8.10 2.6.27 boot failed, doesn't find /dev/disk/by-uuid/xxxxx

Added the grub menu.lst. The rest is output from the system when booted from USB:
ubuntu@ubuntu:~/bug$ tar tvf files.tar
-rw-r--r-- ubuntu/ubuntu 275 2008-12-06 13:20 blkid.txt
-rw-r--r-- ubuntu/ubuntu 1322 2008-12-06 13:24 df-h.txt
-rw-r--r-- ubuntu/ubuntu 45708 2008-12-06 13:25 dmesg.txt
-rw-r--r-- ubuntu/ubuntu 86 2008-12-06 13:24 etc-fstab.txt
-rw-r--r-- ubuntu/ubuntu 1864 2008-12-06 13:25 lspci.txt
-rw-r--r-- ubuntu/ubuntu 4855 2008-12-06 13:20 menu.lst

Just to confirm that I've also got a similar problem in that my machine won't boot, drops to the busybox prompt and tells me that "/dev/disk/by-uuid/xxx" doesn't exist.

My hardware is:

Motherboard: ASRock-ALIVE Dual-ESATA2
Chipset: Northbridge: NVIDIA M1695 - Southbridge NVIDIA nForce3 250
CPU: Athlon64 Dual Core (3.2 Ghz)
Disk1 (eide master 1) Seagate 120Gb
Disk2 (sata1) Seagate 500Gb
Disk3 (sta2) Samsung 750Gb

Currently, following much digging about on the 'net, I've tried using "rootdelay=90" on the GRUB command line and also waiting a couple of minutes before typing "exit" in the busybox shell but neither method makes any difference.

The only way I've found to get round this problem is to keep rebooting the machine until it finally boots. This can take up to 20 attempts and is very frustrating. Once the machine has booted I therefore have no option but to leave it on but at some point (maybe a couple of weeks later) it will freeze and I have to power it off (the machine becomes totally unresponsive - I can't even get another login window on a different console).

As a test I've also installed Windows XP onto a fresh partition and this boots without problems and seems to run fine (I left it on and used it for two weeks without issue).

Additionally since upgrading to 8.10 Audio no longer works correctly, Xorg *still* doesn't drive my monitor at the correct refresh rate, video and audio playback have become jerky and I can safely say that, for me, 8.10 has been a total disaster :(

Still at least it's free.

Hi Henrik,

This bug was reported a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering if this is still an issue? Can you try with the latest development release of Ubuntu? ISO CD images are available from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/karmic .

If it remains an issue, could you run the following command from a Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal). It will automatically gather and attach updated debug information to this report.

apport-collect -p linux 305714

Also, if you could test the latest upstream kernel available that would be great. It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please remove the 'needs-upstream-testing' tag. This can be done by clicking on the yellow pencil icon next to the tag located at the bottom of the bug description and deleting the 'needs-upstream-testing' text. Please let us know your results.

Thanks in advance.

[This is an automated message. Apologies if it has reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]

I tried all ideas I could found but finally decided to reinstall. The
problem went away I haven't seen it since.

Thanks,
  Henrik

On Wed, Sep 16, 2009 at 1:50 AM, kernel-janitor <email address hidden> wrote:
> Hi Henrik,
>
> This bug was reported a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in
> it recently. We were wondering if this is still an issue? Can you try
> with the latest development release of Ubuntu?  ISO CD images are
> available from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/karmic .
>
> If it remains an issue, could you run the following command from a
> Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal).  It will automatically
> gather and attach updated debug information to this report.
>
> apport-collect -p linux 305714
>
> Also, if you could test the latest upstream kernel available that would
> be great.  It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the
> issue.  Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds .  Once
> you've tested the upstream kernel, please remove the 'needs-upstream-
> testing' tag.  This can be done by clicking on the yellow pencil icon
> next to the tag located at the bottom of the bug description and
> deleting the 'needs-upstream-testing' text.  Please let us know your
> results.
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> [This is an automated message.  Apologies if it has reached you
> inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]
>
>
> ** Tags added: needs-kernel-logs
>
> ** Tags added: needs-upstream-testing
>
> ** Tags added: kj-triage
>
> ** Changed in: linux (Ubuntu)
>       Status: New => Incomplete
>
> --
> 8.10 2.6.27 boot failed, doesn't find /dev/disk/by-uuid/xxxxx
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/305714
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in “linux” package in Ubuntu: Incomplete
>
> Bug description:
> Installed 8.10 2.6.27-7 on a ASUS M2N68-VM with Samsung 500GB disk and a IDE DVD RW. AMD Athlon64 X2 4850e. Chip set is "Nvidia GeForce 7050PV / nForce 630a (MCP68PVNT)".
> Worked for 2 weeks including upgrade to 2.6.27-9. Suddenly won't boot, dropping to shell with "/dev/disk/by-uuid/xxx" doesn't exists. In fact, /dev/disk doesn't exists.
> Searched, read and applied lot of kernel parameters from various problem/bug reports. People with exact the same problems have sometimes been helped by a longer rootdelay and other more obscure kernel parameters. This problem seems fairly common but is disguised as various "This and that chipset/motherboard/HD problems" when in reality is seems to be a common root problem.
> The HW is ok: when booting from the "USB startup disk" I created everything works including mount of the hard drive (this is how this bug report is written). In BIOS everything looks normal and all devices are showing as expected.
> Related, perhaps duplicate (at least it seems to):
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/33269    root filesystem fails to mount (sata_nv module is loaded)
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/290153   Fails to find boot device in Intel D945Gnt
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/294123   2.6.27 SATA drives not accessible at boot time,...

Closing per the previous comment. Thanks!