Mounting root failed. Dropping into maintenance shell

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BusyBox v0.60.5 Built-in shell

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sh: can`t acceess tty; job control turned off

#

In troubleshooting mode:

root@localhost var# mount
/dev/sda2 on / type ext3 (rw)
none on /proc type proc (rw)
none on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)
usbdevfs on /proc/bus/usb type usbdevfs (rw)
/dev/sda1 on /boot type ext3 (rw)
none on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)
/dev/sda6 on /var/log type ext3 (rw)

Tested using VMWare ESX 3.5

Desktop
~~~~~~~~
Compaq Evo D510 CMT
P4 2.4Ghz
2.0 GB RAM
NIC: Intel 82801DB Pro/100
ESX O/S installs off the local IDE CD-ROM unto the local IDE disk
Used iSCSI target (Open-e DSS Lite) to create VMFS datastore and VMs

Motherboard
~~~~~~~~~~~
Intel D865GBF desktop board
P4 2.80Ghz (Hyper-Threading)
1.75 GB RAM
NIC: Intel 82801EB (ICH5) PRO/100 VE

On installation from IDE CD-ROM, the local SATA disk is recognized as /dev/sda
Installer is able to create boot partitions, as well as a VMFS store
ESX O/S reboots off local SATA disk properly, and can create VMs on the local VMFS store

iSCSI
~~~~~
iSCSI works sucessfully using the free DSS Lite target software from Open-E

http://www.open-e.com/

The board works like charm. I run 1 week 3.0.2 on it with no problem and then updatet to 3.5. And with 3.5 its running perfect aswell.

Regards,

divin

I have a motherboard with the NVidia Chipset (6100 / 430) so I have installed ESX 3.5 fine to a old IDE drive (which I thought would simplify the process of installing). I have Intel Pro 1000 MT for networking.

I can't figure out how to get any storage configured in ESX though - I have a SATA drive connected directly to the motherboard and during setup I thought that ESX was formatting both the remainder of the IDE and the entire SATA drive as VMFS.

Do I still have to do the whole Live CD thing mentioned earlier in the thread or is this a question of just mounting my SATA drive somehow is ESX?

Previously I read somewhere that SATA could only be used to install ESX and SATA was not supported for VMFS - yet it appears that people do have VMFS on SATA here ...

* ahci.c - AHCI SATA support
{ PCI_VENDOR_ID_INTEL, 0x2652, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0,
board_ahci }, /* ICH6 */
{ PCI_VENDOR_ID_INTEL, 0x2653, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0,
board_ahci }, /* ICH6M */
{ PCI_VENDOR_ID_INTEL, 0x27c1, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0,
board_ahci }, /* ICH7 */
{ PCI_VENDOR_ID_INTEL, 0x27c5, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0,
board_ahci }, /* ICH7M */
{ PCI_VENDOR_ID_INTEL, 0x27c3, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0,
board_ahci }, /* ICH7R */
{ PCI_VENDOR_ID_AL, 0x5288, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0,
board_ahci }, /* ULi M5288 */
{ PCI_VENDOR_ID_INTEL, 0x2681, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0,
board_ahci }, /* ESB2 */
{ PCI_VENDOR_ID_INTEL, 0x2682, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0,
board_ahci }, /* ESB2 */
{ PCI_VENDOR_ID_INTEL, 0x2683, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0,
board_ahci }, /* ESB2 */
{ PCI_VENDOR_ID_INTEL, 0x27c6, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0,
board_ahci }, /* ICH7-M DH */

* ata_piix.c - Intel PATA/SATA controllers
{ 0x8086, 0x7111, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, piix4_pata },
{ 0x8086, 0x24db, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, ich5_pata },
{ 0x8086, 0x25a2, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, ich5_pata },
#endif

/* NOTE: The following PCI ids must be kept in sync with the
* list in drivers/pci/quirks.c.
*/

{ 0x8086, 0x24d1, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, ich5_sata },
{ 0x8086, 0x24df, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, ich5_sata },
{ 0x8086, 0x25a3, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, ich5_sata },
{ 0x8086, 0x25b0, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, ich5_sata },
{ 0x8086, 0x2651, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, ich6_sata },
{ 0x8086, 0x2652, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, ich6_sata_rm },
{ 0x8086, 0x2653, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, ich6_sata_rm },
{ 0x8086, 0x27c0, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, ich7_sata },
{ 0x8086, 0x27c4, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, ich7_sata },
{ 0x8086, 0x2680, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, esb2_sata },
/* Mobile SATA Controller IDE (ICH8M) */
{ 0x8086, 0x2828, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, ich8_sata_ahci },
/* SATA Controller IDE (ICH9) */
{ 0x8086, 0x2920, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, ich8_sata_ahci },
/* SATA Controller IDE (ICH9) */
{ 0x8086, 0x2921, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, ich8_sata_ahci },
/* SATA Controller IDE (ICH9) */
{ 0x8086, 0x2926, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, ich8_sata_ahci },
/* SATA Controller IDE (ICH9M) */
{ 0x8086, 0x2928, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, ich8_sata_ahci },
/* SATA Controller IDE (ICH9M) */
{ 0x8086, 0x292d, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, ich8_sata_ahci },
/* SATA Controller IDE (ICH9M) */
{ 0x8086, 0x292e, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, ich8_sata_ahci },

* sata_nv.c - NVIDIA nForce SATA

{ PCI_VENDOR_ID_NVIDIA, PCI_DEVICE_ID_NVIDIA_NFORCE2S_SATA,
PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, NFORCE2 },
{ PCI_VENDOR_ID_NVIDIA, PCI_DEVICE_ID_NVIDIA_NFORCE3S_SATA,
PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, NFORCE3 },
{ PCI_VENDOR_ID_NVIDIA, PCI_DEVICE_ID_NVIDIA_NFORCE3S_SATA2,
PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, NFORCE3 },
{ PCI_VENDOR_ID_NVIDIA, PCI_DEVICE_ID_NVIDIA_NFORCE_CK804_SATA,
PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, CK804 },
{ PCI_VENDOR_ID_NVIDIA, PCI_DEVICE_ID_NVIDIA_NFORCE_CK804_SATA2,
PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, CK804 },
{ PCI_VENDOR_ID_NVIDIA, PCI_DEVICE_ID_NVIDIA_NFORCE_MCP04_SATA,
PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, CK804 },
{ PCI_VENDOR_ID_NVIDIA, PCI_DEVICE_ID_NVIDIA_NFORCE_MCP04_SATA2,
PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, CK804 },
{ PCI_VENDOR_ID_NVIDIA, PCI_DEVICE_ID_NVIDIA_NFORCE_MCP51_SATA,
PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, GENERIC },
{ PCI_VENDOR_ID_NVIDIA, PCI_DEVICE_ID_NVIDIA_NFORCE_MCP51_SATA2,
PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, GENERIC },
{ PCI_VENDOR_ID_NVIDIA, PCI_DEVICE_ID_NVIDIA_NFORCE_MCP55_SATA,
PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, GENERIC },
{ PCI_VENDOR_ID_NVIDIA, PCI_DEVICE_ID_NVIDIA_NFORCE_MCP55_SATA2,
PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, GENERIC },
{ PCI_VENDOR_ID_NVIDIA, PCI_ANY_ID,
PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID,
PCI_CLASS_STORAGE_IDE<<8, 0xffff00, GENERIC },
{ PCI_VENDOR_ID_NVIDIA, PCI_ANY_ID,
PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID,
PCI_CLASS_STORAGE_RAID<<8, 0xffff00, GENERIC },

* sata_promise.c - Promise SATA

{ PCI_VENDOR_ID_PROMISE, 0x3371, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0,
board_2037x },
{ PCI_VENDOR_ID_PROMISE, 0x3570, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0,
board_2037x },
{ PCI_VENDOR_ID_PROMISE, 0x3571, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0,
board_2037x },
{ PCI_VENDOR_ID_PROMISE, 0x3373, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0,
board_2037x },
{ PCI_VENDOR_ID_PROMISE, 0x3375, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0,
board_2037x },
{ PCI_VENDOR_ID_PROMISE, 0x3376, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0,
board_2037x },
{ PCI_VENDOR_ID_PROMISE, 0x3574, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0,
board_2037x },
{ PCI_VENDOR_ID_PROMISE, 0x3d75, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0,
board_2037x },
{ PCI_VENDOR_ID_PROMISE, 0x3d73, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0,
board_2037x },

{ PCI_VENDOR_ID_PROMISE, 0x3318, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0,
board_20319 },
{ PCI_VENDOR_ID_PROMISE, 0x3319, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0,
board_20319 },
{ PCI_VENDOR_ID_PROMISE, 0x3519, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0,
board_20319 },
{ PCI_VENDOR_ID_PROMISE, 0x3d17, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0,
board_20319 },
{ PCI_VENDOR_ID_PROMISE, 0x3d18, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0,
board_20319 },

{ PCI_VENDOR_ID_PROMISE, 0x6629, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0,
board_20619 },

* sata_sil.c - Silicon Image SATA

{ 0x1095, 0x3112, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, sil_3112_m15w },
{ 0x1095, 0x0240, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, sil_3112_m15w },
{ 0x1095, 0x3512, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, sil_3112 },
{ 0x1095, 0x3114, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, sil_3114 },
{ 0x1002, 0x436e, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, sil_3112_m15w },
{ 0x1002, 0x4379, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, sil_3112_m15w },
{ 0x1002, 0x437a, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, sil_3112_m15w },

* sata_svw.c - ServerWorks / Apple K2 SATA

/* 0x240 is device ID for Apple K2 device
* 0x241 is device ID for Serverworks Frodo4
* 0x242 is device ID for Serverworks Frodo8
* 0x24a is device ID for BCM5785 (aka HT1000) HT southbridge
* integrated SATA controller
* 0x24b is device ID for BCM5785 (aka HT1000) HT southbridge
* integrated PATA/IDE controller
* */
static const struct pci_device_id k2_sata_pci_tbl[] = {
{ 0x1166, 0x0240, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, 4 },
{ 0x1166, 0x0241, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, 4 },
{ 0x1166, 0x0242, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, 8 },
{ 0x1166, 0x024a, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, 4 },
{ 0x1166, 0x024b, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, 4 },
{ }
};

* sata_vsc.c - Vitesse VSC7174 4 port DPA SATA

/*
* 0x1725/0x7174 is the Vitesse VSC-7174
* 0x8086/0x3200 is the Intel 31244, which is supposed to be identical
* compatibility is untested as of yet
*/
static const struct pci_device_id vsc_sata_pci_tbl[] = {
{ 0x1725, 0x7174, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0x10600, 0xFFFFFF, 0 },
{ 0x8086, 0x3200, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0x10600, 0xFFFFFF, 0 },
{ }
};

so you can see that`s a lot of sata controllers esx vmKernel has drivers for, now.

users will be happy now - some linux kernel develepors are probably not so amused.

you can read about that quite interesting controversy at:

http://blog.scottlowe.org/2007/08/19/the-linux-kernel-binary-modules-and-esx-server/

opinions may differ here - but rip out all the modified linux drivers and we have - a hypervisor which just pines away like poor johnny from that famous metallica video from the eighties.