HOWTO : Fix 'ALERT! : dev/XYZ does not exist' after upgrade to Dapper Drake

[Fariam]

3) Using your current installation (not live CD) temporaily remove all the mount references to your additional drives from etc/fstab and copy them to a text file in your home folder (or better still an external storage medium) for use later on. Leave your standard root partition and the swap partition as they are.

Sudo gedit //etc/fstab

I'm sorry, I'm relatively new to Linux. At this step, am I to type the above command in the busybox shell? If so -- when I do, it tells me that it doesn't recognize the command sudo nor does it recognize gedit.

Thank you for the how to.

[ronly]

No, you're not supposed to type that into the busybox shell. That's used to edit fstab but you won't be able to do that unless you can boot with some other kernel or CD so that you can access your files. And editing fstab only solves the problem in some cases - not e.g. mine

[msemtd]

I'm having a similar problem with udev but my machine only has one HDD. I've tried other kernels by booting to knoppix, chrooting back to /dev/hda1 (correctly enumerated under knoppix!) and running apt-get to select more kernels but they all fail the same. I don't know which drive I should be telling grub to get the initrd from - what else could it be other than hda1 on my simple setup?

[Ted_Smith]

Msemtd - soory, I am not good enough with Linux to help you there. This HOW TO was written purely with dual IDE controllers in mind.

Fariam - The removal of the mount references is to be done BEFORE you upgrade to Dapper from Breezy using your current installation of Breezy. The idea being that you then shut Breezy down and re-boot using the Install CD.

If you installing from scratch this step is not necessary - you just need to unplug your extra drive and boot up with the Install CD.

I hope that helps

Ted

[msemtd]

OK, I have it fixed now: it was soem fallout from a suspected bug in initramfs-tools https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu...ols/+bug/32123

I had to chroot to /dev/hda1 from a live cd and remove udev, initramfs-tools, and all kernels - then replace latest and add latest kernel that rebuilt initrd.

[ubuntu_demon]

Everyone please test this general workaround :

https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu...67/comments/69

For those still wondering; The workaround for this issue involves specifying the partition to boot from by ID, rather than the transient location:

1. Boot a desktop/LiveCD.
2. Run sudo /sbin/dumpe2fs /dev/sdX | grep UUID
3. tell 'grub' or 'lilo' to boot with that ID:

linux ... root=UUID=d4c51a2a-d93f-4dc1-8717-9c3cdb4d41ce

and also adjust this in:

/boot/grub/menu.lst

Replace sdX for sda, sdb, sdc, sdd, hda,hdb,hdc,hdd or whatever gparted on the livecd tells you it is.

You can post results either on launchpad here :
https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu...dev/+bug/6367/
Or in this thread :
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=1257154

[jmbarbier]

Workaround does not seem to work for me...

I had Breezy on hda1, and I can boot with my old breezy kernel. But with 2.6.15 of Dapper, I have

(..)
[17179573.004000] hda: HTS726060M9AT00, ATA DISK drive
[17179572.540000] hdc: QSI CR-RW/DVD-ROM SBW-241, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
................. ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
................. ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
Done.
Begin: Waiting for root filesystem... ...
Done.
ALERT! /dev/hda1 does not exist. Dropping to a shell!

and back to busybox.

This is exactly the same for root by UUID except that message ALERT! gives /dev/disk/by-uuid(...) does not exist.

Bad thing for ubuntu...

[mod187]

After reading your post, and having problems trying to install 6.06 (new install), I tried to install 5.10 and upgrade to 6.06.

Only problem (and it's a big one) is that after completing the install, and rebooting, I am getting the same error with 5.10 that I did with 6.06:

ALERT! /dev/hda2 does not exist. Dropping to a shell!

Then I go to BusyBox. Any thoughts on this? I have another thread started on this, If you would not mind looking at it:
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=212907

Thanks,
.\\

[ubuntu_demon]

From https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu...dev/+bug/6367/ :

Officially marking as Rejected for dapper.

Here is the reasoning:

- We applied the “fix”, as planned, to the udev in Edgy Eft.

- While the fix corrected the problem described here, it caused new problems. Because it was a fundamental change to device ordering, it changed the order of other devices where more than one existed in the system — including other disks

- For Edgy this was not a problem, as the upgrade makes other changes that make device order non-important anyway

- These changes are too invasive for backporting to dapper

- This bug has a known workaround, which can be applied by the minority of users affected by it

- That workaround is preferable to causing far more working systems to cease functioning.

[mod187]

My problem I mentioned above (and linked to another thread) has been resolved. The problem was with my hard drive. There is other info on things I tried that did not work in that other thread

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=212907