# [SOLVED] Kernel (2.6.37-gentoo-r4) hangs at startup

## daaaaang

I screwed my computer up and had to totally wipe it and reinstall gentoo (all data was backed up -- thank goodness). No matter what I change in the kernel, startup hangs here:

```
EXT3-fs: barriers not enabled

kjournald starting.  Commit interval 5 seconds

EXT3-fs (sda5): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode

VFS: Mounted root (ext3 filesystem) readonly on device 8:5.

Freeing unused kernel memory: 504k freed
```

These lines are often interspersed with lines about finding the Synaptics Touchpad or setting the clock, but these lines are always in this order and near (usually at) the end.

One difference between this installation and the last one is that I decided to just throw a bunch of partitions on there. I have no actually-good reason to do that (I'd just read the security guide and wanted to play with it), but I don't want to start completely and repartition unless that could actually help. Here's my fstab, by the way:

```
# I figure I paid for windows, so I'll keep windows, haha!

#/dev/sda1     /mnt/GASHER       ntfs    noatime                     0 0

# Boot, swap, and root partitions

/dev/sda2     /boot             ext2    defaults,noatime            1 2

/dev/sda3     none              swap    sw                          0 0

/dev/sda5     /                 ext3    noatime                     0 1

# Also /opt/ is a symlink to /usr/local/.opt/ -- that way, all local

# configurations and installations are on their own partition.

/dev/sda6     /usr/local        ext3    noatime                     0 2

# I forget why I gave /var/ its own partition.

/dev/sda7     /var              ext3    noatime                     0 2

# There's a lot of space here, and I wanted to try out ext4.

/dev/sda8     /home             ext4    noatime                     0 2

# Also this stuff

/dev/cdrom    /mnt/cdrom        auto    noauto,user                 0 0

proc          /proc             proc    defaults                    0 0

shm           /dev/shm          tmpfs   nodev,nosuid,noexec         0 0
```

So, what do you think? Should I go through the hassle of starting over and using only four partitions? Or is this just a total coincidence? Do you have any idea of what the problem could be?

FYI, I was pretty careful to make sure the new OpenRC was properly-installed; I had to add udev to the sysinit runlevel, along with a couple other things.

Oh, and is there a way to save the dmesg output when the kernel is hanging? It would probably be useful to be able to look at more than just the last few lines, but I have no idea how to do that.

Thaaanks!

Matt

[edit -- added "SOLVED"]Last edited by daaaaang on Fri May 27, 2011 9:47 pm; edited 1 time in total

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## BradN

I was in another thread where someone had this problem, and their only fix was enabling devtmpfs and "automatically mount devtmpfs" in the kernel.  It's under device drivers in one of the top general sections if I remember.  I have no idea why this is necessary.

We had been troubleshooting it - they could boot with init=/bin/bash passed to the kernel, and the shell would come up.  Then "exec /sbin/init" would start up fine.  But going straight to init wouldn't work without devtmpfs.  It was completely whacked.

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## rainbowgoblin

Have you tried using Genkernel? If you can get the Genkernel kernel to boot, at least you'll have a jumping off point.

You might try an older kernel, otherwise. There's no way that you have too many partitions, or that you should have to repartition. I don't know what the problem is, but don't give up!

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## daaaaang

 *BradN wrote:*   

> enabling devtmpfs and "automatically mount devtmpfs" in the kernel

 

It is from a completely-working-again computer (with a still-hilarious number of partitions) that I say, Thank you Brad!

Matt

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## salam

lolz, I posted same thread, but then I found this one, so I deleted it. The devtpmfs hint works excellent. Now the system boots...had to add lvm to boot RL, time to get used to baselayout2...

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## BradN

Please, please, no more fanfare!  I'm getting a sunburn from the basking in the glory!

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