Filesystem could not mount

dracuss · 01-23-2009, 09:20 AM

I've built now the kernel 2.6.27, and while booting i get the following error:

Code:

List of all partititions:
 0300  78184008  hda driver:ide-disk
  0301  5735173  hda1
  0302        1  hda2
 0340   811446   hdb driver: ide-cdrom

No filesystem could mount root, tried: reiserfs ext3 ext2 cramfs msdos vfat iso9660

Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(3,1).

In the kernel, as you can see, I've included support for both the IDE-disks (they are detected before the error), and for the filesystems.

Here I give you also the fstab:

Code:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# noatime turns off atimes for increased performance (atimes normally aren't 
# needed; notail increases performance of ReiserFS (at the expense of storage 
# efficiency).  It's safe to drop the noatime options if you want and to 
# switch between notail / tail freely.
#
# The root filesystem should have a pass number of either 0 or 1.
# All other filesystems should have a pass number of 0 or greater than 1.
#
# See the manpage fstab(5) for more information.
#


# <fs>			<mountpoint>	<type>		<opts>		<dump/pass>

# NOTE: If your BOOT partition is ReiserFS, add the notail option to opts.
/dev/hda1		/		ext3		noatime		0 1
/dev/hda5		none		swap		sw		0 0
/dev/cdrom		/mnt/cdrom	auto		noauto,ro	0 0
#/dev/fd0		/mnt/floppy	auto		noauto		0 0
/dev/hda6		/var		ext3		noatime		0 0
/dev/hda7		/home		ext3		noatime		0 0
# glibc 2.2 and above expects tmpfs to be mounted at /dev/shm for 
# POSIX shared memory (shm_open, shm_unlink).
# (tmpfs is a dynamically expandable/shrinkable ramdisk, and will
#  use almost no memory if not populated with files)
#shm			/dev/shm	tmpfs		nodev,nosuid,noexec	0 0

and the grub.conf:

Code:

# This is a sample grub.conf for use with Genkernel, per the Gentoo handbook
# http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml?part=1&chap=10#doc_chap2
# If you are not using Genkernel and you need help creating this file, you
# should consult the handbook. Alternatively, consult the grub.conf.sample that
# is included with the Grub documentation.
default 0
timeout 3
splashimage=(hd0,0)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz

title Gentoo Linux 
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz ro


title Gentoo 2 Linux
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/bzImage
#initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.27.img

I have problems with both kernels, not even one of them mounts.
Thank you very much for your help.

Disillusionist · 01-24-2009, 03:23 AM

can you boot from a live CD?

If so, please run parted and post the output from print

As root:

Code:

parted
GNU Parted 1.7.1
Using /dev/sda
Welcome to GNU Parted! Type 'help' to view a list of commands.
(parted) print

Disk /dev/sda: 8590MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number  Start   End     Size    Type      File system  Flags
 1      32.3kB  255MB   255MB   primary   ext3         boot
 2      255MB   8587MB  8332MB  extended
 5      255MB   8587MB  8332MB  logical                lvm

(parted) quit
Information: Don't forget to update /etc/fstab, if necessary.

dracuss · 01-24-2009, 05:56 AM

Here it is:

Code:

Model: SAMSUNG SP0802N (ide)
Disk /dev/hda: 80.1GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number  Start   End     Size    Type      File system  Flags
 1      32.3kB  5873MB  5873MB  primary   ext3              
 2      5873MB  80.1GB  74.2GB  extended                    
 5      5873MB  6391MB  518MB   logical   linux-swap        
 6      6391MB  11.5GB  5108MB  logical   ext3              
 7      11.5GB  80.1GB  68.6GB  logical   ext3

Also, i found out that maybe the error is in grub, not in kernel, because the root partitition is (0,0), but it cannot mount (3,1).

Disillusionist · 01-24-2009, 08:54 AM

The grub config looks fine to me.

One thing I noticed from the parted output is you don't seem to have an active boot partition.

from within parted type:
set 1 boot on

also try:
check 1

dracuss · 01-24-2009, 09:44 AM

Even if I put the "boot" flag to it, it didn't help.
But the "scan 1" command didn't work, it gave me the error"File system has an incompatible feature enabled".
But mounting from the lifecd works well.
I've done an dumpe2fs, and got the following features:
has_journal ext_attr resize_inode dir_index filetype needs_recovery sparse_super large_file.
I am now accesing the site from the lifeCD, from links, and i don't know how to put the whole dump in here.
I tried to scan the filesystem with fsck, and it says that filesystem is clean.

Disillusionist · 01-24-2009, 10:18 AM

If the filesystem mounts from the live CD it should be fine for a boot partition.

I have done some google searching on your issue, and one of the solutions posted was to modify the grub.conf file to specify the root partition:

Code:

# This is a sample grub.conf for use with Genkernel, per the Gentoo handbook
# http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml?part=1&chap=10#doc_chap2
# If you are not using Genkernel and you need help creating this file, you
# should consult the handbook. Alternatively, consult the grub.conf.sample that
# is included with the Grub documentation.
default 0
timeout 3
splashimage=(hd0,0)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz

title Gentoo Linux 
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz ro root=/dev/hda1
initrd /boot/initrd.img


title Gentoo 2 Linux
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/bzImage ro root=/dev/hda1
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.27.img

dracuss · 01-24-2009, 10:53 AM

Disillusionst, thank you for searching, but the point is that I also did some googling before posting this on the forum. And the thing with pointing at the root partitition didn't work for me: the error remains the same.
Also, the great majority of posts about this problem I found were about 2.4 kernels, or about 2.6.4 - 2.6.7 kernels.
Other posts were solved by creating an initrd, but for me this thing is not good, because I've included everything I need in the kernel. None of them helps. The error is the same.
For the sake of experiment, i downloaded Lilo, and after booting from lilo i get the same error

dracuss · 02-01-2009, 12:41 PM

This problem is almost solved: i built a kernel under Debian, copied it and system.map in /boot of my Gentoo system. Unfortunately, it works only if I use the videocard included in the mainboard. If I turn on the Nvidia videocard, i get the same error. I couldn't test on the kernels i built at the beggining, because I formatted the drive and reinstalled Gentoo. Also I tried to change the root by using rdev, and it didn't help also after I changed the videocard. The error remains the same as in the first post.