Intermediate Noob...got a client which rebooted one of their slackware servers and would not come up.

Server is stuck at Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: unable to mount root FS.

I have booted into a live cd and mounted hdd1 but have not been able to get any further.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Is it the first reboot of the server after install?

If yes, probably the support for the filesystem used for / ( the root filesystem) is not built in the kernel and no initrd is in use.

To find out, (I suppose hdd1 is mounted in the live cd as /mnt, otherwise adapt accordingly), please go back to us with the full output of following commands:

fstab on hdd1 says no directory found, on hdd3 it gives me
-rw-r--r-- l root root Dec 23 2009 /mnt/hdd3/etc/fstab

Boot on hdd1 same thing and on hdd3:
Total 0

Lilo same on hdd1, nothing and hhd3:

# LILO configuration file
# generated by 'liloconfig'
#
# Start LILO global section
lba32 # Allow booting past 1024th cylinder with a recent BIOS
# Append any additional kernel parameters:
append=" vt.default_utf8=1"
boot = /dev/hdb

# Boot BMP Image.
# Bitmap in BMP format: 640x480x8
bitmap = /boot/slack.bmp
# Menu colors (foreground, background, shadow, highlighted
# foreground, highlighted background, highlighted shadow):
bmp-colors = 255,0,255,0,255,0
# Location of the option table: location x, location y, number of
# columns, lines per column (max 15), "spill" (this is how many
# entries must be in the first column before the next begins to
# be used. We don't specify it here, as there's just one column.
bmp-table = 60,6,1,16
# Timer location x, timer location y, foreground color,
# background color, shadow color.
bmp-timer = 65,27,0,255

# Standard menu.
# Or, you can comment out the bitmap menu above and
# use a boot message with the standard menu:
#message = /boot/boot_message.txt

# Wait until the timeout to boot (if commented out, boot the
# first entry immediately):
prompt
# Timeout before the first entry boots.
# This is given in tenths of a second, so 600 for every minute:
timeout = 1200
# Override dangerous defaults that rewrite the partition table:
change-rules
reset
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x256
vga = 771
# Normal VGA console
# vga = normal
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x64k
# vga=791
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x32k
# vga=790
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x256
# vga=773
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x64k
# vga=788
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x32k
# vga=787
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x256
# vga=771
# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x64k
# vga=785
# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x32k
# vga=784
# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x256
# vga=769
# End LILO global section
# Linux bootable partition config begins
image = /boot/vmlinuz
root = /dev/hdb3
label = Linux
read-only
# Linux bootable partition config ends

I am a little lost with the partitions names. Please give output of following command:
Then try to find out where is /etc/fstab

It should be in the directory where /dev/hdb3 is mounted, let's call it /dir for now; then give output of following commands (again, adapt accordingly)

If I had to guess, I'd say that this is because your lilo has the root as /dev/hdb3 but, according to what you're saying above, it should be /dev/hdd3. You could try booting and passing 'root=/dev/hdd3'to your Slackware selection at the lilo prompt.

Adam

EDIT: You might have to edit the /etc/fstab on that root partition, too, to get it to boot properly.

df -h

root@slax:/mnt/hdd3/etc# df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
aufs 300M 22M 278M 8% /
tmpfs 250M 0 250M 0% /dev/shm
/dev/hdc 201M 201M 0 100% /mnt/hdc
/dev/hdd1 47M 23M 21M 53% /mnt/hdd1
/dev/hdd3 5.0G 2.1G 2.7G 44% /mnt/hdd3
/dev/sda1 50G 8.0G 39G 18% /mnt/sda1
/dev/hdd1 47M 23M 21M 53% /mnt/hdd1

Here is fdisk just in case

root@slax:/mnt/hdd3/etc# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/hdd: 6442 MB, 6442450944 bytes
16 heads, 63 sectors/track, 12483 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 1008 * 512 = 516096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x2c6bd964

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdd1 * 1 97 48856+ 83 Linux
/dev/hdd2 98 2081 999936 82 Linux swap
/dev/hdd3 2082 12483 5242608 83 Linux


I don't see hdb3 anywhere.

Already tried this. just says "no such image. [Tab] shows a list"...btw [Tab] doesn't show any list.

So at the lilo prompt, you hit 'tab' and nothing happens?

Adam

Correct.

Well according to your lilo.conf file, you should have one entry named Linux. What happens if you type out 'Linux root=/dev/hdd3' at the lilo prompt?

Adam

This has been resolved. Thank you all for your help.

Issue was that lilo and fstab were pointing to hdb3 instead of hdd3. i have no idea why it changed but changing this resolved our issue.