After a recent kernel update, my LVM root volume was no longer detected at boot time. I was able to fix the problem by booting with a rescue disk and copying /sbin/lvm.static from the system over /bin/lvm in genkernel's ramdisk image. Reproducible: Always With genkernel's lvm binary, my system would halt, unable to detect any LVM devices. Dropping to the rescue shell, I could see all the raw devices, and /bin/lvm would run, but never detect any devices. If I booted from a rescue disk, mounted my userland and chrooted into it without /sys mounted, the genkernel-built lvm binary would throw an error, like so: # ./lvm pvscan /sys/block: opendir failed: No such file or directory ...followed by an accurate printout of my LVM volumes. But if I tried the same thing with /sys mounted, I got no output at all. So, it sounds like genkernel is, for some reason, building an lvm static binary to expect an incorrect layout under /sys, or something to that effect. Maybe the old deprecated layout? emerge --info follows: Portage 2.1.10.3 (default/linux/amd64/10.0, gcc-4.3.4, glibc-2.12.2-r0, 2.6.39-gentoo-r3-mrj-20110727c x86_64) ================================================================= System uname: Linux-2.6.39-gentoo-r3-mrj-20110727c-x86_64-Dual-Core_AMD_Opteron-tm-_Processor_2214-with-gentoo-2.0.2 Timestamp of tree: Fri, 22 Jul 2011 16:00:01 +0000 ccache version 2.4 [enabled] app-shells/bash: 4.1_p9 dev-java/java-config: 2.1.11-r3 dev-lang/python: 2.5.4-r2, 2.6.5-r3, 2.7.1-r1, 3.1.3-r1 dev-util/ccache: 2.4-r7 dev-util/cmake: 2.8.4-r1 dev-util/pkgconfig: 0.26 sys-apps/baselayout: 2.0.2 sys-apps/openrc: 0.8.3-r1 sys-apps/sandbox: 2.5 sys-devel/autoconf: 2.13, 2.68 sys-devel/automake: 1.5, 1.7.9-r1, 1.9.6-r2, 1.10.3, 1.11.1 sys-devel/binutils: 2.20.1-r1 sys-devel/gcc: 3.4.6-r2, 4.3.4, 4.4.5 sys-devel/gcc-config: 1.4.1-r1 sys-devel/libtool: 2.2.10 sys-devel/make: 3.82 sys-kernel/linux-headers: 2.6.36.1 (virtual/os-headers) sys-libs/glibc: 2.12.2 Repositories: gentoo ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="amd64" ACCEPT_LICENSE="*" CBUILD="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu" CFLAGS="-march=athlon64 -O2 -pipe" CHOST="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/share/gnupg/qualified.txt" CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/ca-certificates.conf /etc/env.d /etc/env.d/java/ /etc/fonts/fonts.conf /etc/gconf /etc/gentoo-release /etc/init.d /etc/php/apache2-php5.3/ext-active/ /etc/php/cgi-php5.3/ext-active/ /etc/php/cli-php5.3/ext-active/ /etc/revdep-rebuild /etc/sandbox.d /etc/sound /etc/terminfo" CXXFLAGS="-march=athlon64 -O2 -pipe" DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles" FEATURES="assume-digests binpkg-logs buildpkg ccache distlocks ebuild-locks fixlafiles fixpackages news parallel-fetch protect-owned sandbox sfperms strict unknown-features-warn unmerge-logs unmerge-orphans userfetch userpriv usersandbox" FFLAGS="" GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://distfiles.gentoo.org" LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1 -Wl,--as-needed" MAKEOPTS="-j5" PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages" PORTAGE_CONFIGROOT="/" PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --stats --timeout=180 --exclude=/distfiles --exclude=/local --exclude=/packages" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" PORTDIR="/usr/portage" PORTDIR_OVERLAY="" SYNC="rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage" USE="3dnow X Xaw3d acl acpi amd64 apache2 bash-completion berkdb bzip2 cairo cdr cli cracklib crypt cscope curl curlwrappers cxx dbus dri dvd dvdr dvdread encode evo examples exif fbcon ffmpeg fftw flac fltk fortran ftp gd gdbm gif gmp gnome gnutls gpm graphviz gtk hvm iconv imagemagick iodbc ipv6 java javascript jpeg jpeg2k libcaca libgda libwww lm_sensors maildir mbox mime mmap mmx modules mp3 mpeg mpi mudflap multilib mysql mysqli ncurses netboot nptl nptlonly nsplugin odbc ogg opengl openmp pam pcre pdf perl php png posix postgres pppd python qemu rdesktop readline ruby samba sdl session slang sockets speex spell sqlite sse sse2 ssl startup-notification svg sysfs syslog sysvipc tcpd threads tiff truetype unicode usb vim-syntax wmf xattr xcomposite xinerama xinetd xml xorg xosd xpm xprint xscreensaver xv xvid zlib" ALSA_CARDS="ali5451 als4000 atiixp atiixp-modem bt87x ca0106 cmipci emu10k1x ens1370 ens1371 es1938 es1968 fm801 hda-intel intel8x0 intel8x0m maestro3 trident usb-audio via82xx via82xx-modem ymfpci" ALSA_PCM_PLUGINS="adpcm alaw asym copy dmix dshare dsnoop empty extplug file hooks iec958 ioplug ladspa lfloat linear meter mmap_emul mulaw multi null plug rate route share shm softvol" APACHE2_MODULES="actions alias auth_basic authn_alias authn_anon authn_dbm authn_default authn_file authz_dbm authz_default authz_groupfile authz_host authz_owner authz_user autoindex cache cgi cgid dav dav_fs dav_lock deflate dir disk_cache env expires ext_filter file_cache filter headers include info log_config logio mem_cache mime mime_magic negotiation rewrite setenvif speling status unique_id userdir usertrack vhost_alias" CALLIGRA_FEATURES="braindump flow karbon kexi kpresenter krita tables words" CAMERAS="ptp2" COLLECTD_PLUGINS="df interface irq load memory rrdtool swap syslog" ELIBC="glibc" GPSD_PROTOCOLS="ashtech aivdm earthmate evermore fv18 garmin garmintxt gpsclock itrax mtk3301 nmea ntrip navcom oceanserver oldstyle oncore rtcm104v2 rtcm104v3 sirf superstar2 timing tsip tripmate tnt ubx" INPUT_DEVICES="keyboard mouse evdev" KERNEL="linux" LCD_DEVICES="bayrad cfontz cfontz633 glk hd44780 lb216 lcdm001 mtxorb ncurses text" PHP_TARGETS="php5-3" RUBY_TARGETS="ruby18" USERLAND="GNU" VIDEO_CARDS="fbdev glint intel mach64 mga neomagic nouveau nv r128 radeon savage sis tdfx trident vesa via vmware dummy v4l" XTABLES_ADDONS="quota2 psd pknock lscan length2 ipv4options ipset ipp2p iface geoip fuzzy condition tee tarpit sysrq steal rawnat logmark ipmark dhcpmac delude chaos account" Unset: CPPFLAGS, CTARGET, EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS, INSTALL_MASK, LANG, LC_ALL, LINGUAS, PORTAGE_BUNZIP2_COMMAND, PORTAGE_COMPRESS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS_FLAGS, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS
(In reply to comment #0) > If I booted from a rescue disk, mounted my userland and chrooted into it > without /sys mounted, the genkernel-built lvm binary would throw an error, like > so: > > # ./lvm pvscan > /sys/block: opendir failed: No such file or directory > > ...followed by an accurate printout of my LVM volumes. But if I tried the same > thing with /sys mounted, I got no output at all. > > So, it sounds like genkernel is, for some reason, building an lvm static binary > to expect an incorrect layout under /sys, or something to that effect. Maybe > the old deprecated layout? > Strange, this works nice for me. There are some things to consider. CONFIG_SYSFS_DEPRECATED must be unset in your kernel config. If this is disabled in your kernel config, and it still will not work, can you maybe tell us the output from "cat /proc/mounts" when you are in the shell where lvm fails?
Which versions of genkernel and LVM is this about?
@mjinks The information we are currently missing here, I think, is: The version of genkernel (attaching /var/log/genkernel.log so we know what versions and how you invoked genkernel would be of big help) Your kernel config file (/usr/src/linux/.config) Content of /proc/mounts from the environment where lvm fails But I still think that you by mistake have enabled CONFIG_SYSFS_DEPRECATED* which breaks any system which has received updates since 2006, since /sys/block is one of the directories that seems to be moved around by that kernel config option.
No response from user for >1 year.