Kernel Panic - Not Syncing

[raymac46]

A while ago I added some memory to my 2nd PC that runs Linux Mint. Since I was running LM13 32 bit I could not take advantage of the additional RAM so I took the easy way out and installed the PAE kernel 3.0.29.X

This must have added some instability to my system. After an update yesterday I got a black screen and then after a reboot the grub menu came up (ominous) and when I chose the regular 3.0.29 kernel I got:

 

 

[1.902269] Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0)

[1.902299] Pid: 1, comm: swapper/0 Not tainted 3.2.0-29-generic #46-Ubuntu

 

 

This also happened if I chose the recovery mode so I could not even get a console.

At this point my only option was nuke, pave and restore data. (I have a good backup on an external drive.) So I now have taken the option of installing LM13 64 bit, am back on kernel 3.0.23.

 

Couple of questions:

(1) Any idea what got screwed up. Grub? Initramfs? Has this happened to you? I suspect it might be an Nvidia issue.

(2) Can you rescue a system blowup like this from a CD/DVD boot?

[securitybreach]

Grub is messed up:

Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0)

 

You need to change it to 0,1 if your installation is on the first partition of the first drive.

 

 

To fix it, check this link for instructions: http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=103990

[V.T. Eric Layton]

First partition of first drive is 0,0

[securitybreach]

First partition of first drive is 0,0

 

Not with Grub2

 

Or is it (1,0)?

 

Device naming has changed between GRUB and GRUB2. Partitions are numbered from 1 instead of 0 while drives are still numbered from 0, and prefixed with partition-table type.

 

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GRUB2

[BarryB]

this might help

http://askubuntu.com/questions/41930/kernel-panic-not-syncing-vfs-unable-to-mount-root-fs-on-unknown-block0-0

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Hmm... don't know nuthin' 'bout no GRUB2.

 

But on GRUB Legacy:

 

# (1) Slackware64-13.37
title  slackware
root   (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda1 ro
initrd /boot/initrd.gz

 

My Arch GRUB menu.lst entry for my Slack on my 1st partition of my 1st drive.

[raymac46]

this might help

http://askubuntu.com...nknown-block0-0

 

Interesting article. Would be worth a try if this happens again. As it turned out I am happy with LM13 64 bit.

[burninbush]

Hmm... don't know nuthin' 'bout no GRUB2.

 

But on GRUB Legacy:

 

# (1) Slackware64-13.37
title  slackware
root   (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda1 ro
initrd /boot/initrd.gz

 

My Arch GRUB menu.lst entry for my Slack on my 1st partition of my 1st drive.

 

 

Eric, I'm curious about your slack initrd -- doesn't the 64b distro come with a 'huge' kernel? What do you gain by creating an initrd? I've never used one with any slack distro.

[V.T. Eric Layton]

I don't run the everything-and-the-kitchen-sink huge.s kernel, which has every kernel driver known to mankind installed by default. I run the generic kernel, which requires an initrd to selectively load the kernel modules that my machine requires. I used to always run huge.s till I read somewhere that Patrick Volkerding doens't recommend it. The huge.s kernel is only really needed during installation.