Kernel Panic booting zenwalk

[Captain_Riker]

Hello there,

I've been searching forums now for a couple of days, and the closest thread to my problem was this:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=236932&highlight=kernel+panic+zenwalk

Hope the link works . . .

Anyway it didn't solve my problem, wich is slightliy different.

I installed zenwalk on the the same HDD on wich I run my Ubuntu. It is contained in but one single partition and no bootloader whatsoever was installed. I just added the recommended and logicaly neccessary lines to my menu.lst of grub.
After booting I get the same error as many others who installed their zenwalk on external usb drives. For reasons I haven't understood yet completley they needed to create a new intrd.img! BTW I installed from the standard zenwalk CD, not from the LiveCD.

Next is a quote from my menu.lst:

title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.17-11-generic
root (hd0,4)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.17-11-generic root=/dev/hda11 ro quiet splash
initrd /initrd.img-2.6.17-11-generic
quiet
savedefault
boot

title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.17-11-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd0,4)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.17-11-generic root=/dev/hda11 ro single
initrd /initrd.img-2.6.17-11-generic
boot

title Zenwalk 4.4.1
root (hd0,9)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20 root=/dev/hda10 quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.splash
boot


Here fstab:

# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0

# /dev/hda11
UUID=00f5e7ee-68e4-47b7-a017-e9dadadf613c / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1

# /dev/hda5
UUID=635f81c2-f34e-43d4-8c6b-37b8280972d2 /boot ext3 defaults 0 2

# /dev/hda1
UUID=459D-0443 /media/hda1 vfat defaults,utf8,umask=007,gid=46 0 1

# /dev/hda7
UUID=AA5E29944293DDC1 /win_data ntfs defaults,nls=utf8,umask=007,gid=46 0 1

# /dev/hda6
UUID=F2A8902EA88FEF81 /win_**** ntfs defaults,nls=utf8,umask=007,gid=46 0 1

# /dev/hda8
UUID=01F827948847F290 /win_swap ntfs defaults,nls=utf8,umask=007,gid=46 0 1

# /dev/hda12
UUID=409e3812-55c5-4abe-9c6f-501c2716e9d3 /zdat ext3 defaults 0 2

# /dev/hda10
UUID=8bfe8d3d-8a6d-44c9-8f5d-7d24341bdcf0 /zenwalk ext3 defaults 0 2

# /dev/hda9
UUID=c6045c15-8fef-4a1a-adde-acced9412a98 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0
:


As you can see the entry in my menu.lst must be correcct for grub starts counting from 0 while the rest starts from 1.

The result is the known:

Kernel Panic - not sysncing: VFS: unable to mount rootfs on unknown-block(0,0)

The weired thing about me is, that before you start giving answers and help solve my problem, I want to understand whats wrong. Nevertheless. I really appreciate any help and look forward to it, for the community is the most powerfull advance Linux user have in compare to other OS users. They have theier own, but there is not half as much knowlegde and wisdom in it than here . . .

Sorry drifted into a sermon, don't wont to bore you, just a follower praising . . .

However any suggestion what it is? And how to solve it?

Thanks in advance

[RAV TUX]

moving to the Slackware (http://www.ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=163) and derivatives forum

[Captain_Riker]

I'm a laughing OUT LOUD!!!!!!!

Really folks, this is something . . . . .

I was, like I said, reading hundreds of pages of Threads about the same problem. Here comes the SOLUTION I figured out myself. BTW: If you can read, you are really in advance!! (I mean myself!!!!!)

So I was about to try and install Zenwalk 4.4.1 on a very old Laptop (lets say from 1997) because the Ubuntu-LiveCD failed booting and I was just keen to see what will happen. I know, there is still Xubuntu . . .

At first I didn't see it. But as I had to try it several times, I took the time reading what it says at the first prompt. Where you can pass other options to the Kernel before booting the installer.

After the Welcome line it says:

The Kernel is configured with exclusive LIBATA subsystem, all SATA and PATA devices are now called "sdX" (no more "hdX" for PATA). Optical devices are called "srX".

So simply changing the entry in the menu.lst from:

title Zenwalk 4.4.1
root (hd0,9)
--> kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20 root=/dev/hda10 quiet splash !!!!!
initrd /boot/initrd.splash
boot

to:

title Zenwalk 4.4.1
root (hd0,9)
--> kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20 root=/dev/sda10 quiet splash !!!!!
initrd /boot/initrd.splash
boot

fixes it. (Before you judge too quick, I don't HAVE an SATA HDD!!!!! It's PATA. Plain old simple IDE!!!)

Got it?? :lolflag:

I marked it. It's just one letter, change an h to an s. That's it. So I'll keep on laughing for a while . . .

:guitar:

[tommcd]

I'm a laughing OUT LOUD!!!!!!!

Really folks, this is something . . . . .

I was, like I said, reading hundreds of pages of Threads about the same problem. Here comes the SOLUTION I figured out myself. BTW: If you can read, you are really in advance!! (I mean myself!!!!!)

So I was about to try and install Zenwalk 4.4.1 on a very old Laptop (lets say from 1997) because the Ubuntu-LiveCD failed booting and I was just keen to see what will happen. I know, there is still Xubuntu . . .

At first I didn't see it. But as I had to try it several times, I took the time reading what it says at the first prompt. Where you can pass other options to the Kernel before booting the installer.

After the Welcome line it says:

The Kernel is configured with exclusive LIBATA subsystem, all SATA and PATA devices are now called "sdX" (no more "hdX" for PATA). Optical devices are called "srX".

So simply changing the entry in the menu.lst from:

title Zenwalk 4.4.1
root (hd0,9)
--> kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20 root=/dev/hda10 quiet splash !!!!!
initrd /boot/initrd.splash
boot

to:

title Zenwalk 4.4.1
root (hd0,9)
--> kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20 root=/dev/sda10 quiet splash !!!!!
initrd /boot/initrd.splash
boot

fixes it. (Before you judge too quick, I don't HAVE an SATA HDD!!!!! It's PATA. Plain old simple IDE!!!)

Got it?? :lolflag:

I marked it. It's just one letter, change an h to an s. That's it. So I'll keep on laughing for a while . . .

:guitar:

In case you are interested, here is my grub entry for zenwalk. I triple boot windows, ubuntu, and zenwalk 4.4.1, which was upgraded from zen 4.2:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for an existing
# linux installation on /dev/sda5.
title Zenwalk Linux (on /dev/sda5)
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda5
initrd /boot/initrd.splash
savedefault
boot
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
This was automagically added after I had to reinstall ubuntu (I mistakenly allowed zen to reformat my ubuntu partition). Notice there is no kernel number. Just /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda5 . After I upgraded from zen 4.2 to zen 4.4.1 I did not have to update grub at all. Zenwalk does not save old kernels though.

[hanzomon4]

I'm getting a kernel panic as well, Zenwalk is installed on my usb hard drive and the grub line looks correct. I've tried everything but nothing works. Here's the the grub line
title Zenwalk
root (hd1,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sdb

And the output of fdisk -l
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 1912 15358108+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 1913 3910 16048935 83 Linux
/dev/sdb4 12005 12188 1477948+ 82 Linux swap / Solar

Any ideas how to fix this? I really want to try out a slack based distro..