VL6 GRUB Error2

[kedarm]

Hi!

@ Sparkyhall :
I tried the exact entries you mentioned. This is the last entry in my menu.lst -

$ vim /boot/grub/menu.lst
title             Vector Linux
root            (hd0,11)
kernel         /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda12 ro vga=791 splash=verbose
initrd           /boot/initrd

I rebooted and chose Vector Linux in grub and this is what the error it gave me :

VFS : Cannot open root device "hda12" or unknown-block (0,0).
Please append a correct root= boot option. Here are the available partitions :
0300       4194302     hda driver : ide-cdrom
0800       312571224 sda drivers : sd
    0801       979933  sda1
    0802   48829567  sda2
    0803                 1  sda3
Kernel Panic - not syncing : VFS unable to mount root fs on unknown-block (0,0)

What is the syncing it keeps mentioning? Has the problem come up because I have installed Vector Linux on a logical partition and not a primary partition? It only lists the logical partitions above, and no reference to the logical partitions where it has been installed.
I tried replacing root= options with "root=/sda3", "root=/dev/sda3" and root="/dev/sda12", but it all gave the identical error.

During the installation, I chose the file system to be xfs. And, I rechecked the device where I installed the root partition of Vector Linux. It is /dev/sda12 (hence, I put hda12). When I mount this partition, I can see the Vector Linux files.
For instance -

~$ sudo mount -t xfs /dev/sda12 /media/VL/
~$ cd /media/VL/
/media/VL$ ls
bin   dev  home  media  opt   root  src  sys  usr  X11
boot  etc  lib   mnt    proc  sbin  srv  tmp  var

The boot partition contains the kernel, etc. So, I am certain that the device is the right one. However, Vector Linux thinks differently. Need help! Desperately! Will I need to reinstall VL?

I use Ubuntu 8.10 (I upgraded from 8.04), so I guess the Grub should be fine.

[sparkyhall]

Hmmm....not to sure about this to be honest. What I can tell you is that I have VL running on a logical partition so I don't think that's the problem.

Have you tried booting VL from the install CD?

If that works then we may be able to fix this using vasm. To boot VL from the the cd boot your pc from your install cd and then at the initial screen type: linux root=/dev/hda12 ro

[Windozer]

Doesn't it matter that there are "Hda" and "Sda" distinctions in drive types?

My sata drives are in /dev/sdaXX
My ides are /dev/hdaXX

hth
- H

[kedarm]

This is very weird. In total frustration, I re-tried the boot and everything worked perfectly till ...
It now halts when it tries to start 'multi-level gui'. Is there any way I can change this setting to command line login? The multi-user gui never starts!


@ Windozer :
There are no IDE drives on my computer. All are SATA.
I also tried replacing root=/dev/hda12 with the following -
(1) root=/dev/sda12
(2) root=/dev/sda3
(3) root=/dev/sda1
(4) root=/sda12
(5) root=/sda3
Each time I had tried, I got the same error. I also tried not putting any value for root, but that (very obviously) failed!


@ Sparkyhall :
I installed from the iso. I have the iso, but do not have the installation cd.

[kedarm]

Hi!

I finally got it working! I write this, signed into Vector Linux!

The steps were pretty simple. I reinstalled Vector Linux and chose the command line log-in. The reason why the log-in was failing was because of an empty xorg.conf file. I also saw the xorg.conf.back file, that looked more like the file I was looking for.

A simple (as root) -

$ cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf.back /etc/X11/xorg.conf

did the trick for me.

Thanks a lot for all the support and help.

[sparkyhall]

Glad you got it working. 

Chris

[Windozer]

Cool  - and good hacking! 

- H

[kedarm]

Ok.. This post is more out of curiosity, than anything else..

It's been a few days since I got VL up and running, and everything is going smoothly. However, I cannot understand why my laptop threw such a tantrum on the initial install! Why does it go into kernel panic? And why did it not detect my drives on the first install?

Also, there is one observation. The first time I installed VL-6.0-Light, I chose the 'multi-level gui'. However, this never started. I could never figure out why. It never gave me an option of selecting a text-based ui either. The only way I could get around this was to re-install the whole thing, and choose 'text-based' login. This time, I successfully reached the log-in page.

But, the excitement was not over as yet! I tried to 'startx', but in vain. It kept telling me that my xorg.conf file was not right. I checked the file to find it empty! However, there were some other file xorg.conf.back (back-up file?), which I copied to xorg.conf. Soon, all was working!

Is my case a one-off? Or is this a well-documented set of events in the installation? I am extremely happy with VL, but the installation made the distro seem rather omenous!