The error about "Kernel Panic: VFS: unable to sync ... check your root= option" has been posted all over the board and everytime people's error was putting their fs in as a module. I have not put the ext3 things in as a module and I have given ide support but I still get this same error:

Also when after make is done it says its at (3,2) which is where its saying it cant find it.

Here is the ext3 and ide parts from my .config file

I have compiled ext3 into the kernel along with everything related to ide yet I still get the error.

The part for the new kernel in my lilo.conf looks like:
I run lilo and it updates fine.

So besides compiling your fs in as a module and besides screwing up your bootloader options what else can cause this error?

I had this same error for months with my Pentium II machine, and it drove me absolutely nuts. Everytime I asked for help, I was told to compile in fs, other basic things, which I already did. So my P2 machine never switched to 2.6 for along time because I got this error and the kernels would never boot.

Once I was watching the boot messages scroll by on a working 2.4. I think it was a config from way back, a distro one back when I used Slackware that had everything but the kitchen sink compiled into it. To make a long story short(er), there's another IDE bus in there. Why I don't know, I didn't build this machine. I had supported the PIIX3 IDE, but there was still a PDC20246 in there that attached the actual disks. I have this as my root, which is not standard: /dev/hde1 Usually you'd expect /dev/hda1 or similar. Once I added another hard disk to the machine I got to see what they did when it was built, looks like this:

PIIX3: ide0, ide1, a ATAPI CD and Tape drive
hdc, hdd
20246: ide2, ide3, a 80gig HD, and a 3gig HD,
hde, hdf

So, the bus my actual disks were sitting was not supported: no wonder "can't find root" Can't see disk

If you've made sure you've compiled in your filesystem and any obvious hardware, make absolutely sure you're supporting anything not-so-obvious, like this IDE bus in my example. Try to compare a working boot messages log to one that doesn't, line by line, real carefully. There must be something in there that's not getting supported (failing you're having actual hardware failure, but I think what you've said is not about broken hardware.)

Here's my 2.6.16.16 off my Pentium4's config:

and the P2 at same version:

The option that alone caused the kernel not to boot with the VFS errors was this one not being set:

Have a look at "lsdev", "lspci", and compare the two boot sequences. "Unknown block 3-2" sure sounds alot like my PDC problem. Have a look at the other CONFIG_BLK_DEV stuff as well. From devices.txt:

After reading your post and a freind going through it in screen I seemed to fix the issue thanks.