Could not find /dev/disk/by-id/***

English Install/Boot/Login
1

Dear all,

I am new to SUSE, i installed it for about 3 months ago and just work fine. but in recent day I got this message when start my SUSE “Could not find /dev/disk/by-id/disk_model-part2. Want to fall back to /dev/disk/by-id/ata/disk_model-part2 ? (Y/n)”

I dont know how to do with this.

Please give me an idea to work around on this.

Thanks
Khcam

2

Hi

We’re short on information here. For example, we don’t know if the message comes with a problem or if you’re just curious what it means. Tell us what the problem is.

3

Hi,

Thanks for reply. that message appear when i boot into Suse, it stucks for a while at boot screen and then it changes to console screen (black and white) as well as show that message at the end.

I use SUSE 11.1.

4

Sounds like a boot error @swerdna
Do you think the menu is pointing to the wrong place or the partition in question has been messed up?

Maybe he should:

Boot a live cd and post the contents of: /boot/grub/menu.lst

and from a su terminal do

fdisk -l

post that too

5

Hi caf4926,

Could pls describe step by step in more details cause I concern that will affect my other hard drive which contain window os.

I have two hard drives in my pc one for SUSE and other for Window.

Thanks

6

On the LiveCD boot menu, type the number “3” (without quotes) in the Boot Options. That will boot you to a command line prompt. Login as “root”
there is no password.

Then type:
startx

From the desktop open a terminal and do:

fdisk -l

Post the result here. If you know what any of the info means, explain.

Now in the teminal do:
kdesu kwrite /boot/grub/menu.lst
or
gnomesu gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

depending if you are using gnome or kde

post all info here

7

@carl, if khcam looks along /boot/grub/menu.lst, it will seek a nonexistent file because the root is not in the hard drive for a live CD.

fdisk will be good but /boot/grub doesn’t contain a menu.lst

8

Thinks… maybe it would be worth checking if khcam has the install DVD, booting from that direct to openSUSE if possible, and repairing from there. Here’s a link for booting direct from the install DVD (only works 90% of the time):
Boot the installed system from the Installation DVD [except for 11.0]

So khcam, do you have the installation DVD or do you only have the Live CD?

9

Hi caf4926,

Meanwhile I wait for any reply I try to do some experiments by myself. and what I have done is that I put dvd install to dvd room and select option “Repair installed system” and then chose automatic option at once stage while automatic repair being progress dialog come up show message meaning like boot loader error and ask me whether generate new boot loader or not then I click yes;

The above stages generate me other problem that is bring me to other console.

grub>… (like this line)

This time I don’t know what to do next because it doesn’t provide me to go to window option just go straight to grub console. but I still go to window os by take the cable out from suse hard drive.

These are very complicate to me as fresh new to suse I probably to reinstall it.

Anyway if all of you can bring me the solutions that would be appreciate.

Thanks,
Khcam

10

Hi All,

I have both DVD and LiveCD.

Khcam

11

@John.
khcam should be able to mount the real partition / of his install from a live cd
I just tried it myself, though it was a Mepis cd. But the principle applies. In fact you can write to it as well.
Maybe I didn’t explain very well, it just seemed obvious to me.

12

Hi All,

I decided to reinstall the suse and now it start working again. I suspect that the problem that face come from I use online update.

Anyway I thanks full to all of you that give ideas to work around on this. It will be good to find out the root cause of the problem but I think to me as new linux user will spent much time.

Thanks,
Khcam

13

A bit late to this, but since I have seen the issue you describe, I though I would post what caused it. When changing out HD’s My ASUS Bios will rearrange the order the HD’s have in booting. Thus when Grub looks to partition 2 for root it does not find it. Second scenario is when I clone to another HD as backup. The /dev/disk/by-id is no longer correct for the replacement drive and needs to be changed in both /boot/grub/menu.lst and in /etc/fstab to match the correct drive. A last time that I saw this is when I was trying to fix a Seagate SATA HD 500GB that had gone “blooie” it booted past grub but the root partition was destroyed so it stopped with unable to locate /dev/disk…part2 did I wish to fall back to a partition it did recognize? Which of course does not work since it was not the root partition.

One tool I find invaluable in these situations is Parted Magic It and Super Grub gets you through most situations.

14

Actually, suse 11.1 did this same thing to me multiple times without me changing any hardware and I’ve seen similar messages on other forums without solutions. Although flawed, I believe the previous naming schema for devices was much more predictable and more stable the the new dev-by-id crap.