Greetings,

I'm not a newbie, but it's been some time since I worked regularly
with a Linux system. I'm trying to get back into the swing of things,
so please bare with.

I installed Slackware 12 onto my Western Digital 160GB drive, which I
normally attach to my dell (xp) inspiron 9300 laptop. The installation
process was like butter. No problems. I installed the mbr onto the
external drive. Two linux partitions: 1GB swap (sdb1) and the root
(sdb2) ext2.

I've seen the following problem on other posts, but haven't found a
solution.

I set my bios to boot, first, from a usb device and this works. I boot
and get the lilo screen. I hit enter at the boot prompt and it goes
through the process and shortly thereafter I get the following error
message:

"VFS: Cannot open root device '812' or unknown-block(8, 18)
Please append a correct 'root=' boot option
kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-
block(8, 18)"

The process freezes at this point.

Here is my relevant lilo.conf for Slackware:
boot = /dev/sdb

#
image = /boot/vmlinuz
root = /dev/sdb2
label = /dev/sdb2
read-only
#

I'm able to go into this Slackware installation using Wolvix and it
works fine. It just won't boot correctly. Any suggestions?

Many thanks...

On Thu, 28 Feb 2008, KAdwhammy wrote:

> I set my bios to boot, first, from a usb device and this works. I boot
> and get the lilo screen. I hit enter at the boot prompt and it goes
> through the process and shortly thereafter I get the following error
> message:

How abouts showing us what you see first. before this

>
> "VFS: Cannot open root device '812' or unknown-block(8, 18)
> Please append a correct 'root=' boot option
> kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-
> block(8, 18)"
>

This seems to me like it doesnt know about/cant handle your FS

Can you boot with setup CD/DVD so you have a semi usable system,
1/ mkdir /tmpf
2/ cd tmpf
3/ chroot tmpf
- then, is the system usable?
if yes type 'lilo' (any errors?)
if not exit, reboot and see what happens



> Here is my relevant lilo.conf for Slackware:
> boot = /dev/sdb
>
> #
> image = /boot/vmlinuz
> root = /dev/sdb2
> label = /dev/sdb2
> read-only
>

Looks fine to me

#
>
> I'm able to go into this Slackware installation using Wolvix and it
> works fine. It just won't boot correctly. Any suggestions?
>
> Many thanks...
>

--
Cheers
Res

mysql> update auth set Framed-IP-Address='127.0.0.127' where user= 'troll';

On Feb 28, 4:45 pm, Res <r...@ausics.net> wrote:
> On Thu, 28 Feb 2008, KAdwhammy wrote:
> > I set my bios to boot, first, from a usb device and this works. I boot
> > and get the lilo screen. I hit enter at the boot prompt and it goes
> > through the process and shortly thereafter I get the following error
> > message:
>
> How abouts showing us what you see first. before this
>
>
>
> > "VFS: Cannot open root device '812' or unknown-block(8, 18)
> > Please append a correct 'root=' boot option
> > kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-
> > block(8, 18)"
>
> This seems to me like it doesnt know about/cant handle your FS
>
> Can you boot with setup CD/DVD so you have a semi usable system,
> 1/ mkdir /tmpf
> 2/ cd tmpf
> 3/ chroot tmpf
> - then, is the system usable?
> if yes type 'lilo' (any errors?)
> if not exit, reboot and see what happens
>
> > Here is my relevant lilo.conf for Slackware:
> > boot = /dev/sdb
>
> > #
> > image = /boot/vmlinuz
> > root = /dev/sdb2
> > label = /dev/sdb2
> > read-only
>
> Looks fine to me
>
> #
>
>
>
> > I'm able to go into this Slackware installation using Wolvix and it
> > works fine. It just won't boot correctly. Any suggestions?
>
> > Many thanks...
>
> --
> Cheers
> Res
>
> mysql> update auth set Framed-IP-Address='127.0.0.127' where user= 'troll';

I think it goes through a fairly normal boot process up until the
panic. It freezes, so it's hard for me to record said process. These
are the 10 lines preceding those shown relating to the panic:

device-mapper: ioctl: 4.11.0-ioctl (2006-10-12) initialised: dm-
develo@redhat.com
tcp cubic registered
Initializing XFRM netlink socket
NET: Registered protocol family 1
NET: Registered protocol family 17
Using IPI Shortcut mode
input: AT Translated Set 2 keyboard as /class/input/input2
md: Autodetecting RAID arrays.
md: autorun...
md: ... autorun DONE.


Yes, I can access the system, if I boot with Wolvix and then use
chroot. I can launch kde, view pages on the internet, etc.

I did try $ lilo and I got the following:

Warning: LBA32 addressing assumed
Warning: '/proc/partitions' does not exist, disk scan bypassed
Warning: /dev/sdb is not on the first disk
Added /dev/sdb2 *
Added WinXP
3 warnings were issued

Hope this helps. Thanks.

KAdwhammy :
> Greetings,
>
> I'm not a newbie, but it's been some time since I worked regularly
> with a Linux system. I'm trying to get back into the swing of things,
> so please bare with.
>
> I installed Slackware 12 onto my Western Digital 160GB drive, which I
> normally attach to my dell (xp) inspiron 9300 laptop. The installation
> process was like butter. No problems. I installed the mbr onto the
> external drive. Two linux partitions: 1GB swap (sdb1) and the root
> (sdb2) ext2.
>
> I've seen the following problem on other posts, but haven't found a
> solution.
>
> I set my bios to boot, first, from a usb device and this works. I boot
> and get the lilo screen. I hit enter at the boot prompt and it goes
> through the process and shortly thereafter I get the following error
> message:
>
> "VFS: Cannot open root device '812' or unknown-block(8, 18)
> Please append a correct 'root=' boot option
> kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-
> block(8, 18)"
>
> The process freezes at this point.

I'm betting that the usb driver is a module, and not yet loaded into the
kernel at this point since it's sitting on the root filesystem and all.
Recompile the kernel with your USB driver compiled into the kernel
instead of a module, and badabing, life is copacetic.

Either that or I'm talkin out of my hindquarters.

--
LIFE ISN'T FAIR

www.websterscafe.com

Hallo, KAdwhammy,

Du meintest am 28.02.08:

> I installed Slackware 12 onto my Western Digital 160GB drive, which I
> normally attach to my dell (xp) inspiron 9300 laptop. The
> installation process was like butter. No problems. I installed the
> mbr onto the external drive. Two linux partitions: 1GB swap (sdb1)
> and the root (sdb2) ext2.

[...]

> I set my bios to boot, first, from a usb device and this works. I
> boot and get the lilo screen. I hit enter at the boot prompt and it
> goes through the process and shortly thereafter I get the following
> error message:

> "VFS: Cannot open root device '812' or unknown-block(8, 18)
> Please append a correct 'root=' boot option
> kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-
> block(8, 18)"

The system searches sdb2 (as you have told it). But when it boots via
USB it may see the drive as sda. Can you change the entry in "/etc/
lilo.conf" (and "/etc/fstab") to sda2?

Viele Gruesse
Helmut

"Ubuntu" - an African word, meaning "Slackware is too hard for me".

KAdwhammy wrote:

> These
> are the 10 lines preceding those shown relating to the panic:
>
> device-mapper: ioctl: 4.11.0-ioctl (2006-10-12) initialised: dm-
> develo@redhat.com
> tcp cubic registered
> Initializing XFRM netlink socket
> NET: Registered protocol family 1
> NET: Registered protocol family 17
> Using IPI Shortcut mode
> input: AT Translated Set 2 keyboard as /class/input/input2
> md: Autodetecting RAID arrays.
> md: autorun...
> md: ... autorun DONE.

the interesting question is: are there any lines relating to USB? Watch out
for lines beginning with ehci_hcd, uhci_hcd and hub.

Also important:

Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
USB Mass Storage support registered.

And subsequent detection of disks (lines beginning with sda or sdb).

On Feb 28, 7:07 pm, KAdwhammy <jgo...@gmail.com> wrote:

> "VFS: Cannot open root device '812' or unknown-block(8, 18)
> Please append a correct 'root=' boot option
> kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-
> block(8, 18)"
>
> The process freezes at this point.

Try booting with rootdelay=10 at the lilo prompt.