Hello ,


I am now using old RH9 , i downloaded new vanilla kernel 2.4.32 and build it,I used same
.config for it which is contributed with default RH9 kernel sources (2.4.20), everything looks fine but when i try to boot it with grub i get

,,Kernel panic unable to mount root device"

_________________________________________
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.32)
root (hd0,4)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.32 ro root=LABEL=/
initrd /initrd-2.4.32.img
__________________________________________

How can I check where is my Root device , i mean ,,/" (partition where are all my programs)?
How can i boot this kernel ?

Maybe it have something to do with my hardware, because I have Silicon Image SATA controller Sil3112A .I checked .config and in it is to build Silicon Image controller directly
to kernel (not as module)

Did you create the initrd?

yes i have created it manualy with
mkinitrd /boot/initrd-2.4.32 2.4.32

and also when i try run make install ,red hat have some sripts which automaticaly generate initrd and make changes in grub.conf

Got to be careful not to give you a bad idea here, but in Gentoo and SUSE the root option (where you have root=LABEL=/ ) is supposed to point to your real root device i.e. root=/dev/sda or whatever it is.

I only point this out, as I don't see yours pointing anywhere, but then again I don't quite know what the LABEL option does - perhaps it is the actual label of the device?

The only other thing I'd check is just ensure the initrd is there - I've only ever seen this problem when it can't find the initrd

No , I'm sure it can read initrd , for example if i make change

title Red Hat Linux (2.4.32)
root (hd0,4)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.32 ro root=LABEL=/
initrd /initrd-abrakadabra.img


grub stops ,and print something like ,,could not find file initrd-abrakadabra.img"

Just Kernel cant see my root directory. I think Label meant to set root partition to that one with label name ,,/"
On mandrake i see something like this
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.32 ro root=0307 - root is hdc7

Maybe initrd is not good ... i really don't know where is problem

Can you try setting root= the physical device where "/" is? i.e hda4 or whatever it is

Also, if it still dont work, post up the output of fdisk

You will find the actual cause of the problem in the messages which precede the actual kernel-panic message.

Some of the possibilities include:

• The location of the root directory, which should be specified by the root= kernel-parameter at boot, was not specified or not specified correctly.
• I've found that specification by means of labels, vs. an actual device-spec like root=/dev/hda3, doesn't work for me.
• It's easy to specify the wrong device/partition! Make sure that you're not pointing to the boot-directory or to a swap-partition by mistake. Linux counts partitions starting at #1; Grub counts them from #0. Often the first partition is /boot; the second is swap; and the third (/dev/hda3) is the root. If you are booting from a slave drive, then it might be /dev/hdbx, and /dev/hda might contain (ick!) Windows.
• The kernel might not have support for the disk device and/or the filesystem being used. (I make it a point to put all of these into the kernel.)
• The wrong filesystem types, or locations, can be specified in /etc/fstab.
• There might be something actually wrong with the contents of the disk... such that a LiveCD can't mount the drive either.