Kernel panic & kernel compile question

kds · n00b Joined: 20 Jul 2002 Posts: 9

Hi, I'm having some trouble booting my new Gentoo system. I get the following error:

VFS: Cannot open device "hda3" or 03:03
please append a correct "root=" boot option
kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root ds on 03:03

I have an MSI motherboard with a KT266A chipset and onboard ATA100. My partitions are setup as follows:

/dev/hda1, /boot, ext3
/dev/hda2, swap
/dev/hda3, /, xfs
/dev/hda4, /home, xfs

As far as I can tell I've setup Grub correctly, my /etc/fstab looks right, and I think I've got all the necessary stuff compiled into my kernel ( more later ). I've tried a few things I've seen in other posts in this forum, but so far nothing has worked.

Which brings me to the other part of my question. I'm not sure that my kernel is building correctly. It seems to just reach a certain point and stop, no error messages or anything, but nothing that indicates a successful build either. The last 3 lines it prints are:

mkdir -p pcmcia: \
find kernel -path '*/pcmcia/*' -name '*.o' | xargs -i -r ln -sf ../{} pcmcia
if [ -r System.map ]; then /sbin/depmod -ae -F System.map 2.4.28-xfs-kds3; fi

Is that a normal way for it to stop? I keep thinking it has stopped without finishing what it was doing. I have tried running each of the make steps seperately, after the make bzImage it tells me my image is too big to fit on a floppy but no other errors, make modules seems to do quite a lot, and then print out something like "nothing to do for 'modules'", but it was obviously doing something. And then make modules_install ends up like I typed above. I really have no idea if this is normal or if something is wrong at this point, I've built kernels before, but not for some time, and for some reason this just doesn't seem right.

Anyway, can somebody tell me whether that is normal termination for a kernel build, and if so, then what might be causing my kernel panic?

Thanks,
Karl

delta407 · Posted: Tue Jul 23, 2002 4:27 am Post subject:

Boot up the install CD, mount your /boot partition, and crack open grub/menu.lst. I think you wrote "root=hda3"; if so, change this to "root=/dev/hda3" and you should be all set.

Be sure to umount before rebooting...

_________________
I don't believe in witty sigs.

kds · n00b Joined: 20 Jul 2002 Posts: 9

I'm still having the problem, my menu.lst is as follows:

default 0
timeout 30
splashimage=(hd0,0)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz

title=Gentoo Linux
root (hd0,0)
kernel (hd0,0)/bzImage root=/dev/hda3

the "kernel (hd0,0)/bzImage...." used to say "kernel /boot/bzImage...." but I changed it after reading another post somewhere in this forum. It hasn't worked either way.

Any other suggestions?

kds · n00b Joined: 20 Jul 2002 Posts: 9

Ok, more information that might make a difference. I was brousing around in /lib/modules/2.4.18..../kernel/fs, and I found these subdirectories:

fat, msdos, smbfs, vfat

should I also have some for ext2/3 and xfs? those are the filesystems I am using ( xfs on my root partition ).

rac · Posted: Wed Jul 24, 2002 1:35 am Post subject:

kds · n00b Joined: 20 Jul 2002 Posts: 9

Oh yeah, I remember now that I compiled those in. Well, that puts me at a loss again. Maybe I'll try installing LILO instead of Grub, that seemed to fix some peoples booting problems.

andee · n00b Joined: 04 Jun 2002 Posts: 41

Look at those two lines:
splashimage=(hd0,0)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
kernel (hd0,0)/bzImage root=/dev/hda3

The grub directory and bzImage are in the same directory, aren't they?
Try to put it this way:
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/bzImage root=/dev/hda3

kds · n00b Joined: 20 Jul 2002 Posts: 9

ahhh, tried it. still no go.

thanks though.

rac

Are you still getting the exact same error message:

kds · n00b Joined: 20 Jul 2002 Posts: 9

yes, I'm still getting the same error. nothing so far has altered that.

mrchuckles · Posted: Wed Jul 24, 2002 3:41 pm Post subject:

kds · n00b Joined: 20 Jul 2002 Posts: 9

Thanks to all of you for your suggestions. I finally got it working. Turns out that I just needed to have root=/dev/hdc3, rather than root=/dev/hda3. I am used to seeing my first ATA drive showing up as hda. I had posted a question about this earlier, and I thought the reply indicated that my drive showing up as /dev/hdc was a temporary thing that would switch back to /dev/hda when I booted from HD. I must have misunderstood.

Anyway, I'm able to boot now, Yay!! so thanks again.

MacMasta · Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2002 6:38 am Post subject:

Trust us, your first ATA drive is /dev/hda.

What you've got is the hard drive on your secondary channel - master, but on the secondary channel.

This make absolutely no difference whatsoever, I'm just defending the kernel's honor.

:-P

~Mac~