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

[Julian Hall]

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Neil Greenwood wrote:

> As someone has already said, this looks very much like it's trying
> to resume a suspended session. I'd guess that the partition it's
> trying to resume from is either corrupted or isn't a suspend
> file/partition.
>
> I recently had a similar error message from Ubuntu, when I was
> trying to upgrade from Hoary (5.04) to Breezy (5.10). The only
> difference in my error was the numbers at the end - I had (0,0). I
> found the problem in the Ubuntu forums - the initrd was corrupted.
> The solution in my case (which has taken me over a week to actually
> carry out) was to use a Ubuntu Live CD and chroot into my hard disk
> partition. Then I upgraded the kernel version which created a new
> initrd.
>
>
> I don't know if something like this would work in your case, but I
> had to use the Ubuntu Live CD - tried Knoppix and it wouldn't run
> apt-get after I chrooted, something to do with the way /dev was set
> up. It's quite a nice technique to use to fix a broken install,
> which is why I mentioned it.
>
> Cheers,
> Neil.

Hi Neil et al,

I had to Google a bit to get into LILO during boot.  For future
reference to anyone who may need it, press the TAB key with the menu
onscreen.  If this doesn't work you have to press ALT or SHIFT to get
LILO into interactive mode.  Then you get the 'boot:' prompt.

Sadly this has not worked.  I had a couple of false starts (through me
being a bit dim) until I realised that in the example 'linux
noresume', linux was the label in LILO.  Xandros gives longer labels
(sigh), so I then tried:

Xandros_Desktop_3.0.1_OC noresume

No joy.

Then I tried:

Configure_(Expert) noresume

No joy there either.  Incidentally the former of these two gives
virtually no feedback as to what is happening during boot other than
telling me it's loaded the kernel, found the hardware, etc.  Nothing
detailed such as what modules are loading etc.  The 'Configure Expert'
option is the one that gave me the information I was able to post in
my second message.

Then I Googled to make sure I was using the right command, no '_' or
anything.  As expected 'noresume' is right, it just doesn't want to
play ball.

Think I'll have to find that Live CD, especially as I can't remember
what partition the Linux root is on.  Does that (3,8) give me any
clues?  I suspect it does but I don't know how to interpret it.

Kind regards,

Julian
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