On Wed, 06 Feb 2002 21:32:49 +1100, Paul Hampson wrote: >On Wed, Feb 06, 2002 at 03:44:58AM -0600, Gary Turner wrote: >> On Mon, 04 Feb 2002 16:02:23 -0800, Osamu Aoki wrote: >> >> >Hi, >> >On Sun, Feb 03, 2002 at 08:50:07PM -0800, Aaron Brashears wrote: >> >> Request_module[block-major-3] Root fs not mounted >> >> VFS: Cannot open root device "303" or 03:03 >> >... >> >So you can not mount root. Is root ext2? > >I presume it is, since the rescue disk can deal with it happily. > >> >> The funny thing is that if I use the append root=/dev/hda3 in >> >> lilo.conf, it doesn't work. However if I load the debian rescue disk >> >> and specify root=/dev/hda3, the kernel boots fine. Why won't it just >> >> boot? > >That error message (to my eyes) appears to be complaining that it >can't load the kernel module for block devices with major #3, which >is your primary IDE bus. > >The problem is (I think) that the prepackaged kernels need an initrd >to boot off, to load modules like IDE support from. > >To fix that, you'll have to do some reading. I compile my own kernels >precisely because I don't want to muck about with modules or initrds. :-) > >> >Let's do one thing. Boot system with boot disk with root=/dev/hda3 >> >and gain root. > >> Now my ignorant question is--how do you pass arguments prior to or >> during boot? As above, how does one go about booting the system off the >> rescue disk with "root=/dev/hda3"? <--My 7th grade English teacher would >> have had a cat :-), but doing it right looks so wrong. > >When you see LILO, hit shift or something. (Or turn on caps lock before >that point) >You should get a prompt. If you hit TAB at that point, it'll show you >the kernel names you can boot. Type the kernel name, followed by the >commands you want to pass it. This is the same as putting >append=root=/dev/hda3 >in lilo.conf, which is different from putting >root=/dev/hda3 >in lilo.conf. Subtly different, but different nonetheless. > >This should be mentioned on the rescue disk's opening screens. F3 I >think... > >> ># vi lilo.conf >> ># lilo >> ># shutdown -r now > >> Further, it looks like you're opening vi with the file lilo.conf which >> seems unlikely since lilo.conf is in /etc, isn't it? Is this actually >> opening a configurator? (I don't have any man pages available at the >> moment.) And, no editing is indicated. Then, run lilo. OK. >> Shutdown/reboot. > >'vi lilo.conf' is supposed to mean 'edit /etc/lilo.conf appropriately' but >in a rather esoteric shorthand way. :-)
I'm gonna feel pretty stupid about this, I think. Like Aaron, I could get a rescue disk to work. No amount of fiddling with "root=" or "append=root=" in either lilo.conf or at boot would get 2.4 up and running. So I booted into "Linux-old" and went looking at files. I found appropriate links in / for both the old and the new (curiously, the kernel 2.2 link is owned by me (as regular user) while the kernel 2.4 link is owned by root). In /boot I found: -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root ... vmlinuz-2.2.17 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root ... vmlinuz-2.4.17-686 Notice that 2.4 is not executable! I think that a chmod +x might solve the problem. Right now, I'm too ditzy for sleep to be mucking around with root privileges. So, goodnight. gt Yes I fear I am living beyond my mental means--Nash
