Subject: Re: why can't I make 2.6 kernels boot xfs?
From: Joshua Schmidlkofer <menion@asylumwear.com>
To: Christian Rice <xian@tippett.com>
Cc: XFS List <linux-xfs@oss.sgi.com>
In-Reply-To: <4048B764.306@tippett.com>
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Date: Fri, 05 Mar 2004 09:25:07 -0800
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On Fri, 2004-03-05 at 09:22, Christian Rice wrote:
> I've looked everywhere for a clue as to where I'm screwing up, but I've 
> not figured this out.
> 
> For some reason, starting with 2.6.x, I can't get the kernels I build to 
> mount the root partition.  It's kind of driving me batty, because I KNOW 
> I have XFS and IDE support NAILED in the kernel, not as modules.
> 
> I get a VFS Panic every time along the lines of:
> 
> VFS: Cannot open root device hda3 or "hda3"
> Please append a correct "root=" boot option
> 
> grub.conf:
> 
> title Red Hat Linux (2.6.3)
>          root (hd0,0)
>          kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.3 root=303 mem=nopentium idebus=66
>          initrd /initrd-2.6.3.img
> 
> 
> 
> I've been building successful XFS kernels for a couple years, using them 
>   on HUNDREDS of production workstations, servers and renderfarm 
> machines.  This 2.6 business is confuscating.  Basically, I'm just 
> downloading the kernel source from www.kernel.org, adding Tronds NFS_All 
> patches, if any, and building the kernel with gcc 3.2.2.
> 
> No deja searches yield answers that help.  Everyone says "make sure 
> you've turned on IDE support, blah blah.  It's on.
> 
> Any help yielding the bootable condition will earn my undying gratitude.
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> 

Christian, if you send me a more complete dmesg output, along with your
.config and an lspci, I will look at them.  I have been using 2.6 on a
ton of stuff.

If you have a problem, it could be ACPI related. (if so, try: pci=noacpi
on boot)

Kill your initrd (if you can) - I have had TONS of problems with
2.6.[1-3] and mkinitrd - it does not generate complete initrd's all the
time.  


If you have serial console configured, then modify your boot command
line as such:


kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.3 root=303 mem=nopentium idebus=66 console=tty0 console=ttyS0,3008n1

it doesn't matter whether or not ttyS0 is plugged in, the entire boot
will run as though it is being pushed out a 300 baud serial device,
hence the entire thing will be readable.  See if you are seeing the ide
drives getting probed, and if you are seeing the correct partitions.

thanks,
  joshua