new install: can't open root device hda3 on boot

[themoebius]

just finished setting up my system and when i boot I get this:

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VFS: Cannot open root device "hda3" or hda3
Please append a correct "root=" boot option
Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on hda3

I read the sticky thread about grub problems and the tips that it says about my error, but I have all that set up already. My fstab looks like:

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/dev/hda1		/boot		ext2		noauto,noatime		1 2
/dev/hda3		/		ext3		noatime			0 1
/dev/hda2		none		swap		sw			0 0
/dev/cdroms/cdrom0      /mnt/cdrom	auto		ro,user			0 0
#/dev/fd0		/mnt/floppy	auto		noauto			0 0

# NOTE: The next line is critical for boot!
none			/proc		proc		defaults		0 0

My grub.conf looks like:

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default 0
timeout 30
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title=Gentoo Linux 2004.1
root (hd0,0)
kernel (hd0,0)/kernel-2.6.5-gentoo root=/dev/hda3

title=Windows XP
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
chainloader +1
makeactive

There's something funny with how my HDs are set up:
My linux HD is Secondary Master and my windows drive is Primary Master, but I set BIOS up to boot from my Secondary Master first. So in the LiveCD the linux drive is hdc but when I boot to grub its hda. (I think) So when i set up grub from the livecd I had to do:

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grub> root (hd1,0)
grub> setup (hd1) 

but in grub.conf it's (hd0,0).

I do have support for ext2 and ext3 and all the other stuff it specifies in the install handbook. I don't really know how to tell if I have my IDE chipset compiled into my kernel, but I assume I do because it's pretty standard.

I have a Asus K8V Deluxe with chipsets VIA K8T800 &
VIA VT8237. I compiled the only VIA thing I saw menuconfig.

EDIT: OK I just tried compiling my kernel with a few different additional features and I get a slight variation to the error:

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VFS: Cannot open root device "hda3" or unknown-block(0,0)
Please append a correct "root=" boot option
Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0)

Any suggestions?

Thanks a lot!

[infamousmrsatan]

What changes did you make to change the error?

How many ide drives do you have on your system?

My guess is that its not really (hd0, 0), but maybe (hd1,) or (hd2,0) -- or maybe not.

What about replacing root=/dev/hda3 with root=(hd0,2) or the equivalent?

Justin

[jkt]

What about replacing root=/dev/hda3 with root=(hd0,2) or the equivalent?

kernel doesn't know anything about grub convention.

[jkt]

what about root=/dev/hdc3 ?

edit: hdc, not hdv

[nixnut]

If you have a sata disk your hd may not be /dev/hda but /dev/hde. This seems to differ depending on what kind of sata controller the system has.

[Buzz]

just finished setting up my system and when i boot I get this:

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VFS: Cannot open root device "hda3" or hda3
Please append a correct "root=" boot option
Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on hda3

I feel your pain also... well, almost anyways. I have Gentoo running on 4 machines here. I, personally, HATE (yeah, strong word and I mean it too) the latest install of Gentoo. (2004.1) I'm trying to set up a firewall machine and I got bit by many annoyances on the latest cd (no network, problems untarring stage3, etc...) in all honesty, this is probably less a problem with Gentoo than Grub. Sorry for the venting, here's what I have to say about your problem..

All during the install from the cd and, of course, subsequent boots attempting to fix grub, etc. my root partition was listed as /dev/hdc3 (I boot from a promise card).

Not so after setting up grub. root=/dev/hdc3 gives the same error listed above. I was able to boot enough to see what my drive was recognized as, however...... looking closely I saw that it came in as hde and changing it in the grub setup allowed me to boot far enough to remind me to set up my fstab again (another boot with the freakin' install cd to mount /dev/hdc3 /mnt/gentoo and change fstab to /dev/hde3).

The only thing I can figure right now is I compiled in support for something stupid that uses another /dev/hd?? that is taking precedence.. anyways, good luck with your problem...

*edit*:

did I mention that the real bummer of it is that I couldn't get distcc to compile on this pentium 166 with 64 megs of ram and now that I've rebooted, synced, etc, it wants to install 37 packages to install distcc and stuff like x11, gtk, (for some reason) etc... I have an athlon xp 3200, athlon xp 1800, and a duron 800 all waiting to help out, but... alas... groan...

[deadaim]

I'm kind of confused why you would put 'root (hd1,0)' when you typed 'grub' in the prompt. That says that your boot partition is located in hdb1. If it's located in hda1, try typing 'root (hd0,0)' and then 'setup (hd0)' so it can write grub to the MBR.

[cyrillic]

now that I've rebooted, synced, etc, it wants to install 37 packages to install distcc and stuff like x11, gtk, (for some reason) etc...

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# USE="-*" emerge -pv distcc 

You can re-emerge it later with support for gnome and gtk if you really want to ...

[Buzz]

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# USE="-*" emerge -pv distcc 

You can re-emerge it later with support for gnome and gtk if you really want to ...

ha! I did the -gnome and -gtk already, but thanks... dunno why I never thought of using a wildcard in USE. That can be pretty handy...

[jkt]

or simply USE="-X", it will filter out a lot of dependencies