Boot device /dev/sda1 does not exist on Debian in QEmu

Question

I have an image of Debian/LXDE assembled for ARM and I trying to run it in Qemu. I am using this command:

sudo qemu-system-arm -M versatilepb \
     -kernel ./vmlinuz-2.6.32-5-versatile \
     -initrd ./initrd.img-2.6.32-5-versatile \
     -hda ./debianlxde.img -m 256 -append "root=/dev/sda1 m=256M"

The system tries to run but fails with following errors:

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 right device?)
  - Missing modules (cat /proc/modules; ls /dev)
ALERT! /dev/sda1 does not exist. Dropping to a shell!

My OS is Fedora 16 (RFR 16). What am I doing wrong?

Solution

You're not following the advice of your initrd.

Do any disks show up in /dev? They may show up as hdX instead of sdX.

What modules do you have loaded in the initrd?

Comments

[skayred]

Thanks, all the trouble was in root=/dev/sda1, I've changed it to /dev/sda and all done

[Christophe De Troyer]

Where did you change this? I have the same issue.

[Hi-Angel]

@ChristopheDeTroyer in the command line of calling QEMU, the the author posted in their question. That said, this advice doesn't work for me, as a matter of fact I see no devices at all appearing that could be referred to as root.