Friday, December 30, 2011

Solution to Fedora 16 (64-bit) Dracut problem

    I had been using Fedora 14 before I decided to switch to Fedora 16. So I downloaded Fedora 16 64-bit iso and created a live usb media using Live USB Creator. When I tried to boot off the usb, I got the following error:
dracut Warning: No root device "live:/dev/disk/by-uuid/FOEC-AD4C" found.
dropping to debug shell.
sh: can't access tty; Job control turned off

    I found a lot of people getting the same error with no thread/post pointing to the exact solution. Finally I came across solution to a similar problem thanks to kylerconway on fedoraforums.

The solution is quite simple..

1. In the debug shell, type "ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid/" to find UUID of your boot media.
    (you may run "ls -l /dev/disk/by-label/" to get better understanding of your disk drives)

2. Once you have UUID of your boot media, reboot and edit GRUB boot command & replace existing UUID with the one found in step 1.

Fedora 16 with GNOME 3.2 looks brilliant(I switched from F14). Also after using it for a while I found it less buggy. If you are still using Fedora 14, I guess its the right time to switch!


  1. Could you elaborate on how we should "edit the GRUB boot command"? By default Grub setup appears to have 3 lines, "root (hd0,0)", kernel, and initrd. None of those lines have a UUID parameter. In the kernel line, I see a root=/dev/mapper/VolGroup-lv_root. Should I replace that with my UUID?

    1. Probably you are editing some different line. I didn't get any of those options.
      By "edit the GRUB boot command" I meant to say:
      When you get Fedora 16 Boot Option Menu ( ) press tab. You should get a line having UUID field. Replace the UUID as explained in the blog post.