me wrote: > On 16 Oct 1998, Rene Hojbjerg Larsen wrote: > > scsi: 0 hosts. > scsi: detected total. [this is usual when it's working.] > Partition check: > hda: hda1 hda2 hda3 hda4 <hda5 hda6> > [MS-DOS FS Ren 12, FAT 0, check=n, conv=b, uid=0, gid=0, umask=022, bmap] > [me=0x52, cs=0, #f=81, fs=0, fl=48384, ds=52400, de=55699, data=55972, > se=28213, ts=68224, ls=9471, rc=0, fc=4294967295] > Transaction block size= 512 > Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 03:01 > [HANG]
Something is definately wrong here. The kernel tries to use /dev/hda1 as the root partition, which clearly won't work as it holds a FAT file system. Do you use LILO to boot the kernel? In that case it is not set up correctly. Try holding down <SHIFT> when the system boots--this should produce a "boot:" prompt at which you can enter the label of the Linux boot image you are using (press <TAB> to see the list of available images to boot). Enter at the prompt: "label_of_image root=/dev/hda3" (without the quotes). This should tell the kernel where to find the root partition. Assuming the system boots up correctly, edit /etc/lilo.conf to reflect your setup (root=/dev/hda3, boot=/dev/hda), and re-run lilo. Now your system should boot up normally the next time. >> > Hmm. Why does it think I have 81 FATs on one partition? >> >> It seems that the file system on /dev/hda1 is hosed :-( > > though i note that "81" appears in the output above (#f=81). wonder if > there's a way to fix this at a low level. no, scratch that, it's probably > a Bad Idea. > >> > yep, i figured so. but right now I can't even get a Win95 boot floppy to >> > recognize my C drive (aka /dev/hda1). <sigh> >> > Could fips help me with that problem? >> >> Try removing the broken FAT partition with Linux fdisk. Then boot with >> the win95 boot floppy and run DOS fdisk to recreate the FAT >> partition--make sure that you have a copy of fdisk.exe on the boot floppy! >> It is also a good idea to have a Linux boot floppy handy, just in case... > > sounds drastic. how likely is it that i'll lose the data on /dev/hda1? > (did i mention that during an ftp process, my backup got corrupted, and > /dev/hda1 (used to?) contain my only other copy of those files? <sigh>) > Talk about learning the hard way. I really need to corrupt that partition > as little as possible. Tough luck. At this point all bets are off. Try posting the output of "fdisk -l /dev/hda". Perhaps something obvious will show up. I just got a crazy idea. Check if you have a file named /boot/boot.0301. If that is the case there may still be hope. Keep us posted. -- /'"`\ zzzZ | My PGP Public Key is available at: ( - - ) | <http://home1.inet.tele.dk/renehl/> --oooO--(_)--Oooo------------------------------------------ Don't ya just hate it when there's not enough room to fin