Kernel panic not - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(1, 0)

[Denis Vlasenko]

On Tuesday 17 April 2007 22:08, Tosif Ahmed wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I compiled the 2.6.20 kernel with ramfs and initrd support, i am using
> syslinux for booting the kernel,
> and i am using a usb drive instead of a floppy drive,
> after sometime of kernel loading i get the following error, i am writing the
> last few messages i get

I don't understand it fully - are you getting this *sometimes*
or what?

> RAMDISK Compressed Image found at block 0
> No filesystem could mount root, tried:
> Kernel panic not - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on
> unknown-block(1,0)
> 
> I cannot make much of this message, someone plzz guide me.

I played with syslinux for the first time today and the following
SYSLINUX.CFG is working for me:

default 2_6_17_6
label 2_6_17_6
  kernel 2_6_17_6
  append initrd=IMG-01.GZ root=/dev/ram init=/bin/sh

At least this should give you something running - you need only
kernel and initrd files on the fat12/16 partition for this to work.

In my example those are:
kernel file: 2_6_17_6   (no extension)
initrd file: IMG-01.GZ

Of course this assumes that initrd is a valid filesystem
with working /bin/sh.
--
vda