[Sderby] Kernel Panic: VFS: Unable to mount root FS on 21:03

[chris]

Ron

I use Mandrake, so don't know my way around SuSe very well, but, for 
what it's worth, here's what I'd try...

Copy a boot image from the installation disk to a floppy.  Boot to the 
floppy.  At the command prompt, type "root=sda3" (as in the error 
message you quoted).  Hopefully, that will enable Lilo to locate the 
root filesystem and load Linux.  Once running, you can reconfigure Lilo 
to boot from sda3.  

I'm a newbie myself, and had a similar prob trying to install MD 8.2, 
where it just halted with a 'kernel panic...' error message.  I had to 
tell it precisely how much ram was in the system, after deducting the 16 
mb used for video.  This took some time to work-out!  It did, however, 
teach me that there's usually a work-round for these probs :-)

Good luck...

Ron Smith wrote:

> I've bought a copy of Suse Linux v8.1 pro. I have loaded it and now when
>booting it hangs on an error:-
>Kernel Panic: VFS: Unable to mount root FS on 21:03
>
>The machine I loaded is a Dual P III 800 the Hard Drives are mounted on a
>pci Raid card (100 udma) instead of the on board IDE ports (UDMA66).
>
>I think i have pushed my look too far!! When I boot I have a choice of Linux
>or Linux Safe Settings, when I choose the latter I boot to a command prompt
>but, of course; I do not know enough to go futher.
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>--
>Next Attempt
>Disconnected IDE drives, unplugged pci Raid card.
>
>Installed SCSI  Hard Drive
>
>(Initial attempts at Suse install ended with not System Disk failure) so
>
>Formatted and made bootable
>Ran SUSE 8.1 Installation - This time boot OK!
>
>Error
>
>KMOD: failed to exec /sbin /modprobe -s -k block major-8 errno=2
>VFS: cannot open root device "sda3"
>Please append a correct "root=" boot option
>Kernel Panic: VFS: Unable to mount root FS on 08:03
>
>
>--Same hang up again. Can anyone help Please?
>
>--
>Ron Smith   email: ron@brooklands-farm.co.uk
>
>
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