my kernel panic woes and jfs

sven72383 · n00b Joined: 29 May 2006 Posts: 7

well as you can see from my measly post count i still qualify as a n00b. i have a problem with kernel panic and i have scoured to find a solution with little success. the closest i have come is this thread which was what seemed to be a raid problem.

my most recent error message on booting a new installation is this:
mount jfs failure: -22
kernel panic not syncing: vfs: unable to mount root fs on unknown block (x,x) - where x,x is constantly different when i try different things.

my initial thought was that i screwed up inclusion of jfs when i built a kernel manually (yes interestingly enough my first time through it didn't work). so i proceeded to boot back into the live cd and emerge genkernel which it seems is being moved by ibiblio - at least in part. i then ran it and got a new kernel and initramfs. this time it thought i had xfs installed?! okay back to the cd and genkernel. i went back and forth like this until i was satisfied that i did everything right. still errors out. so i proceed to check other config files. grub.conf is ok. its pointed to the right disk and partition as i should know from using slack all those years. fstab was ok, but every time i changed options for /dev/hda3 (with jfs) i got different errors. i think i found my problem. i scour the net for proper values for jfs and i find everyone using something different. so my quiestion is this:

my root fs is: /dev/hda3 / jfs defaults 0,1
is this correct? what am i missing?

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2006 2:02 pm Post subject:

sven72383,

Welcome to Gentoo - postcount is no indicator of quality of help or depth of knowledge - it just indicates ... posts.

The message

sven72383 · n00b Joined: 29 May 2006 Posts: 7

thanks for the swift reply. i've been working and sleeping and not much in between so i haven't had the opportunity to do anything yet. since it's a new install, and i haven't done anything major in terms of compile time like kde i might switch to xfs. i have been reading around the internet and have seen almost nothing on either filesystem except for basic info in terms of 'this one is new and untested' and 'this one aggressively caches data'. just for the sake of knowing what happened i haven't done anything other than pull the drive and swap it with a new one. maybe some time in the next few weeks i can get back to it.

...but to use the info you mentioned, i have built about 5 kernels now and each time i got a different message (x,y) and both numbers would change sometimes. it seems i'm having both device and chiset driver mess going on. it seems the second number is almost always 1 and the first has been 0,1, and i could have sworn 3 as well but i might be mistaken. as i skipped the first few without a second thought i can't remember that well. i'll be sure to do this all my first free day - tuesday - this coming week.

boy i'm gonna have a blast trying this on my laptop when i get around to it.

thanks again.

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sat Jun 24, 2006 10:36 am Post subject:

sven72383,

Beware of both xjf and jfs unless you have a UPS and validated backups
Agressively caches data means that there is lots of data in memory that won't be written to disc when you have a power cut.
For domestic use, ext3 or rieserfs are better.

Without wanting to start a religous was, I prefer ext3 because the recovery tools are better.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

sven72383 · n00b Joined: 29 May 2006 Posts: 7

well the box is meant for a multi tuner mythtv setup and i think their guide suggests both filesystems bacause of the data caching performance increase. nevertheless i do document the configs i set up to the letter (aside from this kernel compiling, there are a TON of options) i'll make backup copies of them to external media of some sort when i get them functional. as for battery backups i run a pair of apc 1500s back to back (we do lose power a lot, and as a windows user i never powered down machines).

on your religious note - does ext3 get near the performance of jfs or xfs with the full journaling enabled? i was reading around and considering just using that with the kernel and initramfs that genkernel built on my other box a week ago. i'd of course need to recompile them for the p4 in this box and add support for my hauppage card (can you tell i have a million things going on at once).

sorry for my lack of real knowledge of this stuff. i've used gentoo for all of a month now. before that i used windows and slackware. i know my way around a few config files but not the kernel or base os parts.

one last question before i go back to work tonight - do initramfs and initrd do the same things? aside from their names they seem to share everything else in common as far as calling out options and such in grub, and i haven't seen any other place to do anything else with them. (know that i have been using genkernel --menuconfig all to set them up and all i get is initramfs)