summaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
authorSven Vermeulen <swift@gentoo.org>2006-08-02 17:35:19 +0000
committerSven Vermeulen <swift@gentoo.org>2006-08-02 17:35:19 +0000
commitc66590e4313c2991faa55f7f1933bf918f54edcd (patch)
tree31f0d86a2e797fa37b80b2f1009b5311fd6a0c94
parentFixie (diff)
downloadkbase-c66590e4313c2991faa55f7f1933bf918f54edcd.tar.gz
kbase-c66590e4313c2991faa55f7f1933bf918f54edcd.tar.bz2
kbase-c66590e4313c2991faa55f7f1933bf918f54edcd.zip
svn path=/; revision=5
-rw-r--r--content/html/rootfs-unknownXY.html88
1 files changed, 88 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/content/html/rootfs-unknownXY.html b/content/html/rootfs-unknownXY.html
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1d7c52b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/content/html/rootfs-unknownXY.html
@@ -0,0 +1,88 @@
+<?xml version="1.0"?>
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(X,Y)</title><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"/><link href="styles.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"/><style type="text/css"/></head><body><h1>Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(X,Y)</h1>
+
+<p xmlns=""><b>Maintainers:</b>
+ swift
+</p>
+<p xmlns=""><b>Keywords:</b>
+ boot
+ kernel
+ kernel panic
+</p>
+<h2 xmlns="">Synopsis</h2>
+
+<p xmlns="">
+When you boot up your Gentoo system, you receive the following error before you
+receive the Gentoo-specific start-up:
+</p>
+
+<pre xmlns="">
+VFS: Cannot open root device "hda3" or unknow-block(8,3)
+Please append a correct "root=" boot option
+Kernel Panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(8,3)
+</pre>
+
+<p xmlns="">
+The numbers in the unknown-block(X,Y) can be different; the X-value is non-zero.
+</p>
+
+
+<h2 xmlns="">Environment</h2>
+
+<p xmlns="">
+This occurs when booting a new kernel or after a change in the bootloader
+configuration.
+</p>
+
+
+<h2 xmlns="">Analysis</h2>
+
+<p xmlns="">
+When the Linux kernel has been booted and finished all its initial
+configuration, it tries to mount the root filesystem. It uses the root boot
+parameter to find out what the root filesystem is:
+</p>
+
+<pre xmlns="">
+(Example from a grub.conf):
+kernel /kernel-2.6.10-gentoo-r5 root=/dev/hda3
+</pre>
+
+<p xmlns="">
+As the Linux kernel doesn't understand a string like "/dev/hda3" it translates
+it to a set of numbers, called a major and minor number. In this error, the
+major and minor are known. This occurs when the kernel has succesfully detected
+the hardware but is not able to understand the file system that it found on it.
+</p>
+
+<p xmlns="">
+In other words, the kernel does not have support for the file system on it
+built-in.
+</p>
+
+
+<h2 xmlns="">Solution</h2>
+
+<p xmlns="">
+There are four possible reasons for this issue to occur: you did not select the
+correct file system support when configuring the kernel, the support for the
+file system is built as a module and you are not using an initial root device,
+the file system is corrupted and does not identify itself as that particular
+file system anymore, or there is no file system on it.
+</p>
+
+<p xmlns="">
+Make sure that your kernel configuration has support for the correct file
+system and that it is built in the kernel, not as a module.
+Otherwise your kernel would need to be able to mount the disk to find the module
+to ... mount the disk.
+</p>
+
+<p xmlns="">
+Also, verify if the root parameter you've set is indeed pointing to the right
+partition. If that fails too, see if you can mount this partition from a rescue
+CD.
+</p>
+
+
+</body></html>