Hi, I just got a new laptop, a MSI M662, I installed slackware on it, and I wanted to get suspend/hibernate working on it. I found out the default slackware kernel doesn't support suspend/hibernate, so I download the latest 2.6.24 kernel and tried recompiling it with the TuxOnIce patch. The compile went on with out any problems, however when I try to boot from it, it says it can't mount the root filesystem and it says the options are hda1, hda2, or hda3. The problem is I only have sda1, 2 and 3. I have check ed the obvious things, like making sure the filesystem was built into the kernel and stuff like that. I have also tried compiling the 2.6.23.16 kernel but the same problem keeps on coming up. Here is my lilo.conf:

My laptop is a celeron M with 2 gigs of ram and an Intel 945GM video card, if you need any more info I will be happy to give it to you, any suggestions are welcome.

Thanks in advance

Do you have the correct driver for your SATA chipset built into the kernel?

http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Hardware/sata.html

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Steve Stites

That is probably the problem, thanks alot

The SATA drivers must be compiled into the kernel (since you said your hard drives are sda1, 2, 3), as jailbait said. On a side note, you don't need to apply TuxOnIce patches -- the newer kernels include good support for hibernation (suspend to disk), suspending to RAM and standby (I haven't had any problems at all) as long as you enable those options in the kernel.

Ok, I found out that I needed an initramfs, and I build one using Alien Bob's docwiki and his script to determine the command for mkinitramfs, so I ran this command:

mkinitrd -c -k 2.6.23.16 -m usb-storage:ehci-hcd:ata_generic:mbcache:jbd:ext3 -f ext3 -r /dev/sda2

but now it says that it can't mount the root file system on /dev/sda2, I'm pretty sure I'm probably missing something in that commend, but I could be wrong

Thanks for your help so far

If you built the filesystem used on your root partition INTO the kernel instead of as a module, you don't need an initrd (initial ramdisk). Your problem still stems from the lack of SATA drivers compiled into the kernel, I think. If you compiled the filesystem used on your root partition as a module, you WILL need an initrd (or just recompile your kernel with the filesystem built into the kernel), but since it's still not booting it's likely a configuration error in your kernel (again, probably an SATA thing). Go through your .config file (back it up first) using `make menuconfig` and take a look at any possible SATA options (if still nothing works, you could try SCSI options, but most PCs nowadays don't have SCSI drives and I think they're identified as /dev/sr? and not /dev/sd?, but I could be wrong). Although normally I would recommend only using the kernel from -current if you're using -current (and not just using the kernel from -current in Slackware 12.0), if you absolutely cannot figure it out you could download the kernel packages (located in the slackware/a/ directory) and install them (make sure you do NOT upgrade the kernel headers). However, I personally would build my own anyway.

Did you use the .config from one of the default 2.6.21.5 kernels included in Slackware 12.0 (if so which kernel's .config did you start from) or did you start from scratch?

I tried making a config from scratch and using the huge-smp confg from /boot. On Alien's docwiki it says make a initramfs if you are getting this error
VFS: Cannot open root device "802" or unknown-block (8,2)
Please append a correct "root=" boot option
Kernel Panic-not syncing: VFS: unable to mount root fs on unknown block(8,2)

and that was what I was getting, but after I build the init ramfs, it just said it couldn't mount it. I'll try looking for the sata drivers in make menuconfig, but the last time I looked, all of the ones that seemed relevant were check.

Do you also have a relevant line in /etc/lilo.conf (ie "initrd = /boot/initrd.gz") to load the initrd? Did you run `lilo` afterward as well? (It sounds like you did since you got a different error, but I'm just making sure).

Also, your line `mkinitrd -c -k 2.6.23.16 -m usb-storage:ehci-hcd:ata_generic:mbcache:jbd:ext3 -f ext3 -r /dev/sda2` is loading modules for the 2.6.23.16 kernel. Is that the kernel you're trying to use (ie the one being loaded from lilo.conf)? (Looking at your lilo.conf suggests yes, but it's only called vmlinuz-2.6.23, and I want to make sure it's the proper kernel -- ie that no mismatching is going on). Does /lib/modules/2.6.23.16/ exist (and contain files)?

Yes, I added the line in /etc/lilo.conf and ran lilo. Yes that is the kernel I have in /etc/lilo.conf. Yes, there is a /lib/modules/2.6.23.16 and it conatains files

Wrong, I have 2 old 4,3GB SCSI disks with PCI SCSI controllers and they're both identified as /dev/sdx and not /dev/srx.



I also think this is a SATA driver problem, so you could tray the long run solution.
Compile them all in, and then start throwing them out one by one. It's a pain in the ***, but it's effective. And you're only going to do this once, because the next time you will remember which driver you need to compile.

pls somebody... i also got this problem... even forcing the filesystem to the kernel didnt work...

I just think its odd it won't even boot with the huge-smp config

When you copied your huge-smp config into /usr/src/linux/.config did you do make oldconfig?
And before even copying did you do make mrproper?
I don't know about 2.6.23.x kernels but I can asure you 2.6.24.4 is running lovely.

I downloaded the newest 2.6.24 kernel and copied the old smp huge config, ran make oldconfig, recompiled it, and installed it, rebooted it and it still had the same error message

Strange. Ok but here is where my knowledge about linux kernels stop.