Kernel panic while booting root disk

[Erik Forsberg <forsberg@lysator.liu.se>]

Hi !

I'm trying to install Debian slink alpha on a XL 366, cat /proc/cpuinfo says:
cpu                     : Alpha
cpu model               : EV5
cpu variation           : 0
cpu revision            : 0
cpu serial number       : Linux_is_Great!
system type             : Alcor
system variation        : Bret
system revision         : 0
system serial number    : MILO-0000
cycle frequency [Hz]    : 366659568
timer frequency [Hz]    : 1024.00
page size [bytes]       : 8192
phys. address bits      : 40
max. addr. space #      : 127
BogoMIPS                : 363.85
kernel unaligned acc    : 0 (pc=0,va=0)
user unaligned acc      : 0 (pc=0,va=0)
platform string         : N/A

(From another identic machine with RedHat installed)

Anyway, I've put in an entry for "Linux rescue" in the Alphabios and it boots the rescuedisk just fine (I'm using the Alcor disk set, 990204, I'm not sure it's the right disk actually, but I think so) and prompts for me to change to the root disk. I do, and it finds the disk (some text about MSDOS bla bla..) but then gets a kernel panic, can't mount root fs on device 02:00

I haven't tested inserting the drivers disk, because the instruction says root disk. And right now the machine isn't reachable.

Am I using the right disk set ? How do I really know ? 

Regards,
\EF