Sat Jan 17 18:39:58 CST 2009

On Sat, 2009-01-17 at 17:27 -0700, Thomas Kester wrote:
> > -----Original Message----- 
> > From: "Sabuj Pattanayek" <sabujp at gmail.com> 
> > To: "Poweredge Mail List" <linux-poweredge at dell.com> 
> > Date: 01/17/09 15:20 
> > Subject: Re: 
> > 
> > On Sat, Jan 17, 2009 at 4:03 PM, Thomas Kester <thomas at cwbzone.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > Hey all!
> > >
> > > I'm experiencing trouble installing gentoo onto my power edge 2600.  I'm getting a kernel panic "VFS: unable to mount root partition".  I'm pretty sure my lilo.conf is correct. I'd like to blame my kernel config, but i've tried using the config that comes with the live cd.. still no go.
> > 
> > show your lilo.conf, show the output of lspci, show the output of
> > mount with /mnt/gentoo and /mnt/gentoo/boot mounted
> > 
> > why lilo btw?

> Here is the info you've requested... reasoning behind lilo was pretty much personal preference. I've liked the way lilo installs (or runs).  Never really liked Grub.  Is there any benifit to either?
>  
> mount:
>  
> tmpfs on / type tmpfs (rw)
> /dev/hda on /mnt/cdrom type iso9660 (ro)
> /dev/loop0 on /mnt/livecd type squashfs (ro)
> proc on /proc type proc (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec)
> sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec)
> udev on /dev type tmpfs (rw,nosuid)
> devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,nosuid,noexec)
> tmpfs on /mnt/livecd/lib/firmware type tmpfs (rw)
> tmpfs on /mnt/livecd/usr/portage type tmpfs (rw)
> usbfs on /proc/bus/usb type usbfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,devmode=0664,devgid=85)
> /dev/sda3 on /mnt/gentoo type ext3 (rw)
> /dev/sda1 on /mnt/gentoo/boot type ext2 (rw)
>  
> 
> lspci:
>  
> 00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation E7501 Memory Controller Hub (rev 01)
> 00:02.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation E7500/E7501 Hub Interface B PCI-to-PCI Bridge (rev 01)
> 00:03.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation E7500/E7501 Hub Interface C PCI-to-PCI Bridge (rev 01)
> 00:04.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation E7500/E7501 Hub Interface D PCI-to-PCI Bridge (rev 01)
> 00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801CA/CAM USB Controller #1 (rev 02)
> 00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev 42)
> 00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801CA LPC Interface Controller (rev 02)
> 00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801CA Ultra ATA Storage Controller (rev 02)
> 01:1c.0 PIC: Intel Corporation 82870P2 P64H2 I/OxAPIC (rev 04)
> 01:1d.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82870P2 P64H2 Hub PCI Bridge (rev 04)
> 01:1e.0 PIC: Intel Corporation 82870P2 P64H2 I/OxAPIC (rev 04)
> 01:1f.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82870P2 P64H2 Hub PCI Bridge (rev 04)
> 03:01.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82544GC Gigabit Ethernet Controller (LOM) (rev 02)
> 04:1c.0 PIC: Intel Corporation 82870P2 P64H2 I/OxAPIC (rev 04)
> 04:1d.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82870P2 P64H2 Hub PCI Bridge (rev 04)
> 04:1e.0 PIC: Intel Corporation 82870P2 P64H2 I/OxAPIC (rev 04)
> 04:1f.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82870P2 P64H2 Hub PCI Bridge (rev 04)
> 07:1c.0 PIC: Intel Corporation 82870P2 P64H2 I/OxAPIC (rev 04)
> 07:1d.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82870P2 P64H2 Hub PCI Bridge (rev 04)
> 07:1e.0 PIC: Intel Corporation 82870P2 P64H2 I/OxAPIC (rev 04)
> 07:1f.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82870P2 P64H2 Hub PCI Bridge (rev 04)
> 08:08.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 80303 I/O Processor PCI-to-PCI Bridge (rev 01)
> 09:0d.0 SCSI storage controller: LSI Logic / Symbios Logic 53c1030 PCI-X Fusion-MPT Dual Ultra320 SCSI (rev 07)
> 09:0d.1 SCSI storage controller: LSI Logic / Symbios Logic 53c1030 PCI-X Fusion-MPT Dual Ultra320 SCSI (rev 07)
> 0b:00.0 Ethernet controller: 3Com Corporation 3c905C-TX/TX-M [Tornado] (rev 78)
> 0b:04.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Rage XL (rev 27)
>  
> lilo.conf:
>  
> boot=/dev/sda            
> timeout=50                
> default=gentoo          
> image=/boot/knl-011709
> label=gentoo            
> read-only               
>  root=/dev/sda3  
> 
----
lilo is somewhat of a PITA - I have to use it on Dell Optiplex 320's
because I never have been able to get it to boot from grub.

I would suspect that you need an initrd if you are using kernel modules.

This is my lilo.conf from one of my Dell systems running Fedora (adjust
for your purposes)

Craig

# lilo.conf
#
# global options
boot=/dev/sda
map=/boot/System.map-2.6.21-1.3194.fc7
prompt
timeout=100
lba32
read-only
default=2.6.23.15-80.fc
bitmap=/boot/TH.bmp
backup=/boot/boot.0800
#
# bootable kernel images
#
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.23.15-80.fc7
     label=2.6.23.15-80.fc
     append="rhgb quiet root=LABEL=/"
     initrd=/boot/initrd-2.6.23.15-80.fc7.img
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.23.8-34.fc7
     label=2.6.23.8-34.fc7
     append="rhgb quiet root=LABEL=/"
     initrd=/boot/initrd-2.6.23.8-34.fc7.img