Failing boot - Kernel panic

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Date: Wed, 24 Sep 2003 00:19:37 -0700
To: discuss@vlug.org

I'm getting an error on startup that causes the system to halt before
fully booting, and would like some help figuring out what exactly is
wrong and how to fix it :) Here are what seem to be the applicable lines:

   request_module[block-major-3]: Root fs not mounted
   VFS: Cannot open root device "341" or 03:41
   Please append a correct "root=" boot option
   Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 03:41

(by the way, is there any way to get a log of all the messages from a
failed boot? I had to copy these out by hand)

I'm using lilo as my boot manager for a multi-os system, with the
operating systems occupying two separate physical drives. I would like
to put lilo on the mbr of the first drive, and have it able to boot
windows from hda2(vfat) --which it currently does without a problem--
and my Debian installation from hdb1(ext2). hda1 etc are currently being
used by another installation of Debian which I'm going to remove once
this one's working.
The error seems to occur AFTER lilo has passed control to the kernel,
but the part about appending a "root=" option sounds like a lilo issue
to me, so here's my lilo.conf (minus the comment lines):

   lba32
   boot=/dev/hda
   root=/dev/hdb1

   install=/boot/boot-menu.b
   map=/boot/map
   delay=20
   menu-title=" Booting FriedFish on... "
   vga=normal

   default=Linux

   image=/vmlinuz
         label=Linux
         read-only

   image=/vmlinuz.old
         label=LinuxOLD
         read-only
         optional

   other=/dev/hda2
         label=Windows

I can't see anything wrong here. Is it possible that the other Debian
installation's copy of lilo is messing something up?

I should probably also mention that hdb is a new drive I just purchased.
Is it possible there is something wrong with the drive itself? (a quick
google search for "kernel panic VFS" seemed to bring up a fair number of
dead harddrive scenarios..)

The system was booting properly when I first installed Debian on the new
drive and hadn't yet tweaked lilo. I'm not sure if this problem started
immediately after this or not though, as I was doing a lot of switching
around with boot disks for a while there. Besides changing around lilo's
configuration, I've also just recently removed kde and installed
Gnome1.4, complimented by a few gnome2 libraries that dselect thought
were a good idea. My boot disks still work fine (although they are
incredibly slow)

Is there any other information about my system/history/etc that would be
helpful?

Sincerely,
  --Maxwell Terpstra

PS> please CC a copy of your replies straight to me (terpstra@myrealbox.com)

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• Previous message: Ron Johnson: "Re: This might be a darned fine Knoppix station"
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