Re: [gentoo-user] /dev/sda* missing at boot

[Michael Mol]

On Thu, Aug 18, 2011 at 2:59 PM, <frares@×××××.com> wrote:
>
> Hi, guys
>
> It is a shame, I know, but after several years using Gentoo, it is the first time I try to build a kernel without "genkernel".
>
> And now I can't boot to that new kernel, it does not find (and really do not have a) /dev/sda* root partition ("real-root"); during the boot it stops, complaining about that, gives me the option to get a shell, from which I am able to see that there is no /dev/sda* .
>
> I have included everything SATA, so it looks like that is not a kernel problem, but a initramfs issue, I guess.

If you've got a SATA controller, no frills, then all you *really* need
is AHCI. Build that into your kernel if you're worried about having
the right modules in initramfs. You can break it out into a module
later if you like. Opinions differ as to how much stuff should be
broken into modules vs being built-in to the kernel. I tend to build
in everything absolutely needed for boot, myself. Some people build in
just about everything, and some people build in almost nothing.
There's no "right" way for every use case.

Also, check your BIOS to see if it's running your SATA controller in
some kind of IDE emulation mode. If it is, disable that. (Some
motherboards let you choose between "IDE" and "RAID", where "RAID" is
AHCI mode. Others call IDE mode 'legacy', and still others might
actually call the AHCI mode 'AHCI')

Motherboards running SATA controllers in IDE emulation mode is an
incredibly common thing:

17:18 <@IRule> beh
17:18 <@IRule> hda1 turned into sda1
17:19 < shortcircuit> IRule: Turn SCSI-generic support, or did you
switch from legacy to AHCI in your BIOS?
17:20 <@IRule> shortcircuit: quiet, you

--
:wq