try it, but first I've done what my friend said:
1. Checked /boot/grub2/grub.cfg
2. Saw that working kernels have different entries. So I've changed:
fi
		linuxefi /vmlinuz-5.2.7-desktop-1.mga7 root=/dev/mapper/crypt_nvme0n1p9 ro failsafe 
	}
to:
fi
		linuxefi /vmlinuz-5.2.7-desktop-1.mga7 root=UUID=✂✂✂ ro  splash quiet noiswmd resume=/dev/mapper/crypt_nvme0n1p6 audit=0 vga=797
		initrdefi /initrd-5.2.7-desktop-1.mga7.img
	}
3. The error has changed to:
error: file /initrd-5.2.7-desktop-1.mga7.img not found
4. I've ran: dracut -f /boot/initrd-5.2.7-desktop-1.mga7.img 5.2.7-desktop-1.mga7
5. Not enough space, so I moved some files. Ran it again.
6. It worked!
Comment 5 U 2019-11-17 22:39:50 CET
So I did it like Alexander said and it worked too.
1. Deleted kernels
2. Installed 1 old kernel, new one installed automatically
3. Both of them work!


Then tryingo to install too many kernels there is a message:
1 installation transactions failed
There was a problem during the installation:
installing package kernel-desktop-5.2.7-1.mga7-1-1.mga7.x86_64 needs 9MB on the /boot filesystem

Can it be done that one cannot install kernel if the installations cannot end 100% successfully? In my case I had kernel not fully installed.
It could prevent such issues for users.
Comment 6 Lewis Smith 2019-11-18 21:36:53 CET
Thank you for your extensive trials - and winning in the end.
> Can it be done that one cannot install kernel if the installations cannot
> end 100% successfully? In my case I had kernel not fully installed.
> It could prevent such issues for users.
This is a reasonable point, but I hope you do not mind closing this bug as it was down to lack of disc space. It looks as if the kernel itself installed 'successfully', but not initrd. Given that you can always boot to a previous kernel, the problem with the latest can be investigated.
You might want to raise another bug as an enhancement request; if you do, please cross-refer it to this bug 25692.

@Alexander : Thanks again for your bullseye pointer.

Resolution: (none) => WORKSFORME
Status: NEW => RESOLVED