SuSe 9l.2 Pro Boot Problem

d-kam · 03-10-2005, 04:38 PM

Hello all

Newbie here...

Linux won't boot. Period. When it begins to boot up it almost immediately throws up:

kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on Unknown-block(3,7)

I have looked around a bit and it seems to be kernel issue (well, that I could guess) and that it is related to the IDE not being mounted. I came accross this problem by following a guide on the internet to getting firegl working on my ATI 9000pro. I followed the guide and it didn't throw up any errors, but when I restarted I got the above. Is there any way someone here can tell me how to get the kernel to see my IDE config? I have GRUB on a triple boot system, have I messed this up? I can still boot into XP from GRUB. This is what I did:

Code:

step 1, use YAST (or during the initial install process):
INSTALL KERNEL SOURCES

Step 2:
go to: *tp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/su...6/fglrx/8.8.25/

and download ALL the files there to your Home user directory.
(There should be 3 files. do _NOT rename then, use original names).
Remember: i386/i586 folders(directories) supply the drivers for Non-64 bit processors. If you have an Amd64 cpu, then use the x64 directory/folder to get the files from.

I.e. if your user name is charlie download to: /home/charlie/

Step 3:
click on the shell icon to create a shell/terminal session/window.
inside type:
su (and press enter)
enter your ROOT password (and press enter)
if you got no error, then you entered the correct password. if an error, try again.

Anyways, that said, type: init 3 (and press enter)

If asked to login, you can use your normal user login (not root).
after logging in, type: su again and enter pword.

if not asked to login, no worries, you're already logged in as root and can remain that way. so do not type the su command.

4) type: cd (and press enter)
type: cd ..
type cd home
type cd charlie (or whatever the username is). (This should get you familiar with the cd command, and now you should be familiar with specifying paths directly....if not no worries).

once inside /home/charlie/ (or whatever your username):

type: rpm -Uhv fglrx*.rpm

when it completes (Should be very quick) type:
cd /usr/src/linux
then type: rm -f .config

then type: make cloneconfig

once that finishes scrolling type: make prepare-all

once that finishes type: rm -rf /usr/src/kernel-modules/fglrx

then type: cd (and press enter)
then type: cd ..
then: cd home
then cd charlie (charlie = your username) (next time we'll do this all in 1 command but i figure you're new and not sure of your familiarity with directory structures etc).

then type: rpm -Uhv km_fglrx*.rpm

then once that finishes type: cd /usr/src/kernel-modules/fglrx

then type: KERNEL_SOURCE=/usr/src/linux make modules

once that finishes (just ignore whatever shows up) and type: KERNEL_SOURCE=/usr/src/linux make install

once again once that finishes, ignore whatever shows up and type:
depmod -a

then type:
sax2 -r -m 0=fglrx -b /usr/X11R6/lib/sax/profile/firegl -i

a box will popup, asking if you want to change anything or keep current changes. You want to keep current settings. (so click YES/ok/Finsihed/whatever).

Then you'll be back at a console prompt.
type: Init 5

that should bring you into a graphical interface again. Restart the computer at this point.

you should be 100% done. enjoy, and NEVER run Sax2 again as it -may-screw up your graphic driver selection (on accident, i know. to change your resolution, your mouse/keyboad settings, etc, you will have to do it manually, which we can explain to you later.
to ensure graphics are working fine, when you login to your desktop, open up a shell/terminal session and type: glxinfo and press enter.

NOTE: REMEMBER linux is CASE SeNsItIVe so use caps and lower-case exactly as shown above.

I have no experience of editing the kernel yet

Can anyone help?

Many thanks,

d-kam.

gerardt · 03-11-2005, 03:30 AM

Lets try take this one step at a time.
at boot loader select correct boot option. in the options line type 1 and press enter.
Do you get past the kernel panic?
If you do post your fstab contents and the results of fdisk -l

If not use disk one and select rescue, at the prompt type root enter, type fdisk -l and post your results.

d-kam · 03-11-2005, 06:19 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by gerardt
Lets try take this one step at a time.
at boot loader select correct boot option. in the options line type 1 and press enter.
Do you get past the kernel panic?
If you do post your fstab contents and the results of fdisk -l

If not use disk one and select rescue, at the prompt type root enter, type fdisk -l and post your results.

OK, I tried botting with 1 in the boor options and it gets the same result. I did the rescue and did fdisk and got this:

Code:

Disk /dev/hda: 40.0 GB, 40027029504 bytes
255 heads, 63 Sectors/track, 4866 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device          Boot          Start          End          Blocks          Id          System
/dev/hda1        *            7              837          6674976         7           HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2                     838            4866         32362942+       f           W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda5                     838            2472         13133106        7           HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda6                     2473           2600         1028128+        82          Linux Swap/Solaris
/dev/hda7                     2601           4866         18201613+       83          Linux

Disk /dev/hdg: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 Sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device          Boot          Start          End          Blocks          Id          System
/dev/hdg2        *            2              14593        117210240       f           W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hdg5                     2              10216        82051956        b           W95 FAT32
/dev/hdg6                     10217          14593        35158221        7           HPFS/NTFS

Any more help on this would be well appreciated.

d-kam.

d-kam · 03-11-2005, 06:21 AM

Oh, and in case you're wondering, I have SuSe 9.2 and two installs of Windows XP. I am using GRUB which I configured for the triple boot.

d-kam

gerardt · 03-11-2005, 06:29 AM

I assume your root is hda7
run reiserfsck on /dev/hda7
So mount /dev/hda7 /mnt (in your rescue environment)
does /mnt/boot/grub/grub.conf have a root=/dev/hda7 line?
the kernel line should be preceded by (hd0,8) (is that correct?)
is there a line with /dev/hda7 / in /etc/fstab?
is there a vmlinuz and initrd link in /boot pointing to relavant kernel and image?

d-kam · 03-11-2005, 06:43 AM

My root is indeed hda7

I'll come back soon with results! Thanks