<snip>
VFS: Cannot open root device "sda1" or unknown-block(0,0)
Please append a correct "root=" boot option; here are the available
partitions:
Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: unable to mount root fs on
unknown-block(0,0)
</snip> (hey, I remembered not to top post for once!)

Not that this hasn't been said, but this is almost definitely a device driver issue. In my experience (and I've had this and similar errors on many systems), when it's a file system problem (i.e. having the correct FS driver compiled in), you get unknown-block(x,y) where x,y are both nonzero.

That said, something definitely needs to be changed with your kernel config. I run several vmware servers (the free server), and have gentoo VMs on those. If you'd like, I can post my .config for you to compare. Or I could just look through the scsi options I have configured.

When I configured my VMs, I remember reading the following article: (along with some trial and error, of course.)
http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Install_Gentoo_on_VMware_in_Windows_NT/2K/XP#Kernel_Configuration


-- Greg

Postscript: As this is an error mouting your root file system, the fstab, which is stored on the root file sysem, doesn't matter at this point in the boot process.