Root drive not appending correctly in Gentoo/XP Dualboot
 

Hi, I'm dualbooting WinXP and Gentoo - I configured and compiled gentoo correctly (or so I believe.. I followed the handbook completely) and I can boot into Windows, but when I attempt to boot into gentoo, I get this wierd root drive error on the gentoo boot.

Apparently my grub.conf file isn't configured correctly. The error message I get when I (attempt) to boot is something toward the effect of
"Append correct root=" which I don't understand.

My partition scheme:
hda1 - WinXP (40GB)
hda2 - Linux Boot (32MB) - /mnt/gentoo/boot
hda3 - Linux Swap (1024MB)
hda4 - Gentoo Linux (60GB i think) - /mnt/gentoo

my grub.conf file:
default 0
timeout 30
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title=Gentoo Linux 2.6.5-r1
root (hd0,3)
kernel /kernel-2.6.5-gentoo-r1 root=/dev/hda4 vga=792
title=Windows XP
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

Am I mounting my root incorrectly or do I need root= to be root="/dev/hda4" or something?

According to the handbook, that's exactly how it should be. My kernel's fine, my root's fine, everything I've checked against is correct. And I can boot into Windows, so that's always a plus.

Anyone have any ideas or past experience?

"splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz"

One problem is that you say that the splashimage is on your Windows partition. It is probably:

splashimage=(hd0,1)/grub/splash.xpm.gz

Although it is conceivable that it could be:

splashimage=(hd0,3)/grub/splash.xpm.gz

___________________________________
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Steve Stites

Oh, right, sorry, that was just a typo, it's (hd0,1) (my /boot partition)

But what's with the wierd "Append correct root=" message?

I'm going to try and boot it again and write down the error so I can be more specific.

The specific error occurs after I select 'b' to boot the Gentoo Linux partition. It begins to compile/extract several screens of files, then comes across this particular message and stops:

You may need an initrd statement. Initrd is optional depending on how your kernel is set up. Look in your /boot directory for an initrd file. Here is your grub.conf with my initrd added:

default 0
timeout 30
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title=Gentoo Linux 2.6.5-r1
root (hd0,3)
kernel /kernel-2.6.5-gentoo-r1 root=/dev/hda4 vga=792
initrd /boot/initrd-2.4.22-1.2115.nptl.img
title=Windows XP
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

___________________________________
Be prepared. Create a LifeBoat CD.
http://users.rcn.com/srstites/LifeBo...home.page.html

Steve Stites

I tried that just now and it didn't work - besides, I didn't use the genkern option, I customized my kernel.

I followed all the streamlines instructions though.

Does it matter that I'm using reiserFS?

I compiled it with support for it's utils, i dunno if that makes a diff or not.

"I tried that just now and it didn't work "

I am not sure what you mean. Do you have an initrd module in /boot? If so then you must use it. Or do you mean that you tried my initrd name? My initrd name will not work for you in any case.

"Does it matter that I'm using reiserFS?"

If you are not using initrd then you must compile the reiserFS driver as part of the kernel rather than as a loadable module. This is also true of the drivers for your disk model and your IDE chipset.

___________________________________
Be prepared. Create a LifeBoat CD.
http://users.rcn.com/srstites/LifeBo...home.page.html

Steve Stites

Yes, I mean I tried a similar initrd scheme, modified to my kernel name, and it didn't work. I don't have the initrd module, that's why :p

And yes, I have reiserfs compiled with the kernel, so that _shouldn't_ be the problem, I was just wondering if I needed some special options because of it.

Okay, I'm starting to think there's something wrong with either my install or my partition scheme because I deleted all my partitions (aside from windows) and re-created them and re-compiled and went through _every_ step again, following exactly the steps listed, and aside from switching to kernel 2.6 and using gentoo-dev-sources as my kernel compilation, I basically copied the handbook regarding installation.

I used ext2 for /boot and ext3 for /root (as per the handbook) and I still get the exact same error.

I switched to LILO and get the same error (so I know at least I'm consistent in my installs/config files) except the top line now says "VFS: Cannot open root device "304" or hda4" (I assume simply because LILO and GRUB handle device names differently)

What can this be about?

I go through _every_ menuconfig option and tailor it to my specific needs as well, so I know I didn't select something I don't have or not select something I needed.

EDIT:

Oh, and I switched by emerge -C so I think that's how you basically 'uninstall' in linux.

Here's my /etc/lilo.conf:
I had to comment out the append part because it gave me a 'Fatal' error when I ran /sbin/lilo - something regarding how I couldn't have "vga=792" in a LITERAL - but I have that example directly from the handbook (?)

With LILO I got some other notice as well when I ran /sbin/lilo - something to the effect of how the partition scheme didn't match the one listed in /proc/partition - which I checked in nano and as far as I could tell everything was fine because the sizes matched (though I wouldn't be able to tell you anything since I don't understand too much of the file)

I had proc mounted to /mnt/gentoo/proc - what happened? :/