Kernel Panic! Agh!

discrepant · 03-13-2005, 02:38 PM

I am in the process of following the Gentoo handbook for my (Gentoo) installation. After installing GRUB through GRUB-install, configuring, and rebooting, I was met by an unfriendly message. These are the last two lines of what I recieved at boot...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

UDF-fs: No partition found (1)
Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(3,3)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I suppose this has something to do with my grub.conf that I believe I accurately configured though. I am using a single hdd with three partitions. hda1 being the boot partition, hda2 being swap, and hda3 being the root partition. This is how I configured my grub.conf...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

default 0

timeout 15

splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz

title=Gentoo Linux 2.6.10-r6

root (hd0,0)
kernel /linux-2.6.10-gentoo-r6 root=/dev/hda3

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

dalek · 03-13-2005, 03:50 PM

Should look something like this:

Code:

title Gentoo
kernel (hd0,0)/bzImage-gen-2.6.8.r10-3 root=/dev/hda6

Note, the name can be anything as long as it matches what you named the thing. Should be kernel then the partition it is located on then the path, (not needed if you have a seperate /boot), then the name of the kernel.

Might be worth a try. Just hit esc then highlight the line you need to change hit "e" to edit, may need to hit "e" twice. It's been a while since I have even seen a grub screen.

Code:

root@smoker / # uptime
 15:49:54 up 123 days,  9:26,  8 users,  load average: 0.02, 0.09, 0.06
root@smoker / #

Looks like I didn't log out of console. Oh well.

See if that helps.

dalek · 03-13-2005, 03:55 PM

Forgot, after you get it changed hit enter then hit "b" to boot. If it boo boos just hit esc again to try something new.

If it works and boots OK, edit the grub.conf file. That change is a one time thing. It doesn't remember the changes till you edit the grub.conf file.

Oh, corrected the user figure, logged out those extra users:

Code:

root@smoker / # uptime
 15:54:47 up 123 days,  9:30,  3 users,  load average: 0.08, 0.11, 0.08
root@smoker / #

Much better.

discrepant · 03-13-2005, 04:11 PM

I did some googling in the meantime earlier and found a thread on a similar problem. The replies had mentioned that the Kernel itself could have been configured wrong. What do you think?

discrepant · 03-13-2005, 05:03 PM

An update on the situation..I ended up deciding to use LILO in hopes of success. This failed. I was met with the same error. I am going to assume I configured my 2.6x Kernel wrong. Any ideas on what I did wrong to get that sort of message?

dalek · 03-13-2005, 05:46 PM

Check to make sure you have the file system compiled IN the kernel, not a module. If you for example used ext3 for your filesystem, especially root, then it must be compiled into the kernel. It is under file systems in the main menu. It needs a * in the box.

To recompile a kernel since it won't boot, boot the CD and mount the partitions like you did during the install then follow the section for chroot. After that you can cd to /usr/src/linux then change the settings and recompile the kernel.

I would switch back to grub if I were you. It is much easier than lilo. Before I get flamed, I used to use lilo and it always gave me grief. Grub is a dream.

Hope that helps. If you need more info, let me know. I'm on dial-up so I just have to check in from time to time. Also don't forget that Gentoo has it's own forums. http://forums.gentoo.org/ Just in case you hadn't ran up on that info. I'm there too with the same name. They are good helpers, little elitest but good anyway.