Hello,

After preparing a Gentoo installation, i have customized my kernel(2.6.12) and made my system bootable.
The thing is that my kernel can't mount the root fs at boot time (Cannot open root device "sda3"...kernel panic, not syncing: VFS: unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0)) because it's on a SATA drive

So i thought it was due to a wrong kernel configuration and i've try to enable many things (as built in) about sata and scsi support

My /dev/sda3 can easily be mounted when i boot with the Live CD, but i believe that the sata support is provided by some modules loaded AFTER the kernel.

I don't want to install the system on my parallel ATA (and i don't want to redo installation from the begining).

Note that i had some problems with Grub too about the naming of the sata drive : when i was under the live CD it was named hd1, but at boot time it is hd0...


During the kernel init i can see things (errors?) about SATA but it goes too quickly. Is there a way to see a log of this even if?


Athlon 64 + A8N SLI Deluxe (nForce 4)
The sata chipset is something like Silicon Image xxxx
SATA HDD : WD Raptor


Just say me it's possible to install the system on sata.. or i've losed a whole day.

Thanks

I've had a gentoo install on SATA, so it's quite possible. Most likely it is a question of the wrong driver being built in, or a bad grub config. It almost looks like you only told grub where to install to, and not what to use as root.

My grub line :

root (hd0,0)
kernel /kernel-2.6.12-gentoo-r6 root=/dev/sda3

Ok, I'm not sure specifying root (hd0,0) and root= is a good idea. Look at some of the grub howtos available on the internet.

I just updated my kernel because of some pci driver update and I am having the same problem. worked fine before, but isn't working now. I think it is specific to the 2.6.12 because it worked fine with 2.6.11.

Same problem here with a new install. Any news?

I actually resolved this problem. Go through your kernel and make sure you have scsi supported enabled. Note that in new kernels sata drives use scsi support and not IDE support---> There is a new driver.

Also make sure the filesystems you used are complied into your kernel, (if you used reiserfs, make sure support is complied in the kernel.)

Hope this helps.

Yeah, I have enabled S-ATA support like this:

Device Drivers --->
SCSI device support --->
SCSI low-level drivers --->[*] Serial ATA (SATA) support

and also added ReiserFS support in the kernel (I use ReiserFS on all partitions).

Thanks

Doh!, I forgot to add generic SCSI support:

Device Drivers --->
SCSI device support --->
<*> SCSI disk support
<*> SCSI generic support

Able to boot now. Many thanks, you pointed me back in the right direction...

Glad to have helped