On 2008/05/19 Mon PM 06:00:57 EDT, Phill Upson wrote:
>I think you are missing the driver for your hard disk controller in the
>kernel (or as a module to be loaded by initrd). Try booting from a
>livecd again and look at the output of lspci and lsmod, try to work out
>which module is your disk controller, then recompile your lfs kernel to
>include that driver, replace the kernel and reboot. After your
>extensive testing, I can't think of what else it could be!
>
>Regards
>
>Phill Upson
>
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> I'm trying to move an IDE LFS drive from an older "PATA" computer to a new
>> "SATA" computer. I've been unsuccessful so far.
>> After literally hundreds of iterations/permutations of Master/Slave, various
>> 'rdev' settings, BIOS settings, "kernel ... root=/dev/..." in GRUB, Linux
>> versions (with/without 'udev'), ETC., all boot attempts typically fail with
>> the infamous "VFS" three error lines:
>>
>> "VFS: Cannot open root device "hd.." or unknown-block (x,y)
>> Please append a correct "root=" boot option
>> Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs or
>> unknown-block(x,y)"
>>
>> In short, the boot sequence never gets to mount my file system and then to
>> trigger 'init', at which point I would obviously have a fighting chance to
>> bring the boot to a happy ending (I do expect some inconsistencies, names to
>> be resolved, etc. on the new machine). The alternative, building "from
>> scratch" a new Linux on a SATA drive is scary.
>>
>> COMMENTS and CLUES
>>
>> 1. I've tested with either of two IDE drives, one 2.6.9 (non-LFS, non-udev),
>> the other 2.6.24.4 (with udev-120). Both work flawlessly on the old, "PATA"
>> PC. Both have the expected "boot" points ("/dev/hdax", etc.) manually
>> included to eliminate possible 'udev' limitations and/or suspicions here.
>>
>> 2. GRUB (0.96) works A-OK (otherwise I wouldn't get to the VFS point in the
>> uncompressed kernel, nor to my original, unaltered "root=..." kernel boot
>> option, as shown on the VFS first error line).
>>
>> 3. The new "SATA" machine does boot either IDE drive OK. I can always
>> confirm it with my first DOS partition which is chainloaded without any
>> problem by GRUB (my first partition on any drive is always a little bootable
>> DOS, for rainy days).
>>
>> 4. As far as I know, the IDE drive is seen by the new PC as "hda" ("hdb" if
>> Slave). This I got when booted on a 2.4 Rescue Floppy. Funny, a Knoppix CD
>> sees it as "hde" or "hdf". Anyway, I tried all reasonable possibilities -
>> including "sdx"'s. Luckily, my new machine is a speed demon, so I'd hit the
>> reset button and try a new combination.
>> The SATA drive, when connected, is "sda", of course.
>>
>> 5. So far, the only thing I haven't tried that I can think of is using
>> "initrd". I figure if boot (and GRUB) has been working fine on my old
>> machine without this contraption, why adding this extra unknown/complication
>> now. Obviously, if anybody can demonstrate its necessity under the new
>> circumstances and configuration I'll hop on it.
>>
>> 6. GRUB (like I said, works admirably) uses a menu looking something like
>> this
>>
>> title Linux LFS-2.6.24.4
>> root (hd0,3)
>> kernel /boot/LFSkernel root=/dev/hda4
>> title DOS 6.21
>> rootnoverify (hd0,0)
>> chainloader +1
>>
>> NOTE: No other commands, but I do play with drive names/numbers during
>> tests.
>>
>> REFERENCES
>>
>> 1. The "old" "PATA" board is an ASUS "P4S533-MX". Two "genuine" IDE
>> controllers/connectors.
>> 2. The "new" "SATA" board is an ASUS "P5E-VM HDMI". One ATA IDE port (off a
>> JMicron JMB368 PATA controller) and six SATA ports (off intel's ICH9R).
>>
>> CLOSING WORDS
>>
>> Any helpful comments/suggestions/questions are invited and highly
>> appreciated.
>> It'd make me even happier if I could hear from someone who successfully
>> pulled this stunt I've been miserably failing to.
Hi Phill,
First, thank you very much for your comments and suggestions.
I'll start on your intriguing recommendations right away.
Just a thought (while we're at it): how come a lousy 2.4.2 rescue floppy can
get to my IDE drives (read/write) without my using any special HDD driver
machinations?
Thanks again. Regards,
-- Alex
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