VFS: unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(3,3)
 

I just compiled 2.6.1 on my debain system.

When I boot my 2.6.1, I get the following error:

Cannot open root device "303" or unknown-block(3,3)
Please append a correct "root=" boot option
VFS: unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(3,3)

Now what's really strange is that I left myself open a back door, it should be possible to boot my 2.4
kernel (which came with debian testing) but as far as I can tell it either is either booting 2.6 (as appears to
be the case) or it's booting 2.4 with the exact same error (and looking at the boot page, with NTFS
included, which I am pretty sure was not in the debian 2.4 kernel)

The instructions I followed are here :
(Sorry about this, but it won't let me use a link in my first 5 threads (to prevent spamming))
it's /howto/debian-kernel-recompile.html
at myrddin.org

Here is my lilo.conf :
boot=/dev/hda
prompt
root=/dev/hda3
install=/boot/boot.b
map=/boot/map
image=/vmlinuz
label=Linux
initrd= /boot/initrd.img
image = /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.12.6.1-23-1-04
label = Linux2.6
other = /dev/hda1
label=WinXP

/vmlinuz is a link which (at the time this lilo.conf was put to MBR) pointed to my 2.6 kernel, but now points at my 2.4 kernel (wow, I can figgure some stuff out on my own) also, at the time lilo was put to MBR, /boot/initrd.img did not exist (make-dpkg warned me about the initrd switch on non debain-patched sources... maybe I should have ignored it, lol) however boot/initrd.img
now points at /boot/initrd.img-2.4.23-1-386

Any ideas on how I can either :
Boot my 2.4 kernel (and have a working machine again)
Fix my 2.6 kernel

Could I perhaps have to re-run lilo after the links have changed where the links are pointing to?
If so, how would I go about running lilo? (tried from knoppix, (with -C) but it fails because of knoppix's read only file system - I would actually prefer if it did everything inside /mnt/hda3/boot, but I am guessing that's asking too much?)

"Could I perhaps have to re-run lilo after the links have changed where the links are pointing to? "

Yes

"If so, how would I go about running lilo? (tried from knoppix, (with -C) but it fails because of knoppix's read only file system - I would actually prefer if it did everything inside /mnt/hda3/boot, but I am guessing that's asking too much?'

In knoppix you can umount /mnt/hda3 and then mount it again as read write.

When you do lilo -C from knoppix you have to change the configuration information in lilo.conf to correspond to how the paths appear in knoppix. For example, suppose you do the following in knoppix:
umount /dev/hda3
mkdir /bootpart
mount /dev/hda3 /bootpart
cp /bootpart/etc/lilo.conf /bootpart/etc/lilo.conf.knoppix

Then edit /bootpart/etc/lilo.conf.knoppix and run lilo:
lilo -C /bootpart/etc/lilo.conf.knoppix

When you edit lilo.conf.knoppix you have to change the paths to reflect the way they appear in knoppix. For example:
image = /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.12.6.1-23-1-04
becomes
image = /bootpart/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.12.6.1-23-1-04

and so on.

Here is a lilo howto:
http://tldp.org/HOWTO/LILO.html

___________________________________
Be prepared. Create a LifeBoat CD.
http://users.rcn.com/srstites/LifeBo...home.page.html

Steve Stites

Thank you VERY much!

I managed to boot my 2.4 kernel with you instructions (I had to use -s with lilo as well tho)
Now all I need to do is fix my 2.6.1 kernel :D

/me goes to STFW & :study: