[linux-lvm] root fs on a LVM cause kernel panic

[Daniel Savard]

Yes I did.

The behavior is exactly as you stated. It seems the VGs are never detected and
then the device for the root filesystem remains invalid.

Is there anything I can do to check what is going wrong? I am new to the initrd
and its usage. I don't know how to work with this beast... I don't think it is
related to the lilo.conf. I saw a comment in the linux-lvm mailing list from Les
Hazelton Sat, 13 Jan 2001 01:11:05-0500, it is very similar to my problem.
However, no solution is described.

I looked at the lvmcreate_initrd script and found the actual libraries where
not included in the image, just the symlinks where taken. I modified the script
in order to include the actual libraries. It didn't work.

The exact message is as follow:

(snip)
VFS: Cannot open root device "3a01" or 3a:01
Please append a correct "root=" boot option
Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 3a:01

Daniel Savard

Le jeu, 15 nov 2001, vous avez écrit :
> On Nov 15, 2001  00:41 -0500, Daniel Savard wrote:
> > I read the lvmcreate_initrd man page and followed the instructions to create
> > the kernel image with LVM support. However, I am unsuccessful to make it
> > working properly. The system boot and is showing its messages, including the
> > message about LVM support in the kernel and while it is trying to mount the
> > root filesystem, I am getting a kernel panic message saying the "root=" stanza
> > should be provided with a valid device for the root filesystem.
> > 
> > What am I doing wrong? Is there anything missing? Any way to get extra
> > debugging messages?
> 
> Did you add the initrd image to the kernel stanza in lilo.conf and re-run
> lilo?  It sounds like your kernel is booting, but the VGs are not active.
> 
> Cheers, Andreas
> --
> Andreas Dilger
> http://sourceforge.net/projects/ext2resize/
> http://www-mddsp.enel.ucalgary.ca/People/adilger/