Kernel panic:unable to boot with compiled kernel...

[kevkim55]

Post the output of command "fdisk -l"

[rabantu]

Post the output of command "fdisk -l"

Disk /dev/hda: 10.8 GB, 10800857088 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1313 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 1251 10048626 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 1252 1313 498015 5 Extended
/dev/hda5 1252 1313 497983+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Here you go. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[devils casper]

Did you disable ext3 support in compiled kernel?

[Dapper Dan]

Hi again guys...

I've been getting the exact same errors on my wifes old Omnibook. I first got the error a week ago under Slackware 10.2. Up until then it has worked without problems. I could not get passed "Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block."

I was going to upgrade to "12" anyway so I installed it last weekend. The install went without incident, wiping the old "/" and installing over it. Everything worked as expected until yesterday, and suddenly, there is that exact same error again which seems highly unlikely. a few subsequent reboots yeilded the same error.

At this point I'm beginning to suspect a bad drive.

EDIT: Weirdness of all weirdness.... I just booted it to copy down the error exactly and it's now booting into X and running perfectly! lol... What do you make of this devils_casper? Maybe rabantu is experiencing a similar problem.

[devils casper]

Thats really weird.
It could be because of dieing Hard Disk. Try to scan it with disk utility provided by your Hard Disk's Manufacturer. fsck doesn't scan and report problems correctly.
Latest version of fsck, 1.40.2, works fine though.

[rabantu]

Thats really weird.
It could be because of dieing Hard Disk. Try to scan it with disk utility provided by your Hard Disk's Manufacturer. fsck doesn't scan and report problems correctly.
Latest version of fsck, 1.40.2, works fine though.

HI Dapper_Dan & Devils_Casper,

Thanks for your replies.

I didnt disable my ext3.

And if it was a problem with my hard disk, why would it not give me any issues when I boot it with the Xubuntu 7.04 ( Kernel 2.6.20.15 i guess )?
Am I just getting lucky with that kernel?

I will do the fsck once I go back home tonight.

Thanks

[rabantu]

Thats really weird.
It could be because of dieing Hard Disk. Try to scan it with disk utility provided by your Hard Disk's Manufacturer. fsck doesn't scan and report problems correctly.
Latest version of fsck, 1.40.2, works fine though.

Hi Devils_Casper,

As suggested I ran fsck and it didnt report any errors.
The following is the output from running the fsck command:

fsck 1.40-WIP (14-Nov-2006)
e2fsck 1.40-WIP (14-Nov-2006)
/dev/hda1 is mounted.

WARNING!!! Running e2fsck on a mounted filesystem may cause
SEVERE filesystem damage.

Do you really want to continue (y/n)? yes

/dev/hda1: recovering journal
/dev/hda1: clean, 163989/1256640 files, 1391711/2512156 blocks

[rabantu]

Hi Devils_Casper,

As suggested I ran fsck and it didnt report any errors.
The following is the output from running the fsck command:

fsck 1.40-WIP (14-Nov-2006)
e2fsck 1.40-WIP (14-Nov-2006)
/dev/hda1 is mounted.

WARNING!!! Running e2fsck on a mounted filesystem may cause
SEVERE filesystem damage.

Do you really want to continue (y/n)? yes

/dev/hda1: recovering journal
/dev/hda1: clean, 163989/1256640 files, 1391711/2512156 blocks

Hi,

I have been stuck for a while now. Can someone please advise me what to do??

Thanks

[rabantu]

Hi,

I have been stuck for a while now. Can someone please advise me what to do??

Thanks

Can anyone please give me some advise?

Thanks

[kevkim55]

I didnt disable my ext3.

Did you compile ext3 as a module ? If yes, you need to recompile your kernel with ext3 integrated into your kernel.

In case you have ext3 compiled as a module, you'll have to include ext3 module in the initrd image and make sure that init script in the initrd image loads the ext3 module before it attempts to mount the root filesystem.

Let me know if this was helpful !