Problems installing new kernel (2.4.x and lilo)

[kerm1t]

Hi all,

For various complicated reasons I'm trying to install a new 2.4.x kernel on an old RedHat 9 machine. It was running 2.4.18, someone attempted to upgrade to 2.4.19, and now the machine won't boot (2.4.18 has been removed). The error I get with the 2.4.19 kernel is:

> VFS: cannot open root device "801" or 08:01
> Please append a correct "root=" boot option
> Kernel panic: VFS: unable to mount root fs on 08:01

/etc/lilo.conf still has the entry for 2.4.18 and I can see that the "root=" option for both .18 and .19 is the same. So I'm puzzled why it's saying the root partition is wrong.

I was able to boot the machine using an Kubuntu live CD. I then mounted the hard disk, chroot'd to the point mount, and built my own kernel from source (2.4.37). The discs are SCSI, so I made sure I compiled these into the kernel (rather than as modules). Still the same error when booting though.

Can anyone explain what the 801 08:01 message means please?

[coopstah13]

https://lists.dulug.duke.edu/piperma...er/005952.html

This seems to be relevant to that particular time frame (RH9 era).