Arrgh! Compaq kernel panic after install

[Robert Locke]

On Tue, 2004-08-03 at 16:25, David Nedrow wrote:
> On a Compaq Proliant DL360, I can install Fedora Core 2 without a 
> problem. However, on the first boot (and any subsequent boot), the 
> kernel panics when trying to open the root device.
> 
> Basically, here's the output:
> 
> RAMDISK: Compressed image found at block 0
> VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
> Red Hat nash version 3.5.22 starting
> Mounted /proc filesystem
> Mounting sysfs
> Loading jbd.ko module
> Loading ext3.ko module
> Creating block devices
> VFS: Cannot open roo device "LABEL=/" or unknown block(0,0)
> Please append a correct "root=" boot option
> Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0)
> 
> I suspect that the cpqarray driver is not loading. Is there a way in 
> grub to instruct the kernel (or mod-utils) to load a specifc driver 
> during boot?
> 
> -David
> 
David,

The drivers needed at boot time are supposed to be in the initrd image
file (referenced as the third line in most Linux grub stanzas.  Now if
you have some unique needed driver, you may need to make sure that you
are constructing this file by hand each time you upgrade your kernel.

Take a look at mkinitrd for information on creating the initrd file.

This is one of those chicken and egg things.  How do I load a module
from under /lib/modules/<kernel version>/ before mounting "/" ?  So the
initrd contains things like the ext3.ko module and other needed modules
to "boot" the system.  Subsequent module loading can be accomplished
from the directory tree, once "/" has been mounted.  Certainly a "disk
driver" that is not "hard-compiled" into the kernel would be one of the
needed modules to boot....

HTH,

--Rob