on Thursday 04/24/2008 Alan McKinnon(alan.mckinnon@(protected)
> On Thursday 24 April 2008, reader@(protected):
>
> > So assuming I've made some mistake in grub.conf I try to boot from
> > grub command line.
> >
> >  root = (hd0,0) (which is /dev/sda1 in linux terms)
> >
> >  kernel /kernel-2.6.25-r1
>
> Nope. Kernel needs a root=<device> parameter. It can't know what is your
> root partition, that info is in fstab and fstab is on the root
> partition.So you tell it via a parameter
>
> > boot
> >
> > But it fails with a message saying please append a working root=?? to
> > the boot commands.
>
> expected result. see above.
>
>
> > So reloading the install ISO I mount /mnt/gentoo/boot and edit
> > grub.conf to say:
> >
> >   title=kernel-2.6.25-r1
> >   root (hd0,0)
> >   kernel /kernel-2.6.25-r1 root=/dev/sda3
> >
> > That fails
> >   kernel /kernel-2.6.25-r1 root=/dev/hda3 (Thinking maybe grub
> >   does not understand sda)
>
> Nothing to do with grub. It's a kernel boot parameter passed verbatim to
> the kernel and needs valid kernel device names.
>
> What's the error you get? Is (hd0,0) a separate /boot? Does it contain a
> file called kernel-2.6.25-r1 at the top level? And you also should have
> a "ro" kernel parameter in there
>
> > That Fails
> >
> >  kernel /kernel-2.6.25-r1 root=(hd0)/sda3
> >
> > Fails
>
> Won't work. (hd0) is a grub thing. You need a /dev/sda3 or similar in
> there
>
> > I've even tried:
> >   kernel /kernel-2.6.25-r1 root=(hd0,2)
>
> Won't work. Same reason.
>
> > And another failure... all with the same message about appending a
> > working `root=???'
> >
> > I'm about out of ideas here.
>
> here's a working grub.conf for illustration:
>
> default      0
> timeout      10
> splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
>
> title       Default
> root        (hd0,0)
> kernel       /vmlinuz root=/dev/sda3 ro
>
> title       Gentoo-2.6.25
> root        (hd0,0)
> kernel       /vmlinuz-2.6.25-gentoo root=/dev/sda3 ro
>
> Seems my setup is identical to yours:
> /boot on /dev/sda1 aka (hd0,0) to grub
> / on /dev/sda3
>
> Only difference is the "ro" boot parameter, which shouldn't make a
> difference - it's there for fsck purposes during start-up.
>
> What disk driver and disks do you have? Are you 100% sure you are either
> using the new ata driver (everything is an sd) or have scsi/sata disks?
> If your disk is IDE with the old driver, it will be an hd and will
> require that on the kernel line
>

Well, I had to put a lot more parameters for it to work -- I am not
using grub but my parameters aside from the ro are
init=/linuxrc ramdisk=8192 real_root=/dev/sda2 udev
and some more specific to me. I am using something close to the
original gentoo configs, so it uses an initrd parameter also which you
need separately in grub.

Hope this helps.

--
Your life is like a penny. You're going to lose it. The question is:
How do
you spend it?

     John Covici
     covici@(protected)
--
gentoo-user@(protected)