i installed vmware-workstation 5.5.1..on ubuntu and tried to put gentoo on it...but it keeps kernel panicking saying:
"kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: nable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0)"

Tried to follow what variuos forums said but it doesnt work...
i installed boot on sda2 and root on sda4. In grub, when i put root(hd0,1) it boots like its supposed to till it panics. The files system is ext3...but i have enabled ext2 and ext3 and reiserfs in the kernel.
ANd one more thing, when i ls -l /dev/sda4 it shows it as hd8,4
HELP?

Well, I'll help as much as possible, but I like to have a lot of info.

You have 4 partitions,
/dev/sda2 = /boot
/dev/sda4 = /
What are sda1 and sda3?
Which SCSI controller did you build into the kernel? (module or built-in)?

--EDIT--
Going to bed soon, I'll check back when I get up.

well /dev/sda3 is my swap...i didnt use sda1 coz i thought it would mess up the usb flash drive...coz that mounts on sda1. does it mess up?
i built in this :SYM53C8XX Version 2 SCSI support in my kernel...
not too sure about scsi...
so explanatinos would be greatly appreciated..

Make a new VM, choose "Advanced" in the wizard, and make sure to use IDE as your disk type. It's usually what causes most of those errors.

im a little confused...about partitioning in vmware...
if i use hda1 say for example in vmware...and i have hda1 as my root partition on my host system, is that the same partition?

also, i dont want to have to start a new VM..i'd like to fix this...coz im sure its possible if i know what it all means and how to correct it...but thanks...ill do that if i cant find another way...
Until then though, is there a way to get around this?

If you create a Virtual Hard drive file, then all partitions are created within that file. hda1 could be contained within the file HardDrive.vdk if I remember the file extention correctly. VMware 5 uses by default an LSI SCSI adapter, but has the option to use a BusLogic. Within the Virtual Machine, you can install the bootloader to the MasterBootRecord as the MBR exists only inside the Virtual Machine, it has no effect on the HOST operating sytsem.

Virtual Machine.
The VM environment is not going to affect your real machine.

VMWare creates a virtual PC world that is emulating hardware.

Just install Gentoo as normal and forget about your real PC environment.

ok...so to make sure i understnad right, i can install using IDE devices that have the same names as my host system and it wont affect anything?
and onto the problem i have, now that it is installed on sda2,3,4 as boot,swap and root, how can i stop this kernel panic?

Ok- the "virtual machine" is just what it says it is; it doesn't *really* exist.It's a fake disk, and all it will do is take up space on your real disk. It won't if you choose to use a physical disk (the only reason for this is to boot into a preinstalled OS or install a new one through it and use a chainloader to forward your main loader to the new vmlinuz or something).
Older Linux distros seems to have bad support for SCSI/SATA drives (particularly through VMware) so you need to use IDE. Although, I'm not sure when Gentoo was last updated...

And with IDE, your virtual partitions will be in the hdaX format. I'm surprised you were able to install Gentoo in the SCSI disk in the first place. Most distros support SCSI, and distros such as SuSE and PCLinuxOS both run nicely on my physical disk, but there are still a few that don't, particularly distros with the non-gui installer (which usually means that it's older).
If you just had a default install, I can probably install Gentoo in my VMware Server install and send it to you somehow. I've been meaning to install it, anyway.

If you set Buslogic or LSI MegaRAID as a module, you will need to include the modules in initrd or ramdisk file. Including both these modules is a waste of space, so it depends when SCSI device you select of the creation of VMware virtual machine. Also you will need to include any SCSI modules like sd in the file as well. I recommend using IDE as your virtual disk instead as SCSI in VMware even though it recommends using SCSI. Virtual SCSI in VMware is slower than IDE unless you have the real SCSI device. The utility that will help you create an initrd file is mkinitrd. Type the following to create the initrd with the require modules.

[BusLogic]
mkinitrd -v --with=buslogic --with=sd_mod /mnt/gentoo/boot/initrd-[kernel version] [kernel vesion]

[LSI MegaRAID]
mkinitrd -v --with=megaraid --with=sd_mod /mnt/gentoo/boot/initrd-[kernel version] [kernel vesion]

The above is for Gentoo installation running in an VMware virtual machine. Also it assumes the SCSI disk (CONFIG_BLK_DEV_SD) is set as a module and SCSI support (CONFIG_SCSI) is built-in. Setting SCSI disk as built-in does not make USB/IEEE-1394 storage devices to work, so SCSI disk have to be set as a module.

To make booting up an SCSI device easier, I suggest while formating the partitions include the label option. Using labels instead of SCSI device nodes for booting makes it more predictable.

You need to make an initrd directory under the root of your installation. If you do not, it will not boot. Make sure you use touch to create a file name .keep in initrd directory.

timothyb89, a Linux distribution that does not use a GUI installer does not mean it is old. Gentoo, Slackware, Debian does not have GUI installers. Some people may argue that Gentoo does have a GUI installer but only for their LIVE versions.

ok...that explains a lot of stuff...i still need to ask a lot of questions...some of em, a bit dumb...but hey, you dont ask, you dont learn...
But for now, i guess ill have to reinstall it and not use scsi.
thanks for the offer timothyb89 to send it to me...but ill try it out myself first...and if im really really reeeeeeally stuck..ill ask again.
thanks electro..ill try ide for now...maybe when i know a bit more ill try doing it with scsi.

You do not need to start at the begining of installing Gentoo. If you have the space, create another virtual disk and this time use IDE. Use the Gentoo install CD. Create partitions on the IDE disk and format them, but include the label option. Next mount the IDE disk to a desire directory. Then mount the SCSI in another directory. Finally, copy the files to the IDE. Install the boot loader on the IDE disk and you can resume from there. After you power down the virtual machine, you can remove the SCSI device from virtual machine and delete the SCSI disk file. Just do not mistaken IDE disk file as SCSI disk file. They look the same except the file name and probably its location.

If you think you may have messed up your Gentoo installation and you have a Pentium 3 or Athlon XP with SSE instructions or better, have a look at Kororaa or Gororaa which is Gentoo based.

well...i finally got a bit of time to install Gentoo on vmware using IDE...
but i still got a problem. It doesnt seem to be able to open the root device...so it kernel panics AGAIN!

It says:
"Cannot open root device "hda3" or unknown-block(0,0)
Please append a correct "root=" boot option
Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0)"

my root is on hda3 and separate boot partition on hda1. I tried putting root=hda1 but it gave the same error.