I am new to linux and in need of some assistance. I am using Slackware 10.2 on a DELL XPS M140 (1.86 processor, 2g ram).

I have looked through several guides on this site (they are all great) and keep encountering errors upon boot. here it is -


VFS: Cannot open root device "308" or unknown-block(3,8)
Please append a correct "root=" boot option.
Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: unable to mount root fs on unknown block(3,8)


i have tried using make oldconfig, i tried using make xconfig and loading the 2.4.31 kernel, tried the default setup from 2.6.17 and also tried to modify it somewhat, but still to no avail.

can anyone please help? do i need to post more info?

Hi, and welcome to LQ!

That info is indeed a bit insufficient. It would be good to hear
what kind of HDD controller that thing uses (PATA, SATA), ideally
with the chipset ...

Also it's not quite clear whether that problem only occurs with one
kernel, and how you managed to "tried the default setup from 2.6.17"
... can you actually boot the machine by some means, and are able to
recompile your kernels?


Cheers,
Tink

P.S.: I'll shuffle this thread to the Slackware forum where it's going
to have better exposure to the right people :}

Taking a shot in the dark here ....

When I have seen that error in the past it is usually because a filesystem driver that is needed for booting the system is either not compiled at all or compiled as a module. If you know what type of filesystem you are trying to boot into (ext2 or rieser, etc.), try building it into the kernel itself and not as a module.

thank you for helping me out.

when i opened 'make xconfig' there were alot of different options preselected to be compiled or installed as modules, i had assumed it was a default 2.6.17 config. i had also tried copying my 2.4.31 config to the /usr/src/2.6.17 directory and loading that with xconfig and that did not work either.

sorry about the lack of info about my system, i am not entirely sure what i need to post, hopefully the following will be sufficient.

i am using ext3 fs. (i compiled ext2 and ext3 into the kernel on each attempt)

$ cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor : 0
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 13
model name : Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1.86GHz
stepping : 8
cpu MHz : 1862.045
cache size : 64 KB
fdiv_bug : no
hlt_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
coma_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 2
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss tm pbe tm2 est
bogomips : 3709.33

$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/PM/GMS/910GML Express Processor to DRAM Controller (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Class 0403: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 03)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 03)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #1 (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #2 (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #3 (rev 03)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #4 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev d3)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FBM (ICH6M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 03)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801FBM (ICH6M) SATA Controller (rev 03)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX (rev 02)
02:01.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd: Unknown device 0832
02:01.1 Class 0805: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 19)
02:01.2 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd: Unknown device 0843 (rev 01)
02:01.3 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev 0a)
02:01.4 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd xD-Picture Card Controller (rev 05)
02:03.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 2915ABG MiniPCI Adapter (rev 05)

$ uname -a
Linux darkstar 2.4.31 #6 Sun Jun 5 19:04:47 PDT 2005 i686 unknown unknown GNU/Linux



if there is anything i am missing or need to post, please let me know, thank you again for the help.

-m.pass

Hi,
This sounds like what I was getting when I went from 2.4.31 to 2.6.16.22.
There is someting in the README.initrd file in the kernel packages directory
that helped me. My root partition is reiserfs, and needed a ramdisk loaded
prior to accessing it.

The file is located at /slackware-current/testing/packages/linux-2.6.17.4/

This is the excerpt that I used, but you will want to read the whole file:

I hope this helps.
-CD-

When I first installed Slackware onto my laptop, it was the 2.4 kernel. When I then tried compiling the 2.6 kernel, I did what you did and used the 2.4 config file as a basis. I'm not sure if that was a good idea or not since I then ended up spending about two days recompiling my kernel to get everything I needed correctly compiled into my kernel.

The advice that CoolDave is correct only if you've compiled your filesystem drivers as a module and need to load it on boot-up before you've fully mounted your filesystems. By default, Slackware's config only supports ext2 with no initrd. However, if you've compiled ext3 support into your kernel, then theoretically, you shouldn't need an initrd.

i used a thread from this site as a guide to the recompile, it had alot of useful information, but i cant post a URL until after 3 posts.

thank you for all the help from everyone. i got the 2.6.17 kernel booted, after i reinstalled slackware onto ext2 partitions (they were ext3), this is my 3rd post, so here is the thread i used. thanks again.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=127095