# Weird problem (no filesystem could mount root) [SOLVED]

## Bumppo

While trying to install Gentoo on a new old computer, I get the following error message:

No filesystem could mount root

tried: ext3 ext2 etc. etc.

This followed by a kernel panic.

I know for a fact that the root partition is ext3, and I have ext3 compiled into the kernel.

Any ideas?  Thanks in advance.Last edited by Bumppo on Wed Jan 17, 2007 3:26 am; edited 1 time in total

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## yabbadabbadont

Can you boot the install cd and mount it from there?

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## Bumppo

Yes, it mounts with absolutely no problem using the install CD.

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## yabbadabbadont

Then either your kernel or grub configuration must be incorrect.  Please post the output of "fdisk -l" as well as the contents of your /boot/grub/grub.conf and /etc/fstab files.

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## Bumppo

```
fdisk -l

Disk /dev/hda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes

255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders

Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot         Start               End           Blocks             Id              System

/dev/hda1                 1                  5            40131            83              Linux

/dev/hda2                 6               255        2008125            83              Linux

/dev/hda3             256            14593     115169985            83              Linux
```

```
/boot/grub/grub.conf

default 0

timeout 20

splashimage=(hd0,0)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz

title=Gentoo Linux

root (hd0,0)

kernel /boot/kernel root=/dev/hda3
```

```
/etc/fstab

(pertinent parts, I don't feel like typing it all)

<fs>

/dev/hda1                      /boot                 ext2                  noauto,noatime            1    2

/dev/hda3                      /                       ext3                  noatime                       0    1

/dev/hda2                      none                  swap                 sw                              0    0

/dev/cdroms/cdrom0      /mnt/cdrom        iso9660             noauto,ro                     0    0
```

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## yabbadabbadont

The only obvious thing I see wrong, is that according to your fstab, your swap partition is /dev/hda2, but hda2's partition type is set to 83 and not 82 like it should be.  How did you create your kernel?  Did you manually compile it or use genkernel?

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## Bumppo

That's weird, I'll fix that and see if anything happens.

I manually compiled the kernel.  I even double checked, and ext3 is built-in, not a module, so I have no idea why this is happening.

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## rmh3093

 *yabbadabbadont wrote:*   

> The only obvious thing I see wrong, is that according to your fstab, your swap partition is /dev/hda2, but hda2's partition type is set to 83 and not 82 like it should be.  How did you create your kernel?  Did you manually compile it or use genkernel?

 

i dont think the swap partition type could cause this error... with out knowing the exact kernel panic message its hard to tell but, if you know ext3 is in your kernel then make sure you enabled and built in support for you ide controller

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## Bumppo

I'm almost completely sure that I have the correct IDE stuff, because before this I was getting the other error ("cannot mount...unknown-block (0,0"), which went away when I added in the IDE stuff.

This is really, really irritating.

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## rmh3093

do you have extra ide modules you dont need, try removing generic ide support

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## Bumppo

That was it!  Thanks so much.

Boy, there's an FAQ here I followed that told me to do that.  Is it often that you have to disable the generic?

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## rmh3093

 *Bumppo wrote:*   

> That was it!  Thanks so much.
> 
> Boy, there's an FAQ here I followed that told me to do that.  Is it often that you have to disable the generic?

 

well i have LOTs of trouble getting machines working with the new libata modules... took me forever on my machine to get the config right, i found that disabling generic ide was one of the things i needed to do in order to get dma enabled on my cdrom drive, i dont know why it causes such a problem

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