Please, can someone help me? ----->

[sofa king stoopid]

Okay, (crackes knuckles), I went out and bought Mandrake 8.0 Power Pack edition. I nuked my HD, which BTW is a WD 40gig. I made a 27gig partition for Win2k formatted with NTFS, Installed 2K, and then procedded to the Mandrake. I made a 12gig partition fot it formatted with the native file system.
I was real careful to sticking with to the installation guide and not get to anxious and screw something up. So it installed along with all the extras that came on the other CD's. I made the bootstrap loader and then I rebooted.

The screen pops up to let me pick the OS I want to use, so I pick the obvious and then the purple screen with all the names on it appears, (assuming they helped write code fot it?). It starts loading up and then it stops. The last 3 lines of code telling what the problem was are:

VFS:Cannot open root device "2105" or 21:05
Please append a correct "root=" boot option
Kernal panic: VFS: unable to mount root fs on 21:05

Okay, I have never used Linux before, so even if I did know exactly what the problem was, I don't know where to go or what to do to fix it. I'm assuming I screwed mounting the root drive, I remember selecting
/home but i'm not sure if that has anything to do with it.

Maybe it was the filesystems, maybe 2K had to be formatted with FAT32 to work with the Mandrake bootstrap loader?

Can someone help me, I have a feeling I just did something real dumb that is easily fixed, without having to reinstall Mandrake.
BTW, I can select 2k from the loader screen and it loads up normally.
Please help,
thx.

[ 29 June 2001: Message edited by: sofa king stoopid ]

[slapNUT]

You need to type linux root=/dev/hda2 at the lilo boot prompt. If that
doesn't work then try the boot disk you made. When you get linux booted then type
pico /etc/lilo.conf
Look in the file for the lines:
image=/boot/vmlinuz
label=linux
Now if there is not a line like this
root=/dev/hda2
then you should add this line. Otherwise if it is different then what you
typed to boot linux then change it.

[sofa king stoopid]

thank u, i'll give it try.

[teeitup]

FYI

Remember, If you make any changes to the lilo.conf file you MUST run the lilo command again. This will install the changes you made.

Good Luck,

[sofa king stoopid]

I still havent figured it out, keep getting the same error, arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggghhhhh.
How do I get the to the equivilent of commandprompt at Lilo?
To enter the commands to fix the problem?
I tried selecting boot disk from the Lilo menu, when it loaded up and I tried to type in the linux root=/dev/hda2, it say image not found.

What am I doing wrong, is thier a specfic button to push to get lilo prompt?

Help!!

[fancypiper]

Try typing linux single.

Have your manual handy.....

Then, if you can't find the trouble, you can always re-install (much less time than Windows, BTW).

[ 29 June 2001: Message edited by: fancypiper ]

[bdg1983]

I tried to type in the linux root=/dev/hda2, it say image not found.

That could be the problem. The boot partition has somehow moved. Could you verify the correct boot partition with fdisk or whatever?

[bdl]

Looks like 21:05 is /dev/sg5, which I'd say is some sort of generic SCSI device. A device of this type is usually used for IDE to SCSI emulation. I'm wondering if you don't have an unsupported ATA66/100 controller that for some reason the MDK installer confused with a SCSI controller and assigned the kernel to that particular device. Occasionally an install will incorrectly define kernel parms or try to mount the wrong root device. It happens.

Ok, now having said that, the error you are having stems from the linux kernel not being able to mount sg5, which doesnt exist, and I'll bet you really need to mount hda5.


Try:

linux root=/dev/hda5

Give it a shot. Once you get in, you'll want to change the /etc/lilo.conf file to reflect the appropriate root device. Luck!

[whoops made a mistake]

[ 29 June 2001: Message edited by: bdl ]

[crazyox2]

Reinstall linux mandrake 8. When you are using their partitioning gui (as shown here: http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/demos/Demo/Mandrake8.0/Install/Expert/pages/expert4.php3 and here: http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/demos/Demo/Mandrake8.0/Install/Expert/pages/expert4a.php3),
make sure that you select a plain ol' root partition (you said you selected a /home; don't set aside one partition just for /home yet; just use one partition for your entire root partition to get the hang of linux first. Your root partition is represented by a single slash (/). So select one of those partitions using the partition gui (graphical user interface) program that the mandrake installer has, and select it's mount point as plain old / .

An example of such is shown here:
http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/demos/Demo/Mandrake8.0/Install/Expert/pages/expert4a.php3

See that dark red block in the middle? It has just a plain old slash (/) on it. You want one of those. Don't pick a /home.

[crazyox2]

Guys, he isn't using lilo. He doesn't have a command prompt to type into. Mandrake installs a gui-based boot loader. :)

[fancypiper]

No command line available!? :eek:

How user friendly is that, now? :rolleyes:

I can (and always do) boot into command line, because it works and it's there.

I can't imagine linux locked out of command line. :confused:

[sofa king stoopid]

Thx guys, u rawk!
Im gonna try all the advice and possible solutions u guys gave me.

I think bdl nailed it, I'm using a Promise Ultra 66 controller.

I'll startanother topic to tell u what happened.

thank u much.