unable to mount root fs
 

I currently run 2.6.6 on my Dell Latitude C810, I have an nvidia geforce2 card. Running the installer from Nvidia fails, and they do not have a version for this particular kernel release. So I'm stuck looking at my screen with only about a third of it in use....sigh.


Ok so, I've read that I have to enable the 4k stack in a custom built kernel, ok NP, off I go, I've read the debian how to make-kpgk is my friend all looks good. dpkg -i debian-kernel all installs well no problems right? Reboot BAM big ole Kernel Panic unable to mount root fs on unknown_block (0,0)

Ok, so back to the drawing board, did I have the ext3 fs installed as a module, No. This seemed to be the biggest problem users had so I double checked.

Didnt use mkinitrd as I understand that you dont need it if you install the fs into the kernel, let me regress here a bit. Running make menuconfig I have a * beside the ext3 fs as well as several others for "fun", I'm assuming this is the correct way to add the fs to the kernel.

I have no idea why this isnt working, I've recompiled a kernel here and there on occasion with no problem so I'm lost.

To give some more info....

Ive downloaded the kernel-source-2.6.6 to another machine and I'm configing and building the kernel on another machine and scp 'ing the debian-image-2.6.6 to the machine where I'm wanting to install it. I understand there is no problem with doing this...correct me if I'm wrong.

Looking forward to a reply....

Actually, from what I have read, just the opposite is true, enabling the 4k stack is not supported by the nvidia driver. That is why -mm patches and the new fedora release does not work with the driver, they both have the 4k stack enabled.

To get it installed you dont need to recompile your kernel, unless you plan on using the driver from the debian repositories (which i only reccomend if you use udev, otherwise you have to reinstall the drivers every reboot). Just grab the nvidia graphics driver from the website and run it while your not in X. After that you can "modprobe nvidia" and it should be good to go.

The problem you are facing now seems to be an issue with lilo. Did you run lilo before you restarted? Did you make sure it was pointing to the right kernel image?

I'm running grub, and it takes care of the entry in /boot/grub/menu.1st or at least dpkg -i kernel_image reports it, I've checked it out the entry for the default kernel is there as well as the one I"m creating.


The nividia driver failes everytime I try to install it, I'll post the exact error message from the error log shortly.

Nvidia Installer log:

nvidia-installer log file '/var/log/nvidia-installer.log'
creation time: Thu Jun 10 08:13:12 2004

option status:
license pre-accepted : false
update : false
force update : false
expert : false
uninstall : false
driver info : false
no precompiled interface: false
no ncurses color : false
query latest driver ver : false
OpenGL header files : false
no questions : false
silent : false
XFree86 install prefix : /usr/X11R6
OpenGL install prefix : /usr
Installer install prefix: /usr
kernel include path : (not specified)
kernel install path : (not specified)
proc mount point : /proc
ui : (not specified)
tmpdir : /tmp
ftp site : ftp://download.nvidia.com

Using: nvidia-installer ncurses user interface
-> License accepted.
-> No precompiled kernel interface was found to match your kernel; would you li
ke the installer to attempt to download a kernel interface for your kernel f
rom the NVIDIA ftp site (ftp://download.nvidia.com)? (Answer: Yes)
-> No matching precompiled kernel interface was found on the NVIDIA ftp site;
this means that the installer will need to compile a kernel interface for
your kernel.
ERROR: The kernel header file
'/lib/modules/2.6.6-1-386/build/include/linux/modversions.h' does not
exist. The most likely reason for this is that the kernel header files
in '/lib/modules/2.6.6-1-386/build/include' have not been configured.
ERROR: Installation has failed. Please see the file
'/var/log/nvidia-installer.log' for details. You may find suggestions
on fixing installation problems in the README available on the Linux
driver download page at www.nvidia.com.




/boot/grub/menu.1st

title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.6-1-386
root (hd0,6)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.6-1-386 root=/dev/hda7 ro
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.6-1-386
savedefault
boot

title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.6-1-386 (recovery mode)
root (hd0,6)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.6-1-386 root=/dev/hda7 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.6-1-386
savedefault
boot

title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.6
root (hd0,6)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.6 root=/dev/hda7 ro
/boot/initrd.img-2.6.6-1-386
savedefault
boot

title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.6 (recovery mode)
root (hd0,6)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.6 root=/dev/hda7 ro single
savedefault
boot

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian
# ones.
title Other operating systems:
root


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/hda1
title Windows NT/2000/XP
root (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1


Mabye this can help solve the problem.

After booting "Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.6-1-386" try running:

apt-get install kernel-headers-2.6.6-1-386

and then try installing the nvidia drivers