Re: Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0)

[Antti Tolamo <debian@tola.org>]

Mason Loring Bliss wrote:

> Hi, all! I'm trying to build a new kernel, and I'm having a Hell of a time
> getting it to see its root partition. I consistently see the message:
>
> Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0)
>
> I'm using 2.6.8 sources on Sarge/i386. I've got a Reiser3 filesystem in
> place. I've got support for ReiserFS built into the kernel, and not being
> built as a module. I am not using InitRD.
>
> Here's what GRUB's menu.lst has to say:
>
> title           Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.8-lapdog 
> root            (hd0,0)
> kernel          /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.8-lapdog root=/dev/hda1 ro 
> savedefault
> boot
>
> I've done a bunch of web searching, but I've not found anything explaining
> what is causing this.
>
> By way of comparison, here's what my currently-working kernel says around
> the same point the broken ones panic:
>
> VFS: Can't find ext3 filesystem on dev hda1.
> VFS: Can't find ext2 filesystem on dev hda1.
> ReiserFS: hda1: found reiserfs format "3.6" with standard journal
>
>
> My .config follows... Apologies for the length, but I'm guessing that it
> contains helpful information.
>
> If someone could suggest what I'm doing wrong, I'd be grateful. I've been
> able to get a kernel based on Debian's kernel-image-2.6.8-2-686 to boot,
> but it includes a large number of things I don't need, in addition to a
> couple things that must be chopped out for my machine to work. (I've got
> a YMF744 sound chip that doesn't work while ALSA modules are compiled in,
> and I've got a Tulip-based cardbus ethernet adapter that needs to have the
> new Xircom driver chopped out to work. Maybe these things could be handled
> with the proper module-handling directives, but I'm still mostly lost with
> regard to module handling. I'd enjoy pointers to solutions along those lines,
> too, but I'd also really like to understand what's not happening with the
> kernels I'm generating.)
>
> My config follows. Thanks in advance for clues!
>
>
>
>
>  

I had similar problem just few days ago, as I hadn't
used grub before.
Have you done the update-grub command, after
copying vmlinuzXXX to /boot?

In my case, doing update-grub and doing
root and setup commands(with switches) in the
grub shell solved  the problem.
Not sure is the shell part required.

Regards,
Antti