OK. I think I may have posted this question or one very similar to it several months ago, but I am posting it again because I now have a better grasp of Linux and think I have a better idea what I should be asking.

Anyway, yesterday I recompiled my stock RH 2.4.20-8 kernel to the newest 2.4.22. It compiled fine and I got it running with some errors (stuff I forgot to select in the config) but it did boot with no kernel panic. At this point I was using LILO. Then I decided to switch to GRUB and recompile again because of the errors I was getting. I rebooted after altering my grub.conf and I got this

VFS: Cannot open root device "LABEL=/" or 00:00
Please append a correct "root=" boot option
Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 00:00

So then I rebooted and used the old kernel and it worked fine. Then I reinstalled LILO and rebooted. Voila! My new kernel works! But I really want to use GRUB!

My question is:
What is wrong with my grub.conf? Thats the only thing that I can think of that is wrong with this thing!

Here is my current grub.conf:

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
# root (hd0,1)
# kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hda3
# initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hda
default=0
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,1)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.20-8)
root (hd0,1)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.20-8 ro root=LABEL=/ hdc=ide-scsi hdd=ide-scsi
initrd /initrd-2.4.20-8.img
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.22)
root (hd0,1)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.22 ro root=LABEL=/ hdc=ide-scsi hdd=ide-scsi
initrd /initrd-2.4.22.img
title DOS
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

And here is what my current lilo.conf looks like:

prompt
timeout=50
default=linux
boot=/dev/hda
map=/boot/map
install=/boot/boot.b
message=/boot/message
lba32

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.22
label=New
initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.22.img
read-only

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20-8
label=linux
initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.20-8.img
read-only
append="hdc=ide-scsi hdd=ide-scsi root=LABEL=/"

other=/dev/hda1
optional
label=DOS

Please help me. I guess I could use LILO but from what I understand.....GRUB is technically superior.

Thanks,
Phekno

I think your problem is the ROOT label. Grub.conf and lilo.conf do not have the same syntax.

Change:
To:
where "/dev/hdax" is the partition where your root filesystem is mounted ie: "/". So it would likely be /dev/hda2 if you have a seperate /boot partition. I can't tell you exactly what it would be without knowing your partitioning scheme.

Change the same thing for your other kernel as well...and you should be golden.

Close but no cigar.

Here is what grug.conf looks like now:

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
# root (hd0,1)
# kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hda3
# initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hda
default=0
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,1)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.22)
root (hd0,1)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.22 ro root=/dev/hda2 hdc=ide-scsi hdd=ide-scsi
initrd /initrd-2.4.22.img
title DOS
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

(Note: I got rid of my old kernel)
I did this and when I rebooted the kernel panicked again and now it says that I need to pass an init string or something.

So I'm stuck again.

OK I fixed it.

/dev/hda3



Thanks for all the help!

Phekno

Glad it's working for you