Asus A8N-VM [SOLVED]

surfingtomsku · n00b Joined: 07 Dec 2005 Posts: 4

Hi All,

I'm currently having a nightmare installing gentoo on my new system. I can get as far as the 'reboot' after compiling a kernel. It then snuffs it after starting to boot with the message that "vfs cannot open root device unknown block". It appears to be attempting to open 'sda5' which is the root partition for gentoo and failing. Can anyone who has a succesfully running (or at least bootable) Asus A8N-VM motherboard post their kernel config? Or suggest the problem? I also tried the genkernel but got a message saying something similar during the boot process. I suspect I am not loading the SATA module , does this sound right?

Cheers,
Tom B.

nixnut · Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2005 2:11 pm Post subject:

Could well be that your kernel is missing some drivers. Check that the sata and scsi drivers are included in the kernel as well as the drivers needed for the filesystems you created on the partitions.
Post your grub.conf and tell us what partitions you use for your installation.
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surfingtomsku · n00b Joined: 07 Dec 2005 Posts: 4

Hi Nixnut,
Thanks for your reply. I'm just emerging links in an attempt to be able to send you that stuff from the attempted install, otherwise I'll have to type it all out! Not quite sure how I'll cut and paste from one terminal window to another though - any ideas... (Many thanks)

Cheers,
Tom B.

surfingtomsku · n00b Joined: 07 Dec 2005 Posts: 4

Hi,

Gave up on links - it started trying to install X - no time for that yet!

Here is my grub.conf:

<snip>
title=linux-gentoo-2.6.14-r2
root(hd0,1)
kernel /boot/kernel-2.6.14-gentoo-r2 root=/dev/sda5 vga=791
<snip>

and fstab:

/dev/sda2 /boot ext2 defaults, noatime 1 2
/dev/sda5 / ext3 noatime 0 1
/dev/sda3 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/cdroms/cdrom /mnt/cdrom iso9660 noauto,user 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs nodev,nosuid,noexec 0 0

can I post anything else to help

nixnut · Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2005 2:29 pm Post subject:

You grub.conf looks like it matches your fstab. So it looks like a missing driver is the culprit. This happens easily when using genkernel, since it is limited when it comes to figuring out which drivers need to be included in the initramfs.
Try configuring your kernel yourself and include the needed sata and scsi drivers as builtin instead of as modules.
If you search the forums a bit you should be able to find which modules you need and how to enable those in the kernel.
_________________
Please add [solved] to the initial post's subject line if you feel your problem is resolved. Help answer the unanswered

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surfingtomsku · n00b Joined: 07 Dec 2005 Posts: 4

I wasn't loading the nvidia sata module - I've now compiled it into the kernel and am finishing my install. I seem to have the genkernel config when building my own kernel so I will have to experiment with switching lots of things off now! I don't want all that in my kernel!

I had missed the section in menuconfig where you can switch on the nvidia sata

Many thanks for the nudge in the right direction :-)

Tom B.