2.2 --> 2.65: Kernel panic, unable to mount root.
 

Hi, forum . . . I'm new, but I have a feeling I'll be hanging around for a bit--posts here from others have helped me many times on my path to Debian-ness. :D

I'm trying to get Debian and either Amanda or Bacula going on a monster drive backup box, but my backup drives are accessed via a Maxtor/relabeled Promise ATA controller. (Debian boots from a separate, smaller drive connected to the primary IDE.)

Kernel 2.2 worked fine except for being able to see the large drives' PCI ATA/100 controller, and my googling basically told me that the fastest way out might be a new kernel--plus, of course, getting all the other benefits of the new kernel, such as USB support.

On reboot, I'm getting an error that seems to be fairly common, but others' solutions aren't working for me--probably because I barely know what I'm doing and it's honestly a miracle I made it this far on my own. ;)

VFS: Cannot open root device "341" or unknown-block(3.65)
Please append a correct "root=" boot option
Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(3.65)

I do have a boot disk to go into 2.2, so all is not lost. Xconfig won't seem to work; I have tried using config and oldconfig, each time enabling all IDE options, but no luck. I messed with lilo.config a bit, but . . . feel I may be doing more harm than good there. I've run make just about everything under the sun, along with most other oft-suggested fixes for this problem.

Does anyone have any ideas of where I might try poking around? I know lilo.config is a likely culprit. Would I have better luck with Grub, or would that just confuse the issue? How can I manually edit my config? I have a nagging feeling it may be one of those IDE=Y things, but don't know anything for sure.
:scratch:

Much, much appreciation for any help you can offer!
Gaea

I am assuming you compiled the kernel yourself? May I suggest that you edit your /etc/apt/sources.list and substitute stable with testing in this line e.g.

deb http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ testing main non-free contrib

Now do apt-get update and then using either apt-cache search kernel-image-2.6.4* or aptitude or synaptic install this kernel. Having installed the new kernel restore the sources.list to its previous state.

Lo and behold, that plus a few other things worked! I tried rolling my own but used apt-get to install 2.6 with the above results. Went back to 2.5 using apt-get and your suggested mirror settings. Still wouldn't boot, then I saw that lilo.conf was still set to go to the 2.6 kernel. I changed that, and it was still a no go.

Then I saw another lilo help thread in which it was pointed out that default=x must match label=x. Seems obvious now, but that change did it.

My mouse doesn't work now, which seems very strange since everything else does, but that seems like the kind of thing I might be able to handle. : )

Thanks very much for your help!
Gaea

I don't like this
 

I tryied 2.6 on both a woody and a sarge (actually is the same) machine but both resulted in problems.

2.6.5 on sarge resulted in a non-working X due to not finding /dev/psaux as a valid device.
I tried a cat /dev/input/mouse0 and friends, but noe of those worked.

What seemed weird was that insmod failed on any mouse related attempt (file not found or something alike).

Quick question: the 2.6.x modules end in .ko ?

2.6.3? on woody (backported - from cjwatson's (?) page) resulted in a kernel panic exactly like the one described by gaea.

I tried dpkg-reconfigure (one attempt, I will try again with some other config than the sane one - to my knowledge).

starting in single user mode when cat /dev/psaux there was a message regarding an isa0060/serio1 device (I don't have any isa devices, but use any isa (I know there is a isa-to-??? bridge, but is that used for mouse too?)

this is a grep-ed (for isa) version of the syslog....


Apr 27 19:15:07 sarge kernel: Disabled Privacy Extensions on device c02ec880(lo)
Apr 27 19:15:14 sarge kernel: input: ImPS/2 Generic Wheel Mouse on isa0060/serio1
Apr 27 19:15:14 sarge kernel: atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0x7a on isa0060/serio0).
Apr 27 19:15:14 sarge kernel: atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0x7a on isa0060/serio0).
Apr 27 19:15:17 sarge kernel: atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0x7a on isa0060/serio0).
Apr 27 19:15:17 sarge kernel: atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0x7a on isa0060/serio0).
Apr 27 19:15:23 sarge kernel: atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0x7a on isa0060/serio0).
Apr 27 19:15:23 sarge kernel: atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0x7a on isa0060/serio0).
Apr 27 19:15:29 sarge kernel: atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0x7a on isa0060/serio0).
Apr 27 19:15:29 sarge kernel: atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0x7a on isa0060/serio0).
Apr 27 19:15:41 sarge gdm[750]: Failed to start X server several times in a short time period; disabling display :0
Apr 27 19:18:38 sarge kernel: atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0x7a on isa0060/serio0).
Apr 27 19:18:38 sarge kernel: atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0x7a on isa0060/serio0).
Apr 27 19:19:11 sarge kernel: atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0x7a on isa0060/serio0).
Apr 27 19:19:11 sarge kernel: atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0x7a on isa0060/serio0).
Apr 27 19:20:54 sarge kernel: atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0x7a on isa0060/serio0).
Apr 27 19:20:54 sarge kernel: atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0x7a on isa0060/serio0).
Apr 27 21:33:17 sarge kernel: Local APIC disabled by BIOS -- reenabling.
Apr 27 21:33:17 sarge kernel: PCI: Disabling Via external APIC routing
Apr 27 21:33:17 sarge kernel: isapnp: Scanning for PnP cards...
Apr 27 21:33:17 sarge kernel: isapnp: No Plug & Play device found
Apr 27 21:33:17 sarge kernel: input: AT Translated Set 2 keyboard on isa0060/serio0
Apr 27 21:33:17 sarge kernel: input: ImPS/2 Generic Wheel Mouse on isa0060/serio1
Apr 27 21:33:18 sarge kernel: Disabled Privacy Extensions on device c02ec880(lo)
Apr 27 21:33:25 sarge kernel: atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0x7a on isa0060/serio0).
Apr 27 21:33:25 sarge kernel: atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0x7a on isa0060/serio0).
Apr 27 21:33:28 sarge kernel: atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0x7a on isa0060/serio0).
Apr 27 21:33:28 sarge kernel: atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0x7a on isa0060/serio0).
Apr 27 21:33:34 sarge kernel: atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0x7a on isa0060/serio0).
Apr 27 21:33:40 sarge kernel: atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0x7a on isa0060/serio0).
Apr 27 21:33:40 sarge kernel: atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0x7a on isa0060/serio0).
Apr 27 21:33:46 sarge gdm[809]: Failed to start X server several times in a short time period; disabling display :0
Apr 27 21:35:40 sarge kernel: Local APIC disabled by BIOS -- reenabling.
Apr 27 21:35:41 sarge kernel: ACPI: Interpreter disabled.
Apr 27 21:35:41 sarge kernel: PCI: Disabling Via external APIC routing

What can I do to use 2.6? I _really_ want to....

For what it's worth, I tried just a suggestion on another board to get the mouse (a PS/2) going, and it worked. Here's what the mouse section of my XF86Config-4 looks like now:

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mouse0"
Option "Protocol" "ImPS/2"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Protocol" "ImPS/2"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

I understand you already dried the mouse0 trick with no luck--and the rest of the problems are way beyond my abilities right now--but am posting just in case somebody else has the mouse problem after an upgrade. Apparently it's fairly common.


Gaea

It works now!
 

See link

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...710#post839710