Hello! The last time I compiled a Kernel we were still in the 2.2.x series so it's been a really long time. The more recent distributions I've tried I haven't needed to recompile the Kernel. So it's been years...

Anyway I was curious after reading about some of the improvments in 2.6.x so I downloaded the 2.6.test11, set the config options as best as I knew how, and compiled it. I did Lilo and edited the lilo config and all the usual stuff. Right now I'm running on my old kernel. But the 2.6.x one gives this message during bootup:

VFS: Cannot open root device "302" or hda2
Please append a correct "root=" boot option
Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on hda2


Here is part of my /etc/lilo.conf:

image = /boot/vmlinuz.old
root = /dev/hda2
label = slack.old
read-only

image = /boot/vmlinuz
root = /dev/hda2
label = Linux
read-only

The first (2.4) kernel boots fine but the second (2.6.x) gives the above error.

Any suggestions on how to fix this? Thank you

One possibility is that you have some kernel module set to m when it should be set to y. Every module that you need to access /dev/hda2 must be set to y. This includes such things as the file system type module (ext2, ext3, etc.) the drivers for your IDE controller, hard disk, and whatever. If one of these modules is set to m then the bootable kernel has no way to access /lib/modules to read in the loadable module.


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Steve Stites

Everything I thought I needed I set to Y. I didn't purposely set anything on M. I also later tried compiling with many extra filesystems and IDE drivers etc that I'm pretty sure I didn't need -- but tried just in case -- and it didn't help.

Anyone have any other suggestions?

I had the same problem but I was using a debian (unstable) 2.6 kernel. I resolved my problem by adding initrd=/initrd.img to my lilo.conf. Of course, my initrd was already created and sitting in / so I would assume you'll have to make it. Anyway, that fixed it for me.