"Unable to mount root fs" - what does that mean?

[thinnmann]

I am a total newbie to linux.

Installed Mandrake Linux 7.2 for windows (from comercial Mandrakesoft CD) - setting up a dual boot machine.

Install seemed to go well. On reboot to start linux for the first time, i got the "kernel panic:vfs:Unable to mount root fs on 07:07" death message.

I searched newsgroups for this problem and it seems to be very common, but I can't find any answers in understandable English....

What should I do to next to solve this problem?

Please, any and all help on this forum or via email would be appreciated!

Some stats:
AMD K6 3D 400
8.2 gig
96 RAM
(other OS win98)
"Impression3" old svga monitor
standard 101 keyboard
Yamaha DS-XG sound sys
3com Fast Etherlink XL 10/100

[Stormrider888]

Hmm..I got the same problem when booting `Mandrake with Kernel 2.4 one. I think I did something wrong in the configuration of the Kernel.
Do u use Reiser FS for your root partition?

[thinnmann]

i am really a newbie.. i don't know what a riser fs is....

i am great with windows and i design web sites and teach MS office, but now i am lost...

[Stormrider888]

Hey , I'm a newbie aswell! U can see at on my grasshoper rank http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/smile.gif
Well, I do websites as well, and I am a professional at Windows, but Linux is really hard...
well, Reiser Fs is sth-like Fat32 or Fat16,NTFS or Ext2, they are filsystems.
U can format your partition in Mandrake 7.2 only if u choose the expert mode, but I only got the error when I tried to compile Kernel2.4 ... Sorry I dont know what it is exactly, too..any Linux expert can help?

[DJ-dOoK]

Ok. What exactly did you do when you had the options of partitioning your drive? This is every important so you know exactly what the mount point is, the file system type, and how much space.
A mount point is like the root file system. WIt is the point in the directory tree as to where a drive partition is mounted.
The two main file system options in mandrake 7.2 are linux native and ReiserFS. Linux native is the traditional linux file system that most distributions come with. ReiserFS is a much enhanced file system who's support is added by using a patch in the kernel. Mandrakesoft added that patch in when they prepared the prepackaged kernel for drake 7.2.

Hope this helps.

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One day, the DJ declared! Let this OS be taken to the world, and Linux was introduced to many frustrated windows users!

[plasmid]

for those of you trying to run the 2.4 kernel on drake 7.2, you will likely need to install the ReiserFS patch to the kernel source so that the kernel can support this file system. The 2.4 source on the mandrake installation cd (They call it Hack kernel) should have this already applied, but any kernel source that you download and complie yourself will not have this patch. You can avoid this problem by doing an expert install and choosing the ext2 file system instead, however, I think that the Reiser file system is better...just keep reading and playing arround with it...eventually you will get it to work (and you will learn alot in the process)

-plasmid

[thinnmann]

Thanks for your response!

Originally posted by DJ-dOoK:
Ok. What exactly did you do when you had the options of partitioning your drive? This is every important so you know exactly what the mount point is, the file system type, and how much space.

I used lnx4win install option, during which I chose the size of the root and swap. The first time I installed I took the lowest numbers on a graphical sliding scale. I tried removing and reinstalling just to see if that would fix the problem. The second time I slid the slider up to about 850MB for the root and about 150 MB for the swap.

A mount point is like the root file system. WIt is the point in the directory tree as to where a drive partition is mounted.
The two main file system options in mandrake 7.2 are linux native and ReiserFS. Linux native is the traditional linux file system that most distributions come with. ReiserFS is a much enhanced file system who's support is added by using a patch in the kernel. Mandrakesoft added that patch in when they prepared the prepackaged kernel for drake 7.2.


I actually figured out that root fs was a file system and that the mount point was the place the file system was created... so if Mandrakesoft added the patch, what makes my situation crash, ya think?

(In the meantime, I have an email in to Mandrakesoft installation support - I will let you know what they say if and when they respond...)

[thinnmann]

Hey! I got the Mandrake Linux 7.2 for windows from Mandrakesoft working! I finally realized you have to start it from windows by clicking on the linux.exe file in the lnx4win directory!

Now, isn't it stupid that the lin4win installation option on this commercial distribution would even install a bootloader ("GRUB")? Moreover, the default OS load on GRUB is linux, which leads to that "cannot mount root fs" failure... One would think that they could have set it up in a less confusing way for us newbies!

[lynch]

You wont get the full benefit of Linux by installing it on a fat32 filesystem:-).
That is kinda funny that you have grub loaded with a lnx4win install.It wouldnt load the root file system because it didnt exist?
lynch

[slowlearner]

If you want to keep it running under windows, you can change the default to windows instead of linux. You should be able to do that by clicking on Drakconf. But you're right, there shouldn't even be an option to install the boot loader. Did you do it as lin4win to avoid partitioning? Partitioning isn't as scary as some think. You should try the full install, you'll like it!! Trust me!! http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/smile.gif

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We do not inherit the Earth, we borrow it from our children.