Unresolved VFS error, help would be appreciated.

mr_brightside · n00b Joined: 22 Feb 2005 Posts: 28

Hello everyone.

I've been desperate to install gentoo for ages, and finally undertook the challenge a couple of days ago. Everything went pretty smoothly, but when i try to boot into it, i get a VFS error message:

" error: Kernel Panic - not syncing VFS: unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0). "

My rig is this:

Athlon-XP (Barton chip) 3000+
Abit NF7 nforce2 mobo
768mhz RAM
ATI Radeon 128mb graphics card
HDDs: 160gb hda (XP on hda1) IDE
40gb hdb (Ubuntu on hdb1) IDE
200gb sda (Gentoo on here) SATA (on a pci IDE controller)

Now i'm aware that other people have posted similar/identical problems in these forums, believe me i've read them all and tried EVERYTHING. I've tried using the 2.4 kernel instead of the 2.6 (this failed, "gentoo-sources" produced a patch error, however the 2.6 kernel compiled fine using "emerge gentoo-dev-sources"). I've reinstalled the whole distro, i've tried lilo instead of grub.....it's really doing my head in.I would be really grateful for help.

Here's my fstab:

/dev/sda1 /boot ext3 noauto,noatime 1 1
/dev/sda4 / ext3 noatime 0 0
/dev/sda2 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/cdroms/cdrom0 /mnt/cdrom iso9660 noauto,ro 0 0
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto 0 0

And here's my menu.lst for grub (which is in Ubuntu, although i'm certain this isn't the problem, cos i've tried installing grub from gentoo too, and got the same error msg):

default 0
timeout 10

title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.8.1-3-386
root (hd1,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.8.1-3-386 root=/dev/hdb1 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.8.1-3-386
savedefault
boot

title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.8.1-3-386 (recovery mode)
root (hd1,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.8.1-3-386 root=/dev/hdb1 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.8.1-3-386
savedefault
boot

title Memory test
root (hd1,0)
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin

title Other operating systems:
root

title Windows NT/2000/XP
root (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

title = Gentoo (on /dev/sda4)
root (hd2,0)
kernel /kernel-2.6.10-gentoo-r6 root=/dev/sda4
savedefault
boot

Like i say, this is really doing my head in. I've tried all the suggestions from other posts, like checking i didn't have Advanced Partitioning enabled in kernel, and checking i've got support for my filesystem compiled into the kernel. I just can't seem to solve things...

I would really appreciate any help you can give me, as this is the first time i've been really stumped in Linux

_________________
Regards,

//brightside//

bet1m · Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2005 7:24 pm Post subject:

did you enable ext3, reiserfs(what you are using) on kernel?
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#370559

mr_brightside · n00b Joined: 22 Feb 2005 Posts: 28

yes, i did. i'm using ext3 for the 50meg boot partition , as well as for the root partition.
_________________
Regards,

//brightside//

Enlight · Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2005 8:24 pm Post subject:

I guess you are using a serillel? I'm not sure about this but I would only use nvidia_ide support.

could you post here the output for : cat /usr/src/linux/.config | grep IDE.

ps : which NF7' (non S I assume) revision

mr_brightside · n00b Joined: 22 Feb 2005 Posts: 28

Hi Enlight

tbh, i don't understand what you mean by a serillel....

You're right, i'm using the standard NF7, not the NF7-S

The output for the kernel .config file is:

CONFIG_ACPI_VIDEO=m
# CONFIG_PARIDE is not set
CONFIG_IDE=y
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDE=y
# Please see Documentation/ide.txt for help/info on IDE drives
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDE_SATA is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_HD_IDE is not set
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEDISK=y
CONFIG_IDEDISK_MULTI_MODE=y
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDECD=y
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDETAPE is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEFLOPPY is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDESCSI is not set
# CONFIG_IDE_TASK_IOCTL is not set
# IDE chipset support/bugfixes
CONFIG_IDE_GENERIC=y
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEPNP is not set
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEPCI=y
CONFIG_IDEPCI_SHARE_IRQ=y
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEDMA_PCI=y
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEDMA_FORCED is not set
CONFIG_IDEDMA_PCI_AUTO=y
# CONFIG_IDEDMA_ONLYDISK is not set
# CONFIG_IDE_ARM is not set
# CONFIG_IDE_CHIPSETS is not set
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEDMA=y
# CONFIG_IDEDMA_IVB is not set
CONFIG_IDEDMA_AUTO=y
# Old CD-ROM drivers (not SCSI, not IDE)
# CONFIG_CD_NO_IDESCSI is not set
# CONFIG_IEEE1394_VIDEO1394 is not set
# CONFIG_VIDEO_DEV is not set
# CONFIG_VIDEO_SELECT is not set
# CONFIG_SND_TRIDENT is not set

Thanks
_________________
Regards,

//brightside//

mr_brightside · n00b Joined: 22 Feb 2005 Posts: 28

I still haven't resolved my problems, help from a more experienced user would be great.....
_________________
Regards,

//brightside//

Maedhros · Posted: Thu Feb 24, 2005 1:56 pm Post subject:

Hmm, are you sure you have SATA support built into the kernel? It should be in Block Devices -> SCSI Support in menuconfig.
_________________
No-one's more important than the earthworm.

mr_brightside · n00b Joined: 22 Feb 2005 Posts: 28

yes, definitely. that's why i'm so puzzled...
_________________
Regards,

//brightside//

Sven Vermeulen · Posted: Fri Feb 25, 2005 8:25 am Post subject:

Are you certain that the partition is /dev/sda4? Some SATA disks are seen as IDE disks.

Karsten from Berlin · Posted: Fri Feb 25, 2005 9:31 am Post subject:

Well, give me a try.

Under 'Device Driver --> ATA/ATAPI/MFM/RLL support' it should look like this:

l1ltw1st · n00b Joined: 19 Feb 2005 Posts: 12 Location: Boston

Karsten, you are the king...

I have been looking around with similar issues as this thread, you are the first to point out the subsection for SCSI:

Device Driver --> SCSI device support --> SCSI low-level-driver

an that is what fixed her up, booting like a good little gentoo box should. Thanks for the post, and for the great graphical direction in it!!!

/me gives the german a big hug
_________________
<xterm> The problem with America is stupidity. I'm not saying there should be a capital punishment for stupidity, but why don't we just take the safety labels off of everything and let the problem solve itself?

Karsten from Berlin · Posted: Sat Feb 26, 2005 12:31 pm Post subject:

No problem. That's why this forum exists.

And you are not the first one who has (had) this problem. I also had to rebuild my kernel two or three times to get the things going. I forgot for example the SCSI-Harddisk to build in, so it had the SATA-driver to drive the chipset, but my kernel couldn't speak to the disk.

Take it easy - save your config for later use (if you have to rebuild your machine sometimes) and have fun with your Gentoo.
_________________
Heaven: The police are British, the chefs Italian, the mechanics German, the lovers French and it's organized by the Swiss.
Hell: The police are German, the chefs British, the mechanics French, the lovers Swiss and it's organized by the Italians.