kernel-2.6.9-1.6_FC2 boot failure where kernel-2.6.9-1.3_FC2 works

Aleksandar Milivojevic amilivojevic at pbl.ca
Wed Nov 24 15:01:54 UTC 2004


Matthew Miller wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 23, 2004 at 12:05:24PM -0500, Matthew Miller wrote:
> 
>>  VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
>>  VFS: Cannot open root device "LABEL=/" or unknown-block(0,0)
>>  Please append a correct "root=" boot option
>>  Kernel panic - not syncing : VFS: Unable to mount root fs on
>>    unknown-block(0,0)
[more snipping]
> Using "root=/dev/hda2" works around the problem. Odd.

I've always hated that label thing.  It is a bandaid that attempts to 
solve one solvable problem (changing disk device names) by creating 
another unsolvable problem (non-uniq labels).

Just use root=/dev/hda2, and also edit /etc/fstab to contain real device 
names.  Get rid of that label thing completely.  If you ever change your 
hardware configuration (how often does that happen?  once every couple 
of years? plus hd* names do not change when you add/remove disks) you 
can always easily edit lilo.conf and fstab by booting into rescue mode.

That will also save you huge amount of grief if you ever connect 
additional disk to your box that already contains file system with 
"LABEL=/" or /var or /usr (disk from another box, that you want to 
reuse, or simply repair something on it and return it to original box). 
  Statistics say that in such case you should have 50% chance of 
mounting the right partitions during boot.  However, in my experience, 
in 99% of such cases, Linux mounts wrong partitions if you use labels in 
fstab.

This doesn't solve the original problems of labels not working.  But 
IMHO, labels were bad idea to begin with, so I can't say I feel sorry 
for seeing them not working ;-)

-- 
Aleksandar Milivojevic <amilivojevic at pbl.ca>    Pollard Banknote Limited
Systems Administrator                           1499 Buffalo Place
Tel: (204) 474-2323 ext 276                     Winnipeg, MB  R3T 1L7




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