OK, I figure I'll jes blow past the previous NIC prob (re: restart 12
network), which I'm now suspecting is a h/w prob. I tried to install 12.1,
but am getting a kernel panic:

Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs unknown - block
(8.2)
atkb.c : Spurious ACK on isa 0060/serio0. Some program might be trying
access hardware directly

(or something like that) This with a huge.s kernel.

OK, this is a 450 PII 512 cache, adaptec scsi ultra2 (2940), CD burner, CD
player, 2 ibm scsi drives. I've got NO ISA hardware. One scsi drive with
some old Windows files, but none of the M$ boot files.

This is the very first version of slack that didn't install with zero
issues since about 9.1, previous being bare.i, last successful slack ver
being 11. I've googled for it and have narrowed it down to confusion
between new 2.6 kernel and scsi and sata drivers file location changes.
But, I'm at a loss as to how to resolve this from an install CD. Any
suggestions.

nb

"notbob" <notbob@nothome.com> wrote in message
news:naq1kiqdaxit.m2nltw4v8u5e.dlg@40tude.net...
> OK, I figure I'll jes blow past the previous NIC prob (re: restart 12
> network), which I'm now suspecting is a h/w prob. I tried to install
> 12.1,
> but am getting a kernel panic:
>
> Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs unknown - block
> (8.2)
> atkb.c : Spurious ACK on isa 0060/serio0. Some program might be trying
> access hardware directly
>
> (or something like that) This with a huge.s kernel.
>
> OK, this is a 450 PII 512 cache, adaptec scsi ultra2 (2940), CD burner, CD
> player, 2 ibm scsi drives. I've got NO ISA hardware. One scsi drive with
> some old Windows files, but none of the M$ boot files.
>
> This is the very first version of slack that didn't install with zero
> issues since about 9.1, previous being bare.i, last successful slack ver
> being 11. I've googled for it and have narrowed it down to confusion
> between new 2.6 kernel and scsi and sata drivers file location changes.
> But, I'm at a loss as to how to resolve this from an install CD. Any
> suggestions.
>
> nb

1) Ref network issues: see p63 of SlackBook 2.0 - note that
/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf is the file to edit to configure your network. I
suspect you will want to use the DHCP items. One way to restart the network
is to just cd run the rc.inet1 script from the command line (sh rc.inet).

2) Ref kernel panic after install: the kernel panic is telling you that the
boot scripts couldn't mount the root file system. Most likely causes:
couldn't mount the scsi drive or looking in the wrong place for the root fs.

Some things to consider:

- what boot loader are you using? Did you configure and run lilo during
the install? Does lilo.conf have the correct boot partition and kernel?
- What kernel did you specify during the install? Does it have scsi
support? Did you check the symbolic link in /boot to verify which kernel
vmlinuz is linked to (if you are using vmlinux)?
- are the scsi drives/partitions being detected during boot (as
evidenced by the dmsg info that scrolls to the screen)?
- is your /etc/fstab file entry for root partition correct? check to be
sure the install went to the HD partition you think it did.
- did you do a clean install or try an upgrade from 11.0? (per PV,
upgrade only works from 12.0 -> 12.1)

I would suspect an installation configuration problem, possibly involving
the boot loader config.

A useful tool is a grub bootable floppy. You could use grub command line to
load the installed kernel on your hard disk. If it works, that suggests a
HD boot loader config problem is inducing the kernel panics. If the kernel
also panics using the grub loader, that suggest a kernel or fstab issue.

On Tue, 27 May 2008 09:38:30 -0600, notbob wrote:

> I've googled for it and have narrowed it down to confusion
> between new 2.6 kernel and scsi and sata drivers file location changes.
> But, I'm at a loss as to how to resolve this from an install CD. Any
> suggestions.

If this is indeed the SATA driver issue, you can solve it at install by
passing the following option to the kernel when booting the CD prior to
install:

"hda=noprobe"

as well as when first booting after install with huge or generic. Then
build a kernel without ide support and use that going forward. This
worked for me. Otherwise the installer insists on using hdx and not
sdx. See CHANGES and HINTS text.

HTH

--
This isn't who it would be if it wasn't who it is.

On Tue, 27 May 2008 09:38:30 -0600, notbob <notbob@nothome.com> wrote:

>OK, I figure I'll jes blow past the previous NIC prob (re: restart 12
>network), which I'm now suspecting is a h/w prob. I tried to install 12.1,
>but am getting a kernel panic:
>
>Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs unknown - block
>(8.2)

You're getting this booting the install cd/dvd?

>atkb.c : Spurious ACK on isa 0060/serio0. Some program might be trying
>access hardware directly

I had this after a kernel panix, ignore it -- nothing's same at that point

>OK, this is a 450 PII 512 cache, adaptec scsi ultra2 (2940), CD burner, CD
>player, 2 ibm scsi drives. I've got NO ISA hardware. One scsi drive with
>some old Windows files, but none of the M$ boot files.

Perhaps it's the old SCSI hardware having the issues? The slack kernel
has so many disc drivers built in perhaps the wrong driver is getting
control -- you may be able to see this from the screen before the panic.
You may need to fit a custom kernel to a install cd.

Grant.
--
http://bugsplatter.mine.nu/

Hallo, notbob,

Du meintest am 27.05.08:

> Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs unknown -
> block (8.2)


> OK, this is a 450 PII 512 cache, adaptec scsi ultra2 (2940), CD
> burner,

Is the SCSI driver part of the kernel or is it a module?
If it's a module you have to load it via an init ramdisk.

If you (let) make an init ramdisk via "mkinitrd": this program should
run on the target computer (and that may be a hen-and-egg-problem).