[SWLUG] Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(3, 8)

[Keith Edmunds]

Julian Hall wrote:
> No offence taken, and to be fair it's *Windows* requiring the power
> off not Linux.  Windows being the tool in question getting the blame
> for that.

As a very general rule, Linux co-exists with Windows very well, but
Windows does not respect other operating systems that are installed. In
an ideal world I would recommend installing Windows on a "Windows only"
PC and putting Linux somewhere else. Of course they can co-exist, but -
particularly if you're not very experienced with Linux - you'll probably
find it easier to separate them. That may not be practical in your case,
but if it is then I suggest you consider it.

> One simple example:  /usr or /home - I forget which, got filled up
> (don't remember how).  Linux refused to boot at all.

Linux would not refuse to boot if /home were full, and it probably
wouldn't "refuse" to boot if /usr were full - there is little need for
Linux to write to /usr in the normal course of events, and indeed some
people run /usr from a read-only filesystem (most of the time). However,
the story may be different if the / filesystem were full, or it may be
that whatever caused /usr to be full also caused some other problems. If
this happens again then take note of the actual error message (if it
says, "/usr full: refusing to boot" then I take it all back!). Often
such problems can be solved relatively easily.

Hmm, a bit rambly - hope there's something in there of value for you.

Keith