When I (puzzled penguin) try to bring up the OS (openSUSE 11.0 - 2.6.29-rc5-1) from GRUB bootloader the system boots and then fails to mount the OS root partition (/dev/disk/by-id/scsi_SATAxxxx-partxx). I can’t find log records of the screen messages (perhaps not logged), but on failure screen says: "Could not find /dev/disk/by-id/scsi_SATAxxxx-partxx (nl) "Want me to fall back to /dev/disk/by-id/scsi_SATAxxxx-partxx ? Y/n. Y brings up /bin/sh (useful), n stops all ‘md’ devices, system reboots.
I’m in no rush to reinstall. I want to keep the installed apps & setup or salvage them if possible. I would like to know what is causing this and how to prevent and fix it. I have SuSE 10.3 on same partition. It is old but still very stable, so I’m using that for now.
Another forum member suggested installing the 2.6.27 kernel ]User problem accessing existing opensuse 11 installation - openSUSE Forums](http://forums.opensuse.org/install-boot-login/409252-user-problem-accessing-existing-opensuse-11-installation.html#post1952619) I’m daunted but investigating that.
Installed 11.1 to another partition and this time initial load process did spawn devices in /dev and boot the OS but only after digging into the swap partition a couple of times. 11.1 runs but with occasional glitches (delayed keyboard response, character repeats, etc.). Not suitable for my work.
Any other useful suggestions? The kernel process (initrd?) runs from bootloader in the partition it can’t see - but process is not spawning any devices in /dev . Can’t mount anything from /bin/sh. This problem is know to be happening to others. There must be a better option than ‘just reinstall windows’? Maybe not.
Grateful thanks.