Pentium 3 kernel panic [SOLVED]

hunky · l33t Joined: 19 Nov 2003 Posts: 910 Location: Alaska

I really hate to add to this subject as it has been discussed copiously but reading through many of the threads has not yet yielded me a solution - so please accept apologies. I've been struggling with this for two days now, between my job and it.

I have an older Dell Dimension 4100 that has a Pentium III in it and I installed as per the handbook - using most of its examples. Went swimmingly until the reboot. It fails on the kernel panic.. VFS - not the right root /dev/hda3 etc... I've tried everything I can think of so finally resorting to this plea.

Using the gentoo-sources kernel, 2.6.14-r5. Used manual kernel install (have done this successfully a number of times on other machines) and followed handbook examples- many were already enabled. Changed the processor type from P4 to P3. Unselected the scsi disk support. (after several other attempts.)

My grub.conf looks exactly like in the handbook, as does my fstab. Not sure how to post those here from this windows box without retyping the whole shebang.

lspci basically says: Intel 82815 815 chipsets, 82801 PCI bridge, 82801BA ISA bridge and same with a /BAM for USB and SMBus's.

So basic setup is quantum 20GB ide hard drive, partitioned hda1 as boot, ext2, hda2 as swap, and hda3 as / ext3.
I've double checked spelling several times (if that is possible- double checking something several times) on fstab and grub.conf.

I'm suspecting something in the kernel, but just can't find it. Thinking at this point maybe I should remerge it (or is there an easier way to get everything back to default?) or emerge vanilla-sources and try that.

My kernel statement in grub is:
kernel /boot/kernel-2.6.14-gentoo-r5 root=/dev/hda3

I've added (hd0,0) in front of the /boot for variation a couple times.

If anyone has something for me to try, please let me know. Also, how the heck to you output your config and all to this forum from a box that isn't booting, other than with install disk.

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2005 11:56 pm Post subject:

hunky,

Please post the exact ouput of the Panic.
The line the ends unknown-block (X,Y) be sure to get the numbers X,Y correct.

At most, its a kernel rebuild, and probably only adding a bit to what you already have.

Since the kernel loads, its unlikely to be grub or grub.conf
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

jmbsvicetto · Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2005 11:57 pm Post subject:

Hi.

Do you get the error that the kernel can't mount the root partition or do you get a different error? I'm sorry, but it wasn't clear from your post.
_________________
Jorge.

Your twisted, but hopefully friendly daemon.
AMD64 / x86 / Sparc Gentoo
Help answer || emwrap.sh

hunky · l33t Joined: 19 Nov 2003 Posts: 910 Location: Alaska

Sorry, I was in too much of a hurry:

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 12:13 am Post subject:

hunky,

The kernel can read /dev/hda3 thats what the (3,3) means.
It looks like you have left your root filesystem out of the kernel or made it a module, so the kernel cannot understand what it reads from /dev/hda3
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

hunky · l33t Joined: 19 Nov 2003 Posts: 910 Location: Alaska

yes, it would seem. But I have double checked the kernel for Filesystems - support for ext2 and ext3 which are loaded <*> by default. I have not added reiserfs, jfs, etc.

cyrillic · Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 1:33 am Post subject:

Here is another kernel option that could prevent the system from booting (if you leave it out).

hunky · l33t Joined: 19 Nov 2003 Posts: 910 Location: Alaska

Thanks cyrillic,

I found that on another thread and tried it, with no good results. It wasn't checked, and I did enable those two items.

/jim

I suppose I should try and get my config file posted somewhere. Maybe I'll boot with knoppix and see if I can get that file copied to the network, then I can post it. Right now though I'm updating world under chroot and can't do much, unless I ^C the emerge. I'm also about to take off for the evening. So it may have to be tomorrow.

[EDIT] Ok here is the config:
config
[/EDIT]

thanks for looking.. /jd

Sven Vermeulen · Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 6:42 am Post subject:

I suppose your /boot is on a separate partition?

Make absolutely sure that, every time you rebuild your kernel to try a new configuration, the /boot is mounted before you copy over the bzImage. I've seen numerous people who were, on every reboot, just booting their old (malfunctioning) kernel instead of the newly built one because they forgot to mount /boot before they copied the image.

Remember, if /boot isn't mounted and you copy the image, it is stored on the / partition (hda3) at "boot/image".
If /boot is mounted and you copy the image, it is stored on the /boot partition (hda1) at "image".

GRUB's configuration will always try to boot the kernel on the /boot partition at "image" (well, actually "boot/image" but boot/ is a symbolic link to itself anyway).
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NeddySeagoon · Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 12:02 pm Post subject:

hunky,

Your config should mount the root partition even if its less than optimum in some ways.

Boot the liveCD,
mount your root (mount /dev/hda3 /mnt/gentoo -t ext3)
Now look in your /boot - it should be empty (ls -a /mnt/gentoo/boot)
Files there mean you have not been installing your new kernel(s) properly
Now mount your /boot (mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/gentoo/boot -t ext2)
Look at the names and dates of the files here (ls -l /mnt/gentoo/boot)
A typo in the name of the kernel file will mean the old kernel is being booted. Use the dates to check.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

hunky · l33t Joined: 19 Nov 2003 Posts: 910 Location: Alaska

Thanks NeddySeagoon and Sven,

Sven, I've been burned by forgetting to mount /boot before so it is a mental check for me to do it each time now.
I may do it occasionally, but it is one of first things I check if things go wrong.

NeddySeagoon, (you a sailor?)
Let me know where the config is less than optimal (quickly) and I'll recompile. (If you don't mind..)

I've noticed when trying to back out of chroot by typing exit and cd as in the manual, I get a
"can't umount : device is busy" after umount /mnt/gentoo/boot and trying to umount /mnt/gentoo.
I type exit a couple times. What is the method to umount?

jmbsvicetto · Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 6:18 pm Post subject:

Jim,

are you still getting the exact same error?
If you have the driver for the IDE controller and the / filesystem built into the kernel, it should work.
_________________
Jorge.

Your twisted, but hopefully friendly daemon.
AMD64 / x86 / Sparc Gentoo
Help answer || emwrap.sh

hunky · l33t Joined: 19 Nov 2003 Posts: 910 Location: Alaska

Same exact error.

Don't know if this is important or will just muddy the waters, but when in knoppix, I right clicked on the desktop icon for /dev/hda1 and picked "mount" and it opened straightaway.

then doing the same for hda3, I got an error message saying in effect it couldn't open the device. I had to do it in a root console, but had no problem there.

cheers, Jim

[EDIT] My memory isn't even short term anymore. The /dev/hda3 actually mounted when right clicking on the desktop icon, but when konqueror opened up, it came up with message that it couldn't enter the folder /dev/hda3. [/EDIT]

sundialsvc4 · Guru Joined: 10 Nov 2005 Posts: 436

Also look for inconsistencies in the boot-time parameters and what you're telling Lilo or Grub.

My best guess is that you haven't provided a "root=" option on the command-line when booting... that there may be nothing per se wrong with the kernel configuration at all.

hunky · l33t Joined: 19 Nov 2003 Posts: 910 Location: Alaska

sundialsvc,

Thanks for the help but you lost me. Do you mean root= option on grub.conf file or how else do you enter a root= option via command line? I have a root= option set in grub.conf as you can see above, but wondering what you mean - care to be a bit more verbose?

cheers, Jim

hunky · l33t Joined: 19 Nov 2003 Posts: 910 Location: Alaska

Just poking around with fdisk which I don't know very well and in fdisk, when I type
"v" for verify partition table
I get:
3212 unallocated sectors.

Good or bad?

cheers, Jim

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 7:12 pm Post subject:

hunky,

Everything looks OK. Your /boot ties in with your grub.conf
Your kernel config file should generate a kernel that boots.

Your kernel crit ...
General setup
Auditing Support is not required
Kernel .config support takes up memory - if you look after your .config file, this can be turned off
Loadable module support
Module unloading is useful to have so you can try loading modules with different parameters.
Processor type and features
Generic x86 support should be off or your kernel will run on an i386
Symmetric multi-processing support should be off unless you have 2 or more CPUs in your system
Power management options (ACPI, APM)
Other than the top level, which allows the CPU to turn off an ATX PSU, I would turn off both APM and ACPI for a desktop.
Bus options (PCI, PCMCIA, EISA, MCA, ISA)
Message Signaled Interrupts (MSI and MSI-X) is harmless and good to have if your hardware supports it. Its a faster way of doing IRQs.
Networking
Didn't check the details - set up IPTables here if you need a firewall
Device Drivers
Parallel port support
IEEE 1284 transfer modes is needed for priters that expect a ECP port.
Block devices
Loopback device support is useful - it allows a file to be mounted as if it were a real volume.
Support for Large Block Devices is not needed unless you have a drive over 2000Gb
ATA/ATAPI/MFM/RLL support
Use multi-mode by default should be on, it reduces CPU load for disk access.
RZ1000 chipset bugfix/support can be off, you don't have this chipset.
Intel PIIXn chipsets support needs to be on - that gets you DMA for your IDE ==10x or more speed improvement
SCSI device support
If you don't want to use SCSI or USB Storage everything here can be off.
USB-Storage requires SCSI disk support.
IEEE 1394 (FireWire) support - You don't have firewire, so this can be off
Character devices
Direct Rendering Manager (XFree86 4.1.0 and higher DRI support)
You probably want ATI Rage 128 here, since you have one of those.
If you do not plan to install a GUI it will not be important.
Your Sound card is PCI, the the ISA ones can be turned off.
USB support
EHCI HCD (USB 2.0) support is not needed - you don't have USB 2.0

Use register arguments (EXPERIMENTAL) under Processor type and features can add a small speedup but like
4k Stacks, under Kernel hacking -> Kernel debugging which can make the kernel runtime footprint smaller.
They are known to break some binary modules. Try them with a working system, so you can back out if needed.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

hunky · l33t Joined: 19 Nov 2003 Posts: 910 Location: Alaska

NeddySeagoon,

Wow! many thanks for that - really appreciate the work that went into it.
I've never really spent the time to look into optimizing the kernel- what all the optons- are short of reading whatever help is listed for each.

I'm about to start over much as I hate to. Downloading is only around 10KBs. Maybe I'll re-emerge a kernel or something.. think on it a bit.
I see I can try gentoo-sources-r6 without downloading the whole kernel again.

cheers, Jim

hunky · l33t Joined: 19 Nov 2003 Posts: 910 Location: Alaska

When emerging a new kernel I see a note about ensuring udev is running. I don't see it when typing:
ps aux

Should it be added to rc-update?
(I did emerge it.)

Also, I didn't emerge coldplug or put it in rc-update as it wasn't specified to do that if compiling a kernel by manual method - though it is there for genkernel method.

cheers, Jim

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 8:04 pm Post subject:

hunky,

Don't start over, its so much wasted time.
Its something in your kernel or grub.conf

udev just needs to be emerged. You have not go as far as testing hot/cold plug yet because your root filesystem has never ben mounted. The unallocated sectors on your hard drive will be wasted space. Its only a few Megs so don't worry about it.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

hunky · l33t Joined: 19 Nov 2003 Posts: 910 Location: Alaska

Grub.conf can use spaces between kernel and kernel-2.6.14-gentoo-r5 and root=/dev/hda3?

I know fstab needs tabs. Grub.conf doesn't, n'cest pas?

cheers, Jim

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 8:19 pm Post subject:

hunky,

yep spaces ae fine in both places.
fstab usually gets tabs to mak it look pretty
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

hunky · l33t Joined: 19 Nov 2003 Posts: 910 Location: Alaska

Just for info, here's dmesg:

dmesg

hunky · l33t Joined: 19 Nov 2003 Posts: 910 Location: Alaska

Ok, I emerged gentoo-sources-r6 and it boots. I can mark this thread solved but the reason for r5 not booting is not yet solved, if anyone wants to pursue it further. Or should we just bag it?

cheers, Jim

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 8:49 pm Post subject:

hunky,

Its up to you if you want to pursue it but as you say, it doesn't matter much any more.
You may learn something by doing a diff on the two kernel config files if you still have the -r5 one.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.