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Kernel Panic after putting disk back

From hma

Answered By Heather Stern

Hi,

I like to thank u guys for great job. Am still going thru your past issues. I have sent 2 questions here and I have not heard anything from u guys.. is my pattern wrong?

[Heather] 1. We can't reply to every message. There are hundreds and hundreds of them every month. That you received no reply before is not a personal slight. We will never get to all of them. Just continue to look for whether someone else's answers apply to your questions too.

2. You had no subject this time - that usually doesn't help. For good behavior patterns that help your message get seen, see the TAG entry "Creed of the Querent" a few issues ago: http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue62/tag/5.html

I still have the following problem and I hope U can help now...The problem am having is that when I boot to my linux I recieve the following message: " Vfs: Kernel panic" and that it. It doesn't go.

[Heather] This message means the kernel loaded, then could not find what it's looking for next. VFS means virtual file system - that's what really manages all of Linux' filesystem drivers - it probably can't find the root fs. Although usually if that's the problem it says so. Odd.

When I try doing fsck, I get command not found.

[Heather] You're doing fsck from where? fsck is a linux utility, so you need to come up from a linux rescue disk of some sort. Toms Root Boot perhaps - handy because you can download and create one using DOS if you have to: http://www.toms.net/rb

There are Windows utilities for accessing ext2 volumes, but they won't directly help you get back into Linux, and I don't know of a Windows based ext2 analogue to Scandisk.

The problem started when I remove one of my harddisk and after puting it back, I got this problem. But I get into win when I select it.

[Heather] When you select Win from what? Have you replaced LILO with something else? (LILO doesn't normally have a selector, it makes you type things. Of course you could have Storm Linux, which replaced the boot: prompt with a cool selector screen.) Did you move any partitions before you put the drive back? Is the drive now your second drive?

To fix LILO:

1. Boot from that rescue disk
2. mount up the / volume on some empty directory ... /mnt would do nicely ... don't forget to tell it to use ext2, example:
   mount -t ext2 /dev/hda5 /mnt
3. cd into the mountpoint and run chroot
4. edit your /etc/lilo.conf so it mentions your new volumes... and points at the right volume as your root partition now! For example, if it's now the second drive, than all your references to /dev/hda have to refer to /dev/hdb, except for "boot" (which says where to put the LILO first stage)
5. (If it has become the second drive) you'll also want to edit /etc/fstab, since all its drive references are off, too. Otherwise you'll get a failure in the next stage when Linux really spins up.
6. Run /sbin/lilo to put your bootloader back together. Or else fix your new bootloader so it passes good options to your linux kernel - I think NT needs a copy of a (correct) LILO bootsector for its mechanism, in a tiny little file.
   In short, LILO hates it when you move stuff around. Sorry.

I hope u reply now.

[Heather] My inbox load today was light and I'm in a crossplatform mood, so you got lucky. Usually I leave LILO matters for the rest of the Gang.

Thanks.
Hassan

[Heather] Have a happier day

... I merged answers about his chroot troubles into the steps above ...

Once again, thanx and keep up the good work...some day when I become a guru, I hope to help too...

Hassan

[Heather] When you feel ready, I'm pretty sure the Gang will still be here to welcome you aboard!

This page edited and maintained by the Editors of Linux Gazette Copyright © 2001
Published in issue 66 of Linux Gazette May 2001

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