"Gave up waiting for root device" on boot

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michaelzap
Level 3
Level 3
Posts: 166
Joined: Sat Sep 11, 2010 9:32 pm

"Gave up waiting for root device" on boot

Post by michaelzap »

Having some trouble installing the latest LMDE 64-bit on my Lenovo Y530 laptop. This is (potentially) a triple boot system with Windows 7 and LM Julia 64-bit. The Windows partition is encrypted with Truecrypt and uses the TC boot loader. On that boot loader's prompt I press Esc and get Grub on the LM Julia partition. I ran update-grub after installing LMDE on the third partition (without Grub), and it found LMDE and added a Grub menu entry as expected. However, when I choose that entry the LMDE system says that's it's loading but then times out with the message "Gave up waiting for root device" and drops down to a busybox shell.

I've tried reinstalling (and formatting the partition to ext3 rather than ext4), but that doesn't help.

Anyone know why this may be happening or how I can resolve it?

To clarify, I have four partitions total on my laptop:
/dev/sda1 - Windows 7 - encrypted by TrueCrypt and with the TC boot loader in the MBR
/dev/sda4 - LM Julia 64-bit (with Grub installed here)
/dev/sda2 - the non-functional LMDE 64-bit that I just installed
/dev/sda3 - swap

My etc/default/grub file contains the following for menu entries:

Code: Select all

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
menuentry 'Linux Mint 10 64-bit, 2.6.35-22-generic (/dev/sda4)' --class linuxmint --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
	recordfail
	insmod part_msdos
	insmod ext2
	set root='(hd0,msdos4)'
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 1e25a31e-e6b0-4879-b32f-3619554f6e42
	linux	/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic root=UUID=1e25a31e-e6b0-4879-b32f-3619554f6e42 ro   quiet splash
	initrd	/boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-22-generic
}
menuentry 'Linux Mint 10 64-bit, 2.6.35-22-generic (/dev/sda4) -- recovery mode' --class linuxmint --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
	recordfail
	insmod part_msdos
	insmod ext2
	set root='(hd0,msdos4)'
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 1e25a31e-e6b0-4879-b32f-3619554f6e42
	echo	'Loading Linux 2.6.35-22-generic ...'
	linux	/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic root=UUID=1e25a31e-e6b0-4879-b32f-3619554f6e42 ro single 
	echo	'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
	initrd	/boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-22-generic
}
### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_lupin ###
### END /etc/grub.d/10_lupin ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_linux_xen ###
### END /etc/grub.d/20_linux_xen ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+)" {
	insmod part_msdos
	insmod ext2
	set root='(hd0,msdos4)'
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 1e25a31e-e6b0-4879-b32f-3619554f6e42
	linux16	/boot/memtest86+.bin
}
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+, serial console 115200)" {
	insmod part_msdos
	insmod ext2
	set root='(hd0,msdos4)'
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 1e25a31e-e6b0-4879-b32f-3619554f6e42
	linux16	/boot/memtest86+.bin console=ttyS0,115200n8
}
### END /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
menuentry "Debian GNU/Linux, with Linux 2.6.32-5-amd64 (on /dev/sda2)" {
	insmod part_msdos
	insmod ext2
	set root='(hd0,msdos2)'
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set ef555c74-bd68-45a0-a686-0334c67adb5c
	linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-5-amd64 root=UUID=1f084bbd-a556-4e8b-9ab4-c9049cfda7e3 ro quiet
	initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-5-amd64
}
menuentry "Debian GNU/Linux, with Linux 2.6.32-5-amd64 (recovery mode) (on /dev/sda2)" {
	insmod part_msdos
	insmod ext2
	set root='(hd0,msdos2)'
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set ef555c74-bd68-45a0-a686-0334c67adb5c
	linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-5-amd64 root=UUID=1f084bbd-a556-4e8b-9ab4-c9049cfda7e3 ro single
	initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-5-amd64
}
### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
seeley

Re: "Gave up waiting for root device" on boot

Post by seeley »

Hi!
I don't know if I can help, because your situation is complex and I never heard of TC boot loader.
First we should find out where Grub is installed:
Please run as root:

Code: Select all

fdisk -l 2>/dev/null | egrep "Disk /|/dev/" | sed "s#^/dev/#Part /dev/#" | awk '{print $2}' | sed 's/://' | xargs -n1 -IX sudo sh -c "hexdump -v -s 0x80 -n  2 -e '2/1 \"%x\" \"\\n\"' X | xargs -n1 -IY sh -c \"case  \"Y\" in '48b4') echo X: GRUB 2 v1.96 ;; 'aa75' | '5272') echo X: GRUB Legacy ;; '7c3c') echo X: GRUB 2 v1.97 or higher ;; *) echo X: No GRUB Y ;; esac\""
and

Code: Select all

cat /boot/grub/grub.cfg
seeley
drdavidk

Re: "Gave up waiting for root device" on boot

Post by drdavidk »

I thought I could help, because I had the same problem (LMDE-64bit boot drops down to shell, with similar messaging), but on my Toshiba the problem solved itself on the third try.

(I have a dual boot with Mint Julia 64-bit, so I doubt it's a triple boot problem.)

It seems like the UUID listed in Grub didn't match the actual UUID, but I can't be certain, as I was expecting to reproduce the problem to see what UUID the message gave and check that against the actual UUID (given by blkid in a terminal). But since it booted correctly, so there's no way to check. My only guess is that I installed LMDE twice, the second time choosing to place the LMDE Grub on the device with the LMDE /root (rather than not at all, which is what I did the first time). Perhaps when I ran update-grub in Julia it picked up the right UUID?

Hope this helps.

David
seeley

Re: "Gave up waiting for root device" on boot

Post by seeley »

Hi!
A "normal" /etc/default/grub:

Code: Select all

# If you change this file, run 'update-grub' afterwards to update
# /boot/grub/grub.cfg.
GRUB_DEFAULT=0
#GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true
GRUB_TIMEOUT=10
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""
...
GRUB_GFXMODE=800x600
and part of a /boot/grub/grub.cfg :

Code: Select all

...
### END /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
menuentry "Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition (on /dev/sda1)" {
	insmod part_msdos
	insmod ntfs
	set root='(hd0,msdos1)'
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set b6c411c6c4118a2f
	drivemap -s (hd0) ${root}
	chainloader +1
}
menuentry "Linux Mint 9, 2.6.32-22-generic (/dev/sda6) (on /dev/sda6)" {
	insmod part_msdos
	insmod ext2
	set root='(hd0,msdos6)'
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set f2c6fecb-3195-481b-9b6f-21677dff3e2e
	linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-22-generic root=UUID=f2c6fecb-3195-481b-9b6f-21677dff3e2e ro quiet splash
	initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-22-generic
}
...
seeley
michaelzap
Level 3
Level 3
Posts: 166
Joined: Sat Sep 11, 2010 9:32 pm

Re: "Gave up waiting for root device" on boot

Post by michaelzap »

Thanks for your replies. Between Xmas and the forums being down I didn't have a chance to report back until now. It turns out that the automatically-discovered UUID for the LMDE partition was wrong. Dunno why that would be, but it's a general Grub problem, I guess, and not specifically a LMDE problem (it was actually Grub on my regular LM Julia installation that got the UUID wrong on update). All I did was to look up the correct UUID (I used gparted to do this, since I'm not ashamed to admit that I use GUI apps whenever I can) and edit the rub config file and it booted as expected. As this is a testing installation anyway, I'm not going to investigate it further. If it happens to me again on a real installation I'll start looking through bug reports.
asymmetros

Re: "Gave up waiting for root device" on boot

Post by asymmetros »

Another one here with the same problem!
I am using original LMDE as my main system and i have installed, in a second partition, LMDE 64. I did not install grub, so, reboot to my primary LMDE, update-grub, reboot to LMDE -64 >game over :?
I got the same message, ending in a console. The final words were ALERT and then the explanation that the UUID that it tries does not exist. So, i manually changed the UUID in grub.cfg and my problem solved.
jack.herbert

Re: "Gave up waiting for root device" on boot

Post by jack.herbert »

Okay, and another :)
Also with LMDE 64 on a multi-boot hd and update-grub
On my way to fix it!
seeley

Re: "Gave up waiting for root device" on boot

Post by seeley »

Hi!
Yes I know, many users have problems with LMDE, but as several threads are showing, those problems can be solved. If someone has questions, he should open an own thread - after having read the HOWTOs -> see links below.
seeley
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