problem mounting root under 2.4.0

Chris Jones (clj@emc.com)
16 Jan 2001 08:40:41 -0500


I'm unable to boot a 2.4.0 kernel on a system that's been running 2.2.18. It
fails early in boot with the following messages:

request-module[block-major-8]: Root fs not mounted
VFS: Cannot open root device "801" or 08:01
Please append a correct "root=" boot option
Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 08:01

I suspect the problem is related to loading the aic7xxx.o module, but the
relevant messages have scrolled off the top of the screen. I tried setting the
VGA mode to extended to give me 50 lines of output, but even though "lilo -q
-v" shows "VGA mode: EXTENDED", I still have a 25 line screen. CTRL-Alt-DEL
doesn't work, so I have to power-cycle the machine, so I lose any messages that
are saved in memory. Is there a way I can get the equivalent of "more" breaks
on boot so I have a chance to read the messages?

I have upgraded to modutils 2.4.1 and mkinitrd 2.5. Are there some gotchas I
should be aware of?

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