Re: [gentoo-user] Grub problem. Gentoo doesn't boot. VFS Cannot start...

[Jon M <gentoo@net-xero.net>]

Hi Isern,

I actually have the exact same problem, and someone was kind enough to 
help me so I'll pass on the same info.  Basically my problem was that I 
hadn't enabled the proper IDE Chipset (or SCSI if you use S-ATA) in the 
kernel.  When I booted off my Gentoo install cd, I can 'lspci -v' which 
showed me what type of chipset I was looking for to enable in the 
kernel.  Give that a try and it should solve your problem.

Isern Palaus Montasell wrote:
> Hello all,
> 
> This is the first time I install Gentoo Linux. This is my grub.conf file:
> 
>> default 0
>> timeout 10
>> splashimage=(hd0,2)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
>>
>> title=Gentoo Linux 2.6.18-r2
>> root (hd0,2)
>> kernel /boot/kernel-2.6.18-gentoo-r2 root=/dev/hda4
>>
>> title=Gentoo Linux 2.6.18 (Rescate)
>> root (hd0,2)
>> kernel /boot/kernel-2.6.18-gentoo-r2 root=/dev/hda4 init=/bin/bb
>> boot
>>
>> #Windows XP Profesional
>> title=Windows XP Profesional
>> rootnoverify (hd0,0)
>> chainloader +1
> 
> 
> Windows XP boots well but Gentoo Linux no. Start booting but prints this:
> 
>> [...]
>> VFS: Cannot opent root device "hda4" or unknow-block(0,0)
>> Please append a correct "root=" boot option.
>> Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs or 
>> unknow-block(0,0)
>>  <6> Time: tsc clocksource has been installed.
> 
> I don't know where is the problem, here is my /etc/fstab file 
> configuration:
> 
>> # /etc/fstab: static file system information.
>> #
>> # noatime turns off atimes for increased performance (atimes normally 
>> aren't
>> # needed; notail increases performance of ReiserFS (at the expense of 
>> storage
>> # efficiency).  It's safe to drop the noatime options if you want and to
>> # switch between notail / tail freely.
>> #
>> # The root filesystem should have a pass number of either 0 or 1.
>> # All other filesystems should have a pass number of 0 or greater than 1.
>> #
>> # See the manpage fstab(5) for more information.
>> #
>>
>> # <fs>                  <mountpoint>    <type>          
>> <opts>          <dump/pass>
>>
>> # NOTE: If your BOOT partition is ReiserFS, add the notail option to 
>> opts.
>> /dev/hda3               /boot           ext2            
>> noauto,noatime  1 2
>> /dev/hda4               /               ext3            
>> noatime         0 1
>> /dev/hda7               none            swap            
>> sw              0 0
>> /dev/cdroms/cdrom0      /mnt/cdrom      iso9660         
>> noauto,ro       0 0
>> #/dev/fd0               /mnt/floppy     auto            
>> noauto          0 0
>>
>> # NOTE: The next line is critical for boot!
>> proc                    /proc           proc            
>> defaults        0 0
>>
>> # glibc 2.2 and above expects tmpfs to be mounted at /dev/shm for
>> # POSIX shared memory (shm_open, shm_unlink).
>> # (tmpfs is a dynamically expandable/shrinkable ramdisk, and will
>> #  use almost no memory if not populated with files)
>> shm                     /dev/shm        tmpfs           
>> nodev,nosuid,noexec     0 0
> 
> /dev/hda1 is a Windows Partition
> /dev/hda3 is a Linux Partition for boot
> /dev/hda4 is a Linux Partition for root
> /dev/hda4 is a Linux Partition for swap.
> 
> Thanks in advance and sorry for my school English.
> 
> See you,
> -- Isern Palaus
> 
> 
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