PE 2850 Cant boot with RHEL4 kernel 2.6.9-42.ELsmp "switchroot: mount failed: 22"

[Mike Hanby]

Howdy,

 

We have several PowerEdge 2850's that run RHEL 4.

 

Due to compatibility with the software that runs on the systems, we've
had to remain at the 2.6.9-22.ELsmp kernel.

 

The vendor has an update that requires 2.6.9-42.ELsmp.

 

I've updated the kernel on both, one boots fine and the other errors.
Before I post the error, the hardware differences:

 

The node that works has the following in /etc/modprobe.conf:

alias eth1 e1000

alias eth0 e1000

options e1000 InterruptThrottleRate=4000,4000

alias scsi_hostadapter megaraid_mbox

alias usb-controller ehci-hcd

alias usb-controller1 uhci-hcd

 

And the one that doesn't:

alias eth0 e1000

alias eth1 e1000

options e1000 InterruptThrottleRate=4000,4000

alias eth2 e1000

alias scsi_hostadapter megaraid_mbox

alias usb-controller ehci-hcd

alias usb-controller1 uhci-hcd

alias scsi_hostadapter1 qla2100

alias scsi_hostadapter2 qla2200

alias scsi_hostadapter3 qla2300

alias scsi_hostadapter4 qla2322

alias scsi_hostadapter5 qla6312

 

Now, the error:

 

Decompressing Linux...done.

Booting the kernel.

Red Hat nash version 4.2.1.6 starting

sda: asking for cache data failed

sda: assuming drive cache: write through

sda: asking for cache data failed

sda: assuming drive cache: write through

sdb: asking for cache data failed

sdb: assuming drive cache: write through

sdb: asking for cache data failed

sdb: assuming drive cache: write through

mkrootdev: label / not found

mount: error 2 mounting ext3

mount: error 2 mounting none

switchroot: mount failed: 22

umount /initrd/dev failed: 2

kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill .....

 

This looks like a driver isn't that I need isn't loaded into the ramdisk
image. I can boot successfully off of the RHEL4 Update 4 cd in "text
rescue" mode and see my root partition (under /mnt/sysimage), and the
rescue mode uses the same kernel version.

 

I tried running the mkinitrd command and booting using the new image,
but it still fails the same:

mkinitrd --with=qla6312 --with=qla2322 --with=qla2300 --with=qla2200

--with=qla2100 --with=qla2xxx --with=megaraid_mbox --with=megaraid_mm

--with=scsi_mod -v -f /boot/initrd-2.6.9-42.ELsmp-test.img

2.6.9-42.ELsmp

 

Any ideas? In the meantime I can still boot using the 2.6.9-22.ELsmp
kernel, but I'm unable to patch the vendors code.

 

Thanks, Mike

 

-----

Mike Hanby

Information Systems Specialist II

School of Engineering Dean's Office

University of Alabama at Birmingham

 

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