[Tfug] Debian unable to mount root fs after an update/upgrade

[Stephen Hooper]

> ---- Stephen Hooper wrote:
> <snip>
>  > - Now "mount -a"
>  > - Now look in "/boot"
>  > - See what changed.  Hopefully Debian tacked on to the grub
>  > configuration instead of using it.
> <snip>
>
> I did not notice any changes in /boot, other than the obvious due
> to chroot.
>
> Do you have any other ideas? BTW - I am using Lilo, grub did not
> want to install for me when I built this box.
>

The chroot really shouldn't have made any changes, but I think I
understand what you mean.  Anyways...

"/boot" isn't going to be needed by LILO, as LILO basically keeps the
kernel outside of a filesystem (unlike grub).

So, now that you know where your primary partition is, and assuming
you didn't have it in a weird place where you would need an initrd
image, just go into the chrooted directory structure, change the
/etc/lilo.conf file to point to the root partition that you found
(e.g. "root = /dev/hda1"), and then run lilo, and reboot.

The install may have just run lilo after having overwritten the file.

You could also try booting, catching the boot before "Loading
Linux..." ( hit tab key at the LILO prompt (if it is interactive), *or
press ALT-SHIFT before LILO appears*), and append (e.g.)
"root=/dev/hda1" to the kernel line.

Then see if it loads everything up.  You will still have to run
"lilo", unless you want to do that everytime.

Finally, if you needed to load a driver to get the root, then you will
need to create an initial ramdisk, and do the whole "altroot" thing.
That is very difficult to explain, so I would suggest the man page at
"mkinitrd" to help get you started.  Let's hope you don't have to do
that :}