VFS: unable to mount root fs on 03:03

1llus10n · n00b Joined: 30 Jul 2002 Posts: 5 Location: NY

i have installed gentoo .... but upon reboot the kernel loads, then i get 'VFS: unable to mount root fs on 03:03' then the kernel panics. i have the root { / } partition set on hda3 and the boot partition on hda1 (hd0,0) in grub-speak.
boot= ext2
/ = xfs
swap = swap (!)
now ordinarily i wouldnt think there was all that much wrong except i pulled the hard-drive out of my system and mounted it in another system and - IT_JUST_WORKS - boots up clean, havent changed anything.

i am damn positive its not a gentoo or a disk issue. however i just put gentoo on over a rh7.3 install that just_worked. which would lead me to ask - whats the issue ? i mean i built from stage 1 with no errors, i set everything in grub perfect (has evidence'd by the boot on the other machine) and the same EXACT system/setup worked fine in red-hat ? am i missing something ? i know gentoo is a more pure-linux than redhat (partially why i am switching, that and i am so damn sick of RPM ....) but is there something special i need to do ?

the old system was straight ext3

:?:

pjp · Administrator Joined: 16 Apr 2002 Posts: 20067

Do any of these threads help?
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven

I think there are a few more. If you find one that helps, be sure to mention it.
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1llus10n · n00b Joined: 30 Jul 2002 Posts: 5 Location: NY

k ...... the kernel has all the right stuff in it .... i know because the disk boots. comes up and everything - on a different system.

in english - i have my athlonXP box which i use as my main workstation. this is the box i built gentoo on, but gentoo wont fully boot when the hard drive is sitting in this system.
(1-40GB WD HDD, athlonXP, asus a7v266-e, 512mb, pioneer DVD, 4xCD burner, no floppy, linksys eth0) no RAID no SCSI nothin fancy .....

i also have my gaming box. P4 , 1 20GB WD , intel mobo. cdrom, and when i take out the 20GB and put in the 40GB from the other system and boot from it - IT JUST WORKS.

i can try booting on alot of different machines. but the problem has to be something with the other setup. burner ? BIOS ? i really dunno .... i was just hoping somebody had a quick fix. i have been messing with this since sunday. (i did a complete re-build last night think maybe something was FUBAR..)

so just from doing that i know gentoo , the kernel, and the disk are all fine.
the only real question i have is if anybody knows what could be causing this, cause i am running out of ideas. ( im going to try it without a burner. see if that matters)

1llus10n · n00b Joined: 30 Jul 2002 Posts: 5 Location: NY

okay ........ i figured it out. (i feel a little dumb having over-looked this)

the newer versions of the stable kernel 2.4.18 and 2.4.19 changed the way they handle IDE boots (apparently).

now has i said before the HDD booted in the p4 but not in the AMD. well i thought that was a little odd since i hadnt changed anything, so when i switched the hard-drive back i noticed it was detecting my HDD as hde instead of hda. this is obviously not a very big deal and a really easy fix. but i had too test my theory- so i loaded a 2.4.16 kernel from kernel.org ....... and it detects it has hda. so something has changed. what i dunno but something, and apparently it only affects my chip-set/mobo. (asus-via)

delta407 · Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2002 3:37 pm Post subject:

It's detecting another IDE controller that's taking up hda-hdd that has no drives attached. If you disable the drivers for whatever else it's finding, your current controller will drop back to hda-hdd.
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1llus10n · n00b Joined: 30 Jul 2002 Posts: 5 Location: NY

yeah that makes sense since my mobo has an IDE raid controller (promise) and a standard IDE controller (VIA).

not like it makes that much of a difference has too weather it loads has hda or hde to me. just figured i would point it out in case somebody else does a forum search and comes accross this thread.