kernel panic after resizing /
 

Hello everybody,

Here is my system config.
1 HD partitioned as following

- win2000 pro (16 GB)
- linux swap (256 MB)
- unallocated space (1.5 GB)
- linux partition ext3 (2.8 GB)

and I already had debian up and running very well on the ext3 part.
What I wanted to do is to resize the ext3 part. by allocating the free
space (1.5 GB) to it.
I used the re-distrubuted free space tool in partition magic 8 and it finished
successfully. I rebooted my machine and here is what I got:

LI99999999999999999999999999
999999999999999999999999
999999999999999999999999

no LILO, no menus, nothing. I was shocked cuz I spent alot of time tweaking my linux system till I got it running perfectly.
So I had to boot from the debian(woody) cd and installed LILO once again in the MBR. Now I got the famous LILO menu with winNT,linux and linuxold.
Any choice gives the famous kernel panic :

Please append a correct "root=" boot option
Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block

my 1st question : did the PM 8 corrupt the ext3 or something of that sort?
my 2nd question : somebody help me plzzzzzzzzz

thanx in advance .

seems your lilo can't find the partition or MBR any more. try to boot with a floppy, maybe correct the C/H/S or LBA and rerun lilo. for more info look at the manual.txt in your /usr/share/doc/lilo dir.

sl mritch.

Maybe you can download damnsmalllinux or knoppix to take a look at your partitions: if they can't mount your partitions PM8 has probably screwed them up. If you can mount them you could try saving config-files and stuff, which could make a reinstall and reconfigure easier.

It doesn't solve the problem, I know...

Thanx for all of ur replies. I got the problem finally solved.
For some reason when resizing the linux root partition
the PM messed up with the LILO location.........something
of that sort I dont knw exactly.
But what I have done is that I installed a new lilo
(by booting from the CD and choosing to write a new LiLo to
the MBR). and since the new lilo have fresh settings which
doesnt take into account the locations of my kernels.........etc.
so I obviously got a kernelpanic when I tried booting any of them.

which meant that if I can edit the lilo.conf I can get the problem
solved. So I booted from the debian CD and when getting the boot prompt
I typed: rescure root=/dev/hda3
which got me logged into my linux system.Then I opened a console session
and edited /etc/lilo.conf and added the following line initrd=/initrd.img ,saved
the file and lilo and reboot and finito

great (y) :)