kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs...

[Poontos]

I am a bit lost here, I have only installed Redhat 7.2 on an empty HD before, so please bare with me.

To get an idea of my setup: (http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=34&threadid=873636)

So I did as instructed, installed Redhat (on the drive specified in the above thread), specified to install LILO on 1st sector of boot partition, I only have one drive bay and of course the CD-ROM was being used, so I did not think it would be a good idea to swap the CD-ROM for the floppy drive just to make the boot disk. Plus, I figured I could make it later from another PC.

I reboot and of course the MBR was not modified, so my Win2k boot menu pops up like normal. So I create a boot disk from redhat ftp:

-download boot.img & rawrite
-rawrite boot.img
-reboot with this disk and it looks like the redhat install from the CD (same options)

With the following prompt:
boot:

So I go through the Redhat site, and found:
Booting Linux from the Installation Boot Disk
Question:

I have Red Hat Linux installed on an IDE drive, and for whatever reason, I need to boot from floppy. How can I boot my system from the installation boot disk?

Answer:

If you have installed Linux onto an IDE hard drive, you can boot from the installation floppy using the following method.

Insert the installation floppy and restart the machine. At the boot: prompt, type the following:

vmlinuz root=/dev/hdXY
[Example: vmlinuz root=/dev/hdb5 ]


Where X is the IDE drive letter and Y is the partition on the drive where you installed the root (/) partition for Red Hat Linux.

For more information about the naming conventions for IDE or SCSI hard drives and their partitions, refer to the section called Difference Between Linux and DOS Disk Names.

So I type in from boot: /vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2

But I am not sure it is hda2, how can I verify this? And is this the normal process to boot with a non-setup dual-boot? I tried several hda3, hda4, etc., but I get the: kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount to root fs


Please help! 🙂 Thanks

 

[Nothinman]

You should have made note of the partitioning scheme during the install.

If it's not a dual boot, why not put LILO in the MBR?

 

[N11]

Take your first CD, boot off of it, at the prompt type 'linux rescue'

It will drop you into rescue mode

chroot /mnt/sysimage (give yourself root)
df

There's your partitioning scheme. Boot up off that non system specific boot disk passing the correct device parameter and then use the mkbootdisk command to create a system specific boot disk.

 

[Poontos]

Originally posted by: Nothinman
You should have made note of the partitioning scheme during the install.

If it's not a dual boot, why not put LILO in the MBR?

Yes I should have, but I will not make this mistake in future and I will learn how to get out of it. Please see other thread for info on dual boot.


N11:

> Take your first CD, boot off of it, at the prompt type 'linux rescue'

A-OK

> It will drop you into rescue mode

So far so good...

> chroot /mnt/sysimage (give yourself root)

Seems to work

> df

/dev/root 3573584 1152764 2239288 34% /
df: `/mnt/source': No such file or directory
df: 'mnt/runtime': No suck file or directory
/dev/hda7 ###'s ###'s ####'s 34% /
/dev/hda6 ####'s ###'s ####'s 14% /boot


> There's your partitioning scheme.

How does it look? ###"s = numbers I was too tired to type in.

> Boot up off that non system specific boot disk passing the correct device parameter and then use the mkbootdisk command to create a system specific boot disk.

So boot back off the boot.img floppy I made, and at the boot: prompt, type in: mkbootdisk


Thank so much!

 

[N11]

Originally posted by: Poontos

Originally posted by: Nothinman
You should have made note of the partitioning scheme during the install.

If it's not a dual boot, why not put LILO in the MBR?

Please see other thread...


N11:

> Take your first CD, boot off of it, at the prompt type 'linux rescue'

A-OK

> It will drop you into rescue mode

So far so good...

> chroot /mnt/sysimage (give yourself root)

Seems to work

> df

/dev/root 3573584 1152764 2239288 34% /
df: `/mnt/source': No such file or directory
df: 'mnt/runtime': No suck file or directory
/dev/hda7 ###'s ###'s ####'s 34% /
/dev/hda6 ####'s ###'s ####'s 14% /boot


> There's your partitioning scheme.

How does it look? ###"s = numbers I was too tired to type in.

> Boot up off that non system specific boot disk passing the correct device parameter and then use the mkbootdisk command to create a system specific boot disk.

So boot back off the boot.img floppy I made, and at the boot: prompt, type in: mkbootdisk


Thank so much!

Your root partition is /dev/hda7.

So boot back off the boot.img floppy I made, and at the boot: prompt, type in: mkbootdisk

Boot off of that boot disk and pass the argument vmlinuz root=/dev/hda7

Once you bootup and login as root then use mkbootdisk

 

[Poontos]

Originally posted by: N11

Originally posted by: Poontos

Originally posted by: Nothinman
You should have made note of the partitioning scheme during the install.

If it's not a dual boot, why not put LILO in the MBR?

Please see other thread...


N11:

> Take your first CD, boot off of it, at the prompt type 'linux rescue'

A-OK

> It will drop you into rescue mode

So far so good...

> chroot /mnt/sysimage (give yourself root)

Seems to work

> df

/dev/root 3573584 1152764 2239288 34% /
df: `/mnt/source': No such file or directory
df: 'mnt/runtime': No suck file or directory
/dev/hda7 ###'s ###'s ####'s 34% /
/dev/hda6 ####'s ###'s ####'s 14% /boot


> There's your partitioning scheme.

How does it look? ###"s = numbers I was too tired to type in.

> Boot up off that non system specific boot disk passing the correct device parameter and then use the mkbootdisk command to create a system specific boot disk.

So boot back off the boot.img floppy I made, and at the boot: prompt, type in: mkbootdisk


Thank so much!

Your root partition is /dev/hda7.

So boot back off the boot.img floppy I made, and at the boot: prompt, type in: mkbootdisk

Boot off of that boot disk and pass the argument vmlinuz root=/dev/hda7

Once you bootup and login as root then use mkbootdisk

Worked! I just need to create the bootdisk and setup the network stack. Time for bed though, thanks!