I just got a Dell 300m and am trying to get damn small linux to run off of my pen drive (256MB). I have the pen drive booting and able to start linux but shortly after it does a "Kernel pannic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 01:01." What is this error and how am i going to fix it? Im very new to linux and editing the kernel is quite imatating for me but will do anything to have this. If you need more info let me know, i can give all the info your looking for

Oh and i thought i would add that if i boot off of the regular Knoppix cd via the "dell media bay" or docking station then i get this error

Can't find KNOPPIX filesystem, sorry.
Dropping you to a (very limited) shell.
Press reset button to quit

then i get a shell with 6 commands (cat, mount, umount, insmod, rmmod and lsmod)

just more info if it helps

A shot in the dark but did you make a new initrd for your setup or if a kernel recompile was done was ramdisk enableed.

Don't know much more here on this type of setup.
Brian1

A shot in the dark but did you make a new initrd for your setup or if a kernel recompile was done was ramdisk enableed.

Don't know much more here on this type of setup.
Brian1

I haven't done anything on my own. I was following directions from this site http://rz-obrian.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de/knoppix-usb/ and just used his edited version at the very bottom where you can download it. The directions didn't seem to be machine specific so i thought I would try his. Am i wrong on this? It also seems that he was using an older version of Damn Small Linux (3.6), would this be a problem with the newer machine? I have the newest version (4.7), so do i need to fallow the directions editing the miniroot.gz for the new version?

Very interesting project. I would contact Matthias Müller and see what he says about it. I am pretty sure it has something to do with the starting the usb drivers. Might set the sleep time a little longer and see what happens. It just looks like it can't find the boot media.

Another thing you could try is find another computer that can boot from USB and try it on that one.

Maybe the guy can send you a drive image.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.
Brian1

I have tried it on another machine that can boot from USB and it does the exact same thing. I will try to contact him and see what he has to offer for advice. I'll post my progress as i go along.

This very same thing happens if you try and boot of the Knoppix CDROM as I have recently found out myself... I wonder, have you had progress on this?

no i have not had any progress on this topic. I ended up installing redhat 9 on a separate partition and it seems to be working for me. If you find a solution to this, i would like to know...maybe the new 2.6 kernel will help

Well, this looks promising: http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6154#28256

But at 10kb per second... it will take forever and a day, I don't think I have the time nor the patience.

If you are, will you tell me about it?

Partly kidding there... I don't think Linux is ready for this laptop yet so I have no plans of installing it on my 300m. So far, I haven't run across to any successful Linux installation and the Red Hat website doesn't list it as compatible.

I mainly just wanted to use the partitioning tool (qtparted) so I can repartition my hard drive. Mine came with one eisa configuration partition and one big C drive. Grrrrr

Check out these two sites...

http://www.hoolehan.com/300mlinux/
http://www.frogsonice.com/300m.html

they are both successful installations of RH9 on the 300m. I as well have RH9 running on mine and it seems to run great. There are a few things that dont work still but im just waiting for the new kernel to go final.

I am downloading the experimental Knoppix iso and will let you know how it goes. I'm kind of curious if it will work or now and would like to see it run on my 300m. I'll keep you posted.

nope, that version of knoppix still doesn't work. I get the same error message that it cant find the filesystem. Sorry, if you ever come up with a solution to this, post back. Good luck.

Sorry to hear that... if I do find one I shall promptly post it...

I had the same problem it turned out to be the dma being enabled. so type this at boot prompt:

knoppix nodma

It worked for me :-)

P.S. this is to fix the error that you are getting when it drops you to a very limited shell.

let me know if it worked for you

With the new release of knoppix 3.4 this problem has been solved. Knoppix finally loads the USB drivers before searching for the boot media. Thanks for the post back though!