All: thank-you for the help so far. I have posted this on gentoo-user as
well, and will continue to work with folks individually here or publically
on that list.

The responses so far have helped - Bigfish (Richard), I may respond directly
to your RFI as you may be able to pinpoint the driver(s) I'm missing. I have
added driver support in newly compiled kernels and gotten different errors -
but I think I'm close.

Again all - thanks. I'll pursue on gentoo-user...

Gpm

On 11/3/06, Ladislav Laska <ladislav.laska@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Andrew is right, this is wrong list. Anyway, you should check that
> modules for your IDE controller are loaded in initrd (or compiled into
> kernel).
>
> You can do this by selecting the second choice in grub (rescue). It
> will boot into busybox (a very basic shell) and you should be (un)able
> to mount filesystems. I don't know what exactly will busybox do for
> your, but maybe you will need to create device node by hand.
>
> For more informations, please write to gentoo-user list, or contact me
> personally (but NOT this list, unless this is gentoo-installer's
> problem).
>
> On 11/3/06, Greg Morin <gpmorin@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Good day,
> >
> >  I've installed (several times) on a ThinkPad T-40, trying both manual
> > kernel config and genkernel. I followed the online manual explicitly (I
> > think). The machine is currently loaded with the manual config. Either
> way,
> > the results are similar.
> >
> >  Grub shows the two boot options, then begins loading the OS.
> >
> >  The machine begins to boot, starts loading modules, then kernel panics:
> >     VFS:Cannot open root device "hda3" or unknown-block(0,0)
> >     Please append a correct "root=" boot option
> >     Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on
> > unknown-block(0,0)
> >
> >  There is a single fixed disk:
> >     Device        Boot
> Size    System          Filesystem        Mount
> > point
> >     =======   ====    ===== =========   =========      =========
> >     /dev/hda1       *        32M    Linux             ext2
> > /boot
> >     /dev/hda2                3G      Linux swap     none
> > none
> >     /dev/hda3                ~71G  Linux              ext3
> > /
> >
> >  I am able to mount and use these partitions after booting from CD.
> > /etc/fstab (/mnt/gentoo/etc/fstab when booted from disk) looks good.
> >
> >  Filesystems ext2 and ext3 are compiled into the kernel.
> >
> >  Grub details:
> >     device.map
> >          (hd0)   /dev/hda
> >     grub.conf
> >          default   0
> >          timeout   5
> >          splashimage=(hd0,0)/boot/grub/spash.xpm.gz
> >
> >          title=Gentoo Linux 2.6.17-r8
> >          root (hd0,0)
> >          kernel /boot/kernel-2.6.17-gentoo-r8 root=/dev/hda3
> >
> >          title=Gentoo Linux 2.6.17-r8 (rescue)
> >          root(hd0,0)
> >          kernel /boot/kernel-2.6.17-gentoo-r8 root=/dev/hda3
> init=/bin/bb
> >
> >     I used grub-install /dev/hda with no errors. I've played around with
> the
> > "root=" entry, but to no avail - not sure I'm understanding this one...
> >
> >  The kernel image appears to be valid, with no typos in filename/grub
> > entries.
> >
> >  Any ideas? Seems that the kernel begins to load, but can't mount the
> root
> > filesystem?
> >
> >  Thank-you for any pointers.
> >
> >
> > --
> >
> > Gpm
> > The Morins of Plantsville
>
>
> --
> Regards Ladislav Laska
> S pozdravem Ladislav Laska
> --
> gentoo-installer@gentoo.org mailing list
>
>


-- 

Gpm
The Morins of Plantsville