Hi all

I just tried my luck on an old P-II, 233 MHz, 64 MB laptop.

Booting huge.s I could finish the installation. But I can't start
the installation. It gives

no file system could mount root, tried:
Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on
unknown-block(8,2)

Am I correct in assuming that the initrd is too big for the 64 MB?

The root device is accoding to lilo.conf /dev/hda2

Kernel was 2.6.22 "generic".

Arun

On Wed, 30 Jan 2008 17:43:44 +0100, Arun Dev wrote:

> Hi all
>
> I just tried my luck on an old P-II, 233 MHz, 64 MB laptop.
>
> Booting huge.s I could finish the installation. But I can't start
> the installation. It gives
>
> no file system could mount root, tried:
> Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on
> unknown-block(8,2)
>
> Am I correct in assuming that the initrd is too big for the 64 MB?
>
> The root device is accoding to lilo.conf /dev/hda2
>
> Kernel was 2.6.22 "generic".
>
> Arun
>
Caveat: I do not know the specific system requiremens for Slackware 12.0.
My guess is that 64M is enough to be able to /*run*/ Slack 12 (probably
via command line only). However, the Slackware /*setup*/ environment may
require more memory than that. If you could get around that catch-22, then
you could use that computer with Slack 12.

I have used various methods to setup Slack 12, including cloning a preset
image with the baseline set of packages. If you elect to go this route,
be aware that Slackware's recent kernels require an initrd and that can be
a stumbling block when setting up using a non-traditional method.

It might just be the easiest course to break down and use the "screw
driver" method. You could swapout the disk to a computer with the
resources necessary, then swap it back into the older computer
when done.

--
Douglas Mayne

Arun Dev wrote:
> Hi all
>
> I just tried my luck on an old P-II, 233 MHz, 64 MB laptop.
>
> Booting huge.s I could finish the installation. But I can't start
> the installation. It gives
>
> no file system could mount root, tried:
> Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on
> unknown-block(8,2)
>
> Am I correct in assuming that the initrd is too big for the 64 MB?

No the initrd is quite small and you won't have this kind of message if
it were the case. The problem is (most probably); you do not include the
right modules for your root filesystem or do not have specified it
correctly. See man mkinitrd. If you use ext3 on /dev/hda2 you should
generate a good initrd by

mkinitrd -c -r /dev/hda2 -f ext3 -m ext3 -o initrd.img

(boot first with the huge kernel and make the initrd once the system is
booted; then you can boot with another kernel).

Olive

Arun Dev wrote:
> Hi all
>
> I just tried my luck on an old P-II, 233 MHz, 64 MB laptop.
>
> Booting huge.s I could finish the installation. But I can't start
> the installation. It gives
>
> no file system could mount root, tried:
> Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on
> unknown-block(8,2)
>
> Am I correct in assuming that the initrd is too big for the 64 MB?

No the initrd is quite small and you won't have this kind of message if
it were the case. The problem is (most probably); you do not include the
right modules for your root filesystem or do not have specified it
correctly. See man mkinitrd. If you use ext3 on /dev/hda2 you should
generate a good initrd by

mkinitrd -c -r /dev/hda2 -f ext3 -m ext3 -o initrd.img

(boot first with the huge kernel and make the initrd once the system is
booted; then you can boot with another kernel).

Olive

On Wed, 30 Jan 2008 17:43:44 +0100
Arun Dev <nospam@pleaz.xy> wrote:
> I just tried my luck on an old P-II, 233 MHz, 64 MB laptop.
>
> Booting huge.s I could finish the installation. But I can't start
> the installation. It gives
>
> no file system could mount root, tried:
> Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on
> unknown-block(8,2)
>
> Am I correct in assuming that the initrd is too big for the 64 MB?

IIRC, huge.s doesn't require initrd (providing /boot partition
is of the type compiled in the kernel, e.g., ext3). Are you sure
you have properly configured lilo.conf?

--
Mikhail

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

You did complain about troll... If it is really what you think; why
don't you go to Ubuntu? What do you do on this list?

Olive

i think i'b better try this slack-distro

http://www.pcbypaul.com/absolute/

It works well on old pcs

On Wed, 30 Jan 2008 17:43:44 +0100
Arun Dev <nospam@pleaz.xy> wrote:

Hello all

Am 30.01.2008 17:43, Arun Dev schrieb:
>
> I just tried my luck on an old P-II, 233 MHz, 64 MB laptop.
>
> Booting huge.s I could finish the installation. But I can't start
> the installation. It gives
>
> no file system could mount root, tried:
> Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on
> unknown-block(8,2)

It could be missing modules for the file system then? The root
partition was formatted ext3. Is it possible that Slack "generic"
kernel has no ext3 built-in?

Anyway I don't have the computer right now, will check tomorrow.

BTW, I like the idea behind "Absolute Linux". In fact I was
thinking of trying Puppy Linux if there is a fundamental
problem with Slack 12.

greetings
Arun

On Wed, 30 Jan 2008 21:35:25 +0100, Arun Dev wrote:

> Hello all
>
> Am 30.01.2008 17:43, Arun Dev schrieb:
>>
>> I just tried my luck on an old P-II, 233 MHz, 64 MB laptop.
>>
>> Booting huge.s I could finish the installation. But I can't start the
>> installation. It gives
>>
>> no file system could mount root, tried: Kernel panic - not syncing:
>> VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(8,2)
>
> It could be missing modules for the file system then? The root partition
> was formatted ext3. Is it possible that Slack "generic" kernel has no
> ext3 built-in?

No, it definitely has ext3 supported.

> Anyway I don't have the computer right now, will check tomorrow.
>
> BTW, I like the idea behind "Absolute Linux". In fact I was thinking of
> trying Puppy Linux if there is a fundamental problem with Slack 12.

From my experience, Absolute is a *lot* faster on the same hardware than
Puppy. Paul put a lot of effort into minimising the footprint of
Absolute and it shows.

Arun Dev wrote:
> Hi all
>
> I just tried my luck on an old P-II, 233 MHz, 64 MB laptop.
>
> Booting huge.s I could finish the installation. But I can't start
> the installation. It gives
>
> no file system could mount root, tried:
> Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on
> unknown-block(8,2)
>
> Am I correct in assuming that the initrd is too big for the 64 MB?
>
> The root device is accoding to lilo.conf /dev/hda2
>
> Kernel was 2.6.22 "generic".
>
> Arun
I had similar problem which turned out to be bad ram , even though the bios
ram test passed.
Originally thought it was the multiprocessor kernel, on my first attempt.