[ubuntu-uk] Ubuntu Server Upgrade -- how long should I wait for server to restart?

[Tyler J. Wagner]

On Wed, 2011-02-23 at 05:38 +0000, Alexander Birchall wrote:
> 3.  This is what the monitor was displaying:
>  
> "Gave up waiting for root device.  Common problems:
>  -- Boot args (cat /proc/cmdline)
>   -- Check rootdelay= (did the system wait long enough?)
>   -- Check root= (did the system wait for the right device?)
>  -- Missing modules (cat /proc/modules: ls /dev)
>  Alert! /dev/mapper/eprints.mdx.ac.uk-root does not exist.  Dropping
> to a shell!
>  
>  BusyBox v1.13.3 (Ubuntu 1:1.13.3-1ubuntu11) built-in shell (ash)
>  Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.
>  
>  (initramfs) _"

This is likely an error with Grub (especially if you switched to Grub2)
or the initramfs image. The use of /dev/mapper indicates you need the
dmsetup package. Boot it using a recovery/live CD, and install all the
"booting from funny stuff" packages:

apt-get install lvm2 evms dmsetup

These will rebuild the initramfs images to include support for a bunch
of special boot configurations.

I'm sorry I don't have better news for you.

Regards,
Tyler

-- 
"I respect you too much to respect your ridiculous ideas."
   -- Johann Hari