Re: unable to mount root, /hda1/MSDOS FS problem

tk (tk@alliancestudio.com)
Fri, 20 Jun 1997 19:15:50 -0800


I was able to run e2fsck* on hda3 from the floppy.
Thanks for the advice on that.

I am further down to solving the problem, but I am still in with the same
problem.

If I boot the system normally, I still get an error message as follows:
"Kernel panic: VFS: unable to mount root fs on 03:03"

The immediately preceding lines say:
"
Partition check:
hda: hda1 hda2 hda3
[MS-DOS FS Rel. 12, FAT 0,check=n,conv=b,uid=0,gid=0,umask=022]
[me=0xdc,cs=0,#f=86,fs=0,fl=47488,ds=20736,de=49608,data=23841,
se=37682,ts=69504,ls=23295]
Transaction block size = 512
"

After that it says:
"Kernel panic: VFS: unable to mount root fs on 03:03"

I presume the problem has something to do with the DOS partition which is
at hda1. If I recall correctly this machine has the superblock in hda1. I
don't know how to verify that, so I can't say for sure.

I booted from a floppy and run e2fsck on /dev/hda3.
It fixed some problems on it.
I tried rebooting and things were still the same. (Kernel panic)
I then tried booted from a floppy again and tried booting with an older
working /vmlinuz. Still the same error message.

I can get the system running if I boot from a boot floppy and then enter
"mount root=/dev/hda3" at the first prompt.
(There is another issue that shows up at this point. See ** so my real
question doesn't get lost):

Does anyone know what the problem is, and how can I go about fixing it?

Thanks,

Troy

* Forgetfulness on my part; I realized soon that the rescue disk I had was
the "root" disk, i.e. the disk you put in after the "boot" disk. I had a
working boot disk so getting e2fsck running was simply a question of using
that as the second disk. I got confused because it's called the memory
(swap) disk in the boot up process.

**
I try to load modules, but when I run depmod I get an error message which says:
"Can't open /lib/modules/1.2.13/modules.dep"

Now, 1.2.13 is the kernel of the boot disk, while the actual system of
course is 2.0.30.. I presume this is something that gets fixed when I am
able to boot from the hard disk directly. I hope that's so.

Troy Korjuslommi ALLIANCE STUDIO
Technical Director http://www.alliancestudio.com/
e. tk@alliancestudio.com ph. (310) 458-0884
http://www.alliancestudio.com/tk/ fx. (310) 395-5741

E R A S C E N T E R http://www.erascenter.com/
- - Model Educational Center of National and International Acclaim - -