Re: [gentoo-amd64] If CD boots then why won't the hard drive?

[Paul Hartman]

On Fri, Jan 22, 2010 at 10:57 AM, Mark Knecht <markknecht@×××××.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Jan 22, 2010 at 8:26 AM, Paul Hartman
> <paul.hartman+gentoo@×××××.com> wrote:
>> On Fri, Jan 22, 2010 at 10:04 AM, Mark Knecht <markknecht@×××××.com> wrote:
>>> Hi again,
>>>   Same new machine - new thread so as to not confuse the other thread
>>> about flags.
>>>
>>>   I made enough headway with grub to get it to find a kernel and try
>>> to boot, but fails with the message:
>>>
>>> VFS: Cannot open root device "sda2" or unknown-block(2,0)
>>> Please append a correct "root=" boot option; Here are the available partitions:
>>> Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(2,0)
>>>
>>> Note that is lists nothing when it says 'Here are the available partitions:'
>>
>> It really seems like it's missing the appropriate filesystem driver to me.
>>
>> Since you mentioned ext2 and ext3 built into the kernel but not ext4,
>> I wonder if the auto-detect is trying to mount your partition as ext4
>> type? Try to add the rootfstype=ext3 (or whatever your root FS type
>> is) to your boot line to force it to use the specific filesystem
>> driver you want.
>>
>>
> In this case it was the chipset drivers not being built in. I'm now
> booting successfully into Gentoo, albeit a very stripped down
> nothing-but-install-CD system.
>
> At least now, as far as Gentoo is concerned, I can work with tools on
> the hard drive and maybe see what I can make the machine do. hdparm
> says 65MB/Sec so I've got enough disk speed to make an emerge @world
> go reasonably fast. top shows all 4 processors. This is my first SMP
> machine running Gentoo. I'm looking forward to it. My graphic
> performance (not important to me as I do mostly audio stuff) will be
> low as I'm using the 900MHz Intel VGA that's built into the processor
> of the i5-661, not the chipset, so far less traffic to the North
> Bridge if I understand correctly. We'll see.
>
> I'll be back. Windows still doesn't boot and I don't so far think it's
> a grub problem but I need to do some research on the error messages...
>
> Thanks!

Glad you got it working. Gentoo on SMP is a match made in heaven. :)

Also, if you're using Windows 7 in dual-boot on there beware of some
possible conflicts with GRUB:
http://community.zdnet.co.uk/blog/0,1000000567,10014915o-2000498448b,00.htm