It is actually a boot failure. Normally the kernel reads some config from the initrd (the bootloader loads initrd and passes it to the kernel - thanks dan) and then does a bunch of setup stuff, and then it mounts the actual root filesystem, and then switches to using that. In this case, the root filesystem has failed to mount.
Hardware failure is most likely the cause, but misconfiguration can also make this happen. Probably hardware though.
If its misconfiguration, an admin can reattempt to mount the root drive on /new_root, and then ctrl-d to get the init system to try again
ELI5: couldnt open C:/ drive
Edit: clarified what loads the initrd - as per dans comment.
Switching to Linux and actually being able to see real time logs made me actually curious how it works, so that’s one gear out of the machine demistified
It’s been my experience that SD cards are almost always what causes a failure on a SBC. Given the cost of the screens, i’d probably choose something that could boot off nvme storage. Or at least tape a new, configured SD card to the case of the SBC for when this inevitably happens.
Can a linux/systemd nerd explain what the error is? I know it’s a shutdown sequence, but I’m curious on the fault
It is actually a boot failure. Normally the kernel reads some config from the initrd (the bootloader loads initrd and passes it to the kernel - thanks dan) and then does a bunch of setup stuff, and then it mounts the actual root filesystem, and then switches to using that. In this case, the root filesystem has failed to mount.
Hardware failure is most likely the cause, but misconfiguration can also make this happen. Probably hardware though.
If its misconfiguration, an admin can reattempt to mount the root drive on /new_root, and then ctrl-d to get the init system to try again
ELI5: couldnt open C:/ drive
Edit: clarified what loads the initrd - as per dans comment.
Thanks for that!
Switching to Linux and actually being able to see real time logs made me actually curious how it works, so that’s one gear out of the machine demistified
The bootloader (GRUB) loads the initrd, not the kernel. The kernel accesses stuff from the initrd, but it’s already loaded by that point.
You are correct. Ill add an edit. Thanks!
These kinds of public errors are almost always a hard drive failure.
Using an actual hard drive for an embedded system like this would be a failure in and of itself.
Unless it literally has to store several hours’ worth of HD video content, no reason the entire system couldn’t fit on an SD card.
An SD card is MUCH less reliable than a good hdd unless it’s read only.
It’s been my experience that SD cards are almost always what causes a failure on a SBC. Given the cost of the screens, i’d probably choose something that could boot off nvme storage. Or at least tape a new, configured SD card to the case of the SBC for when this inevitably happens.