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dmwdp001
n00b
Joined: 28 May 2008
Posts: 14
Location: Canada
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 Posted: Wed May 28, 2008 6:22 pm Post subject: Not one, but two problems in one! **Solved** |
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I've recently installed Gentoo for the first time using the 2008.0 beta 2 stage 3 tarball and the 2007.0-r1 minimal cd. I'm using a P4 HT with an internal SATA for windows (deginated sda), and an external USB drive for linux (designated sdb) my linux system is on thee partitions sdb1 for /boot, sdb2 for swap, and sdb3 for root. I also have two EIDE optical drives (hda and hdb) and an internal flash card reader (sdc through sdf). The install itself went smoothly, when I first rebooted GRUB worked fine but it spit out an error.
| Code: | VFS: Cannot open root device "sdb3" or unknown-block(0,0)
Please append a correct "root=" boot option; here are the available partitions:
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It then lists my drives and partitions (except the flash drives). However the external drive is listed a 'uba' rather than 'sdb' and the partitions as 'uba1...'
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Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0) |
I though I might just be able to work around it by adding 'root=/dev/uba3' to grub.conf then it boots into Gentoo and runs into error number 2.
| Code: | * Checking root filesystem ...
fsck.ext3: No such file or directory while trying to open /dev/sdb3
/dev/sdb3:
The superblock could not be read or dose not describe a correct ext2
filesystem. If the device is valid and it realy contains an ext2
filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock
is corupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
e2fsck -b 8193 <device>
* Filesystem couldn't be fixed :(
Give root password for maintenance |
The odd thing is that sdb3 is an ext3 drive, and my fstab is set up as such, in fact I've double checked it several times and as far as I can tell it's just fine. fsck running off of the install disk has confirmed that sdb3 is healthy. I've also compiled my Kernel twice to make sure that every module needed to run an external usb drive is installed as a part of the kernel (as per the Gentoo USB Guide in the official docs).
As you can see, I'm befuddled  !
I don't know why the external drive is showing up as 'uba' or even what 'ub' means in a drive designation. If anyone can help, it would be nice!
Thank you!
_________________
"Asking stupid questions is better than making stupid mistakes."
- Anonymous
Last edited by dmwdp001 on Wed May 28, 2008 9:27 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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NeddySeagoon
Administrator
Joined: 05 Jul 2003
Posts: 27780
Location: 56N 3W
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| Posted: Wed May 28, 2008 6:40 pm Post subject: |
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dmwdp001,
Welcome to gentoo.
Your error | Code: | | VFS: Cannot open root device "sdb3" or unknown-block(0,0) |
means the kernel could not tall to the drive at all.
A USB install is a little more challenging than a internal hard drive install because there are more things to get right.
First, your kernel needs to have USB storage support built in. Modules won't work as the module will be stored on the USB drive that you need the module to read.
Second, the kernel normally mounts root before it starts the USB subsystem. That means your USB isn't ready.
To fix that, addto your kernel line in grub.conf. Thats telling the kernel to delay for 15 seconds before it tries to mount root. In that time, the USB subsystem is started. Times between 7 and 30 seconds are reported to work.
The uba is a USB block device using the slow block driver - you don't want that. Rebuild your kernel and turn that off.
For USB drives your need SCSI Disk Support and USB Storage support.
It might just go if you add the rootdelay and use root=/dev/uba3. It looks encoraging from | Code: | | * Checking root filesystem ... |
that means that root mounted. However the check failed as /etc/fstab refers to /dev/sdb3, which does not exist.
Boot the liveCD, get back into the chroot and fix it.
_________________
Regards,
NeddySeagoon
Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail. |
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dmwdp001
n00b
Joined: 28 May 2008
Posts: 14
Location: Canada
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| Posted: Wed May 28, 2008 9:25 pm Post subject: Success!! |
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 SUCCESS!!!!
The changes worked. My external drive now reads a 'sdf' because for some reason the drives in my flash reader get counted first, I've had this problem before. I just had to change my fstab and grub.conf one last and bingo!!
Thanks, NeddySeagoon
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"Asking stupid questions is better than making stupid mistakes."
- Anonymous |
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Installing Gentoo
