On Mon, Jul 13, 2009 at 17:52, Kelly Clowers<kelly.clow...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Mon, Jul 13, 2009 at 16:38, Andrew Reid<rei...@bellatlantic.net> wrote: >> On Tuesday 07 July 2009 15:26:54 Kelly Clowers wrote: >> >>> Is there a way to get a shell inside the initramfs, to >>> look around? >> >> You can boot with "break=mount" as a kernel option, it >> will drop you into a busybox shell just before mounting >> the root directory. The initramfs environment doesn't >> inherit environment variables from the boot scripts, but >> you can browse the file system and run the scripts and >> stuff. > > Thanks, that might help. > >> I've run into similar problems when the initramfs >> didn't include the right driver module for the disk drive -- >> the result is that the BIOS can see the drive, and GRUB >> can see it, but the kernel can't -- you get symptoms >> similar to what you describe, and it's also consistent >> with the LiveCD working, as it presumably has a full >> kernel. >> The solution in that case is to get the right module into >> the initramfs, most simply by just listing it by name >> in /etc/initramfs-tools/modules and rebuilding the >> initramfs. >> >> I haven't mentioned it because it doesn't make sense >> in your case -- you're restoring an RMA'd drive on >> an old box, where presumably the motherboard SATA >> device hasn't changed, so the initramfs you restored >> from back-up should work, plus you said you rebuilt the >> initramfs several times. > > Yeah, and anyway, it isn't like I am using rare drivers - > it is an Intel MB, and I don't even have LVM or anything. > > Anyway, thanks for the advice, I will see what I can do > with it. > >> The other way to investigate the initramfs, incidentally, >> is to just unpack it somehwere -- it's a cpio archive, you >> can google for instructions. > > Also good to know.
Going to try this now, since break= does not seem to work for some reason... Cheers, Kelly Clowers -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
