Bug 125049 – splash_geninitramfs make initrd file but linux cannot boot with the initrd file on ppc

• Status: RESOLVED NEEDINFO
• Product: Gentoo Linux

[Description Byeong-taek Lee 2006-03-05 00:59:54 UTC]

I use xfs file system for / on ppc and x86.
On x86, I have no problem for making initrd file.
But, on ppc, initrd generated by splash_geninitramfs fails to make kernel boot.
During booting, i have following message.XFS: bad magic number

XFS: SB validate failure
Kernel Panic - not syncing: VFS: unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(1,0)

Here is my yaboot.conf

image=/boot/vmlinux-2.6.15-r5
        label=testing
        read-only
        partition=4
        root=/dev/hda4
        initrd=/boot/fbsplash-emergence-1024x768
        append="video=aty128fb:1024x768-16 root=/dev/ram0 real_root=/dev/hda4 splash=silent,fadein theme:emergence CONSOLE=/dev/tty1"

When I drop out 'root=dev/ram0 real_root=/dev/hda4', still it failed to boot.
The error message changes, but the difference is trivial as following.

XFS: SB validate failure
Kernel Panic - not syncing: VFS: unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(3,4)


I think that my kernel configuration has no problem,
because without initrd option, system starts well with only kernel image.

[Comment 1 Michal Januszewski (RETIRED) 2006-03-05 05:58:42 UTC]

How big is your initrd? In the past, similar problems were known to be caused by large initramfs images..

Please also note that you're missing a comma before 'theme:emergence' (ie. it should read: 'splash=silent,fadein,theme:emergence').

[Comment 2 Byeong-taek Lee 2006-03-05 12:56:07 UTC]

initrd size is about 818k.
Actually, the size is similar with the size when i use ext3 for root filesystem.
When i inserted comma, splash works at boot, but still failed to boot completely.
It could not recognize the filesystem.
IDE and xfs (root filesystem) was built in kernel.
This problem was tested against kernel version gentoo-sources 2.6.14-rx and gentoo-sources 2.6.15-r2 or r5.

[Comment 3 Michal Januszewski (RETIRED) 2006-03-18 03:29:10 UTC]

Have you ever tried using a different theme ('gentoo', 'gentoo-livecd' etc)? Did it change anything?

Also, has fbsplash ever worked for you? (with older kernels maybe)

[Comment 4 Byeong-taek Lee 2006-03-18 03:36:51 UTC]

(In reply to comment #3)
> Have you ever tried using a different theme ('gentoo', 'gentoo-livecd' etc)?
> Did it change anything?
> 
> Also, has fbsplash ever worked for you? (with older kernels maybe)
> 

I've never tried other theme.
fbspalsh works well.
The problem is only about initrd.
without initrd, kernel starts to boot successfully with splash.

[Comment 5 Michal Januszewski (RETIRED) 2006-03-19 02:03:58 UTC]

You should probably try one of the other themes from Portage, just to be sure that the problem isn't specific to the 'emergence' theme.

Have you ever been able to use an initrd and boot successfully (previous kernel versions, an initrd not generated by splash_geninitramfs etc)?

[Comment 6 Byeong-taek Lee 2006-03-19 22:46:30 UTC]

(In reply to comment #5)
> You should probably try one of the other themes from Portage, just to be sure
> that the problem isn't specific to the 'emergence' theme.
> 
> Have you ever been able to use an initrd and boot successfully (previous kernel
> versions, an initrd not generated by splash_geninitramfs etc)?
> 

at least, 'gentoo' theme also failed to boot.
When I made an initrd without splash_geninitramfs, initrd file size was so big, but it booted successfully.

[Comment 7 Michal Januszewski (RETIRED) 2007-04-07 10:00:13 UTC]

Is this still an issue with splashutils-1.4? It contains some code changes that should prevent exactly this kind of problems.

[Comment 8 Michal Januszewski (RETIRED) 2007-05-12 12:02:24 UTC]

Need more data, please reopen if necessary.