Hi, I'll try to keep this thread short but can add plenty more detail if needed.

I installed Slackware 13.0 64bit from a downloaded .iso install DVD onto my PC, which is:

AMD 720 XIII 2.8GHz
ATI HD4670 Radeon
2 x 500GB SATA Hard Drives
1 x IDE Liteon Optical Drive

In case I made a mistake with the install I physically disconnected the first SATA hard drive and installed Slackware onto the 2nd (they are not RAIDed but independent disks see).

On my 2nd SATA disk I already had a Windows XP system partition and a windows data partition. Nevertheless Slackware installation went swimmingly and everything worked perfectly, including dual boot with Lilo worked perfectly.

After I reconnected the unplugged SATA HD though, Slackware would not boot. I got the much vaunted 'Kernel panic error'. Now I realise what has happened: Slackware has installed itself onto /dev/sda. But this physical disc has now become /dev/sdb (since I reconnected the 1st SATA disc which becomes /dev/sda). Alas I can't seem to fix this problem.

The second SATA HD has four partitions:
/dev/sdb1 (Windows XP system partition {NTFS})
/dev/sdb2 (Windows DATA partition {NTFS})
/dev/sdb3 (Ext4fs Linux swap part. type 82)
/dev/sdb4 (Ext4fs Linux root part. type 83)

I know Slackware was installed 'properly' because everything was working perfectly. Surely I don't have to rebuild it just to add another HD?

Here's what I have did to try to fix it:
1. Use the "root=/dev/sdb4" command at kernel boot time prompt
this didn't work, but it did stop the "kernel panic error" that halted the system boot. Now Slackware tells me that "there is a problem with locating your root partition". It gives me the chance to login as root and fix the problem, which I can do.

So now I:
2. Edit lilo.conf so that each line pointing to 1st SATA disc (because it was when slackware was installed) now points to 2nd SATA disc (where slackware is now)
To do this I had to spend a couple of hours working out to edit the lilo.conf file. First I had to remount the root partition with read-write access, ie.
mount -o remount,rw /
Then I edit the lilo.conf file manually with:
pico /etc/lilo.conf
Anyhow, I save the changes and reboot but it still doesn't work.

So now I
3. Issued rdev command to change location of root partition in kernel image, ie.
rdev /boot/vmlinuz /dev/sdb4
I reboot but it still doesn't work, Slackware still says there is a problem with the root partition and that I should login as root and fix the problem. Funnily enough it still seems (despite all the changes to /dev/sdb4) to be looking for the root partition at /dev/sda4 (?)
4. Issue "Liloconfig" and generated a fresh lilo.conf file adding my linux and windows partitions from /dev/sdb
It doesn't work. Slackware still says there is a problem with root partition.

5. Sobbed a bit.

I could just reinstall Slackware I think, but the fact I can't fix this simple problem means I must know even less than I think I do ...

My name is Robert, I'm a microsoftaholic.
Hello Robert.

you can try to change the sata cables connecting your harddrives so that your motherboard detects your second hdd as your first hdd. That way, your second hdd (currently) will become your first ie sda

/etc/fstab will probably still have an old entry for the slackware root filesystem that you will need to fix, along with any other filesystems you created.

Voila! et Bingo

Don't like to get melodramatic but that has solved the problem in 2 minutes flat!

Logged back in as root and edited the /etc/fstab file. In it were still all the references to sda. ie.
/dev/sda3 swap
/dev/sda4 ext4
/dev/sda1 ntfs
/dev/sda2 ntfs

I simply changed all those references to /dev/sdbx. For some reason I thought fstab was a directory where extra filesystems were mounted but no, it is a file that defines all the filesystems

Thanks again. I also learnt something about Linux. I hate Linux noobies already ...

Hope Andy can win the tennis tomorrow just for you ...



Thx jiatong that probably would have worked too, though I would have had to undo all my other fiddling.

Glad you got it sorted. Happy Slacking.

hehe. No skin off my nose if he loses. He's a Scot!