Ext4 causes a kernel panic

phoenix12345 · 01-31-2009, 04:50 PM

I use kernel 2.6.28.2 and the funny thing is that yesterday the whole system worked fine.
After i reinstalled gentoo on my system and recompiled the kernel i get a kernel panic.

Code:

VFS: Cannot open root device "sda1" or unknown-block(8,1)
Please append a correct "root=" boot option; here are the available partitions:
0800     156290904   sda driver: sd
  0801      51761398 sda1
  0802        192780 sda2
  0803             1 sda3
  0805       5205028 sda5
  0806      98928238 sda6
0b00       1048575 sr0 driver: sr
Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(8,1)

This is my partition layout:
/dev/sda1 / ext4
/dev/sda2 /boot ext2
/dev/sda5 swap
/dev/sda6 /home

Ext4 support is enabled in the kernel and i added rootfstype=ext4 in grub.
I also formatted the sda1 partition to ext4 again, could this be the cause.
NOTE: I used a Xubuntu 9.04 Alpha 2 disk to install gentoo and it is able to mount /dev/sda1.

phoenix12345 · 02-01-2009, 03:45 AM

It seems i forgot the essential rule of the kernel:everything that's vital to booting shouldn't be a module. EXT4 was a module, but i fixed that, recompiled the kernel and now it works like a charm.

syg00 · 02-01-2009, 04:08 AM

Good to see you fixed it. I would re-state your rule as - when you do a custom kernel, why use modules at all ?.
Especially something like gentoo.