Ubuntu losing root filesystem on first boot

[Paul Dickson]

On Wed, 15 Nov 2006 21:00:39 -0700, eric© wrote:

> Installed Xubuntu 6.06 on my Thinkpad the other day, everything seemed to be
> OK until I attempted to install the xmms-alarm package.  Wouldn't even
> download, altho I could still browse the net.  In typical longterm Windows
> user fashion, I just figured it needed a reboot.  Did so, and it wouldn't
> boot afterwards, hanging on the "mounting root file system", and went to
> "waiting for root file system" for a few minutes, and eventually telling me
> that /dev/hde1 could not be found.  Attemped a reinstall of the OS, and it
> refused to install to the drive, giving some error that I can't recall now.
> Assumed bad drive (just bought it about 6 hours prior).  Fry's exchanged it
> out no problem, and this time around I chose Ubuntu 6.06.  Same thing,
> everything seemed to be OK until I rebooted, and it fails attempting to
> mount the root file system, still trying to load on /dev/hde1.  It drops me
> into a shell eventually, where I checked the /dev folder, and found that
> niether hde nor hde1 exists. I tried creating the folder, still hung (altho
> i really didn't expect that to work).
> 
> Altho I've been using Linux on and off for a few years now, I still consider
> myself a newbie.  I THINK what's going on here is a configuration issue,
> where it should be loading /dev/hda, not /dev/hde.  But I don't want to just
> start changing configs around without really knowing what I'm doing and
> digging a deeper hole.
> 
> I found I couldn't really do anything useful in the shell that it drops me
> to (at least with my skills, or lack thereof :-P).  I'm thinking my next
> plan of attack is to load up a LiveCD, and checking the fstab.   Yay or nay?

You might try the boot option:

    ide=reverse

or whatever its called know.  The installer's kernel might be loading the
builtin ide ports first, then the others (or ignores them), while the
installed kernel does the reverse order.  Doesn't Ubuntu find it's
filesystems via FS labels?

On my notebook, when the kernels included support for SATA controllers,
my HD moved from hda to sda.  FS labels made this change transparent.

	-Paul