Re: Booting 2.6.8 on x686 Sarge without initrd: VFS: Unable to mount root fs

["KokHow Teh" <KokHow.Teh@marconi.com>]

>>>Hi;
>>>      I am building 2.6.8 kernel source on my x686 Sarge system wihtout
>>>using initrd. The kernel-patch.2.6.8 only applies to the prebuilt
>
> 2.6.8_2
>
>>>kernel package and not a prestine kernel. So, I am not using initrd for
>
> my
>
>>>2.6.8 kernel build. The system boots up but cannot mount teh root fs.
>
> What
>
>>>am I missing?
>>>      Any advice and insight is appreciated.
>>>
>>>Regards,
>>>TEH
>>>
>
>
>>If your not using initrd make sure the driver for the root filesystem is
>>compiled into the kernel 'y' as opposed to as a module 'm'.
>
>
> Does this refer to both the ATA/ATAPI/SCSI harddisk driver and/or the
> EXT2/3 driver..?

>Yes, if you want DMA enabled.

The default kernel configuration has the EXT2 compiled in, EXT3 and
ATA/ATAPI/SCSI drivers compiled as modules. I turned on EXT3 (used as my
root fs) so that it is compiled into the kernel and it still doesn't boot.
There are many selection of ATA/ATAPI PCI IDE drivers and its various
parameters (DMA and so on). All of the drivers are compiled as modules with
PCI interrupt sharing and PCI DMA turned on. Does this mean that I have to
boot up the system with stock kernel, check the dmesg to see which driver
is used and run `make xconfig` to compile that driver into the kernel..?

Thanks & Regards,
TEH