Re: 2.6.11-rc4-mm1 (VFS: Cannot open root device "301")

[Steven Cole <elenstev@mesatop.com>]

Andrew Morton wrote:
> ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/akpm/patches/2.6/2.6.11-rc4/2.6.11-rc4-mm1/
> 
> 
> - Various fixes and updates all over the place.  Things seem to have slowed
>   down a bit.
> 

I am having trouble getting recent -mm kernels to boot on my test box.
For 2.6.11-rc3-mm2 and 2.6.11-rc4-mm1 I get the following:

VFS: Cannot open root device "301" or unknown-block(3,1)
Please append a correct "root=" boot option
Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(3,1)

2.6.11-rc2-mm1 boots fine, and so do plain -rc3 and -rc4.

I copied a working .config from an earlier kernel(-rc3), and ran make oldconfig,
answering most of the new questions 'n'.

I did try appending root=0301 (which worked last year after similar symptoms,
but that didn't help this time).

The root fs is ext3, which is compiled in.
Any help appreciated.

Steven

Output of grep ^CONFIG .config:

CONFIG_X86=y
CONFIG_MMU=y
CONFIG_UID16=y
CONFIG_GENERIC_ISA_DMA=y
CONFIG_GENERIC_IOMAP=y
CONFIG_EXPERIMENTAL=y
CONFIG_CLEAN_COMPILE=y
CONFIG_BROKEN_ON_SMP=y
CONFIG_LOCALVERSION="-GX110"
CONFIG_SWAP=y
CONFIG_SYSVIPC=y
CONFIG_BSD_PROCESS_ACCT=y
CONFIG_SYSCTL=y
CONFIG_EMBEDDED=y
CONFIG_BASE_SMALL=1
CONFIG_FUTEX=y
CONFIG_EPOLL=y
CONFIG_SHMEM=y
CONFIG_CC_ALIGN_FUNCTIONS=0
CONFIG_CC_ALIGN_LABELS=0
CONFIG_CC_ALIGN_LOOPS=0
CONFIG_CC_ALIGN_JUMPS=0
CONFIG_X86_PC=y
CONFIG_MPENTIUMIII=y
CONFIG_X86_CMPXCHG=y
CONFIG_X86_XADD=y
CONFIG_X86_L1_CACHE_SHIFT=5
CONFIG_RWSEM_XCHGADD_ALGORITHM=y
CONFIG_GENERIC_CALIBRATE_DELAY=y
CONFIG_X86_WP_WORKS_OK=y
CONFIG_X86_INVLPG=y
CONFIG_X86_BSWAP=y
CONFIG_X86_POPAD_OK=y
CONFIG_X86_GOOD_APIC=y
CONFIG_X86_INTEL_USERCOPY=y
CONFIG_X86_USE_PPRO_CHECKSUM=y
CONFIG_HPET_TIMER=y
CONFIG_X86_UP_APIC=y
CONFIG_X86_UP_IOAPIC=y
CONFIG_X86_LOCAL_APIC=y
CONFIG_X86_IO_APIC=y
CONFIG_X86_TSC=y
CONFIG_X86_MCE=y
CONFIG_X86_MCE_P4THERMAL=y
CONFIG_MICROCODE=y
CONFIG_X86_MSR=y
CONFIG_X86_CPUID=y
CONFIG_EDD=y
CONFIG_NOHIGHMEM=y
CONFIG_MTRR=y
CONFIG_PHYSICAL_START=0x100000
CONFIG_PCI=y
CONFIG_PCI_GOANY=y
CONFIG_PCI_BIOS=y
CONFIG_PCI_DIRECT=y
CONFIG_PCI_LEGACY_PROC=y
CONFIG_BINFMT_ELF=y
CONFIG_BINFMT_MISC=y
CONFIG_PREVENT_FIRMWARE_BUILD=y
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_FD=y
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_LOOP=y
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_RAM=y
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_RAM_COUNT=16
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_RAM_SIZE=32000
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_INITRD=y
CONFIG_INITRAMFS_SOURCE=""
CONFIG_IOSCHED_NOOP=y
CONFIG_IOSCHED_AS=y
CONFIG_IDE=y
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDE=y
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEDISK=y
CONFIG_IDEDISK_MULTI_MODE=y
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDECD=y
CONFIG_IDE_GENERIC=y
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEPCI=y
CONFIG_IDEPCI_SHARE_IRQ=y
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEDMA_PCI=y
CONFIG_IDEDMA_PCI_AUTO=y
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_PIIX=y
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEDMA=y
CONFIG_IDEDMA_AUTO=y
CONFIG_NET=y
CONFIG_PACKET=y
CONFIG_PACKET_MMAP=y
CONFIG_UNIX=y
CONFIG_NET_KEY=y
CONFIG_INET=y
CONFIG_XFRM=y
CONFIG_NETDEVICES=y
CONFIG_NET_ETHERNET=y
CONFIG_MII=y
CONFIG_NET_VENDOR_3COM=y
CONFIG_VORTEX=y
CONFIG_INPUT=y
CONFIG_INPUT_MOUSEDEV=y
CONFIG_INPUT_MOUSEDEV_PSAUX=y
CONFIG_INPUT_MOUSEDEV_SCREEN_X=1024
CONFIG_INPUT_MOUSEDEV_SCREEN_Y=768
CONFIG_INPUT_KEYBOARD=y
CONFIG_KEYBOARD_ATKBD=y
CONFIG_INPUT_MOUSE=y
CONFIG_MOUSE_PS2=y
CONFIG_SERIO=y
CONFIG_SERIO_I8042=y
CONFIG_SERIO_SERPORT=y
CONFIG_SERIO_LIBPS2=y
CONFIG_SOUND_GAMEPORT=y
CONFIG_VT=y
CONFIG_VT_CONSOLE=y
CONFIG_HW_CONSOLE=y
CONFIG_SERIAL_8250=y
CONFIG_SERIAL_8250_CONSOLE=y
CONFIG_SERIAL_8250_NR_UARTS=4
CONFIG_SERIAL_8250_EXTENDED=y
CONFIG_SERIAL_8250_SHARE_IRQ=y
CONFIG_SERIAL_CORE=y
CONFIG_SERIAL_CORE_CONSOLE=y
CONFIG_UNIX98_PTYS=y
CONFIG_FTAPE=y
CONFIG_ZFTAPE=y
CONFIG_ZFT_DFLT_BLK_SZ=10240
CONFIG_ZFT_COMPRESSOR=y
CONFIG_FT_NR_BUFFERS=3
CONFIG_FT_PROC_FS=y
CONFIG_FT_NORMAL_DEBUG=y
CONFIG_FT_STD_FDC=y
CONFIG_FT_FDC_THR=8
CONFIG_FT_FDC_MAX_RATE=2000
CONFIG_FT_ALPHA_CLOCK=0
CONFIG_AGP=y
CONFIG_AGP_INTEL=y
CONFIG_VIDEO_DEV=y
CONFIG_VIDEO_SELECT=y
CONFIG_VGA_CONSOLE=y
CONFIG_DUMMY_CONSOLE=y
CONFIG_USB_ARCH_HAS_HCD=y
CONFIG_USB_ARCH_HAS_OHCI=y
CONFIG_EXT2_FS=y
CONFIG_EXT2_FS_XATTR=y
CONFIG_EXT3_FS=y
CONFIG_JBD=y
CONFIG_FS_MBCACHE=y
CONFIG_REISER4_FS=y
CONFIG_REISERFS_FS=y
CONFIG_ISO9660_FS=y
CONFIG_FAT_FS=y
CONFIG_VFAT_FS=y
CONFIG_FAT_DEFAULT_CODEPAGE=437
CONFIG_FAT_DEFAULT_IOCHARSET="iso8859-1"
CONFIG_NTFS_FS=y
CONFIG_NTFS_RW=y
CONFIG_PROC_FS=y
CONFIG_PROC_KCORE=y
CONFIG_SYSFS=y
CONFIG_DEVFS_FS=y
CONFIG_TMPFS=y
CONFIG_RAMFS=y
CONFIG_PARTITION_ADVANCED=y
CONFIG_MSDOS_PARTITION=y
CONFIG_NLS=y
CONFIG_NLS_DEFAULT="iso8859-1"
CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_437=y
CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_850=y
CONFIG_NLS_ASCII=y
CONFIG_NLS_ISO8859_1=y
CONFIG_NLS_UTF8=y
CONFIG_DEBUG_KERNEL=y
CONFIG_MAGIC_SYSRQ=y
CONFIG_LOG_BUF_SHIFT=14
CONFIG_FRAME_POINTER=y
CONFIG_X86_FIND_SMP_CONFIG=y
CONFIG_X86_MPPARSE=y
CONFIG_SECURITY=y
CONFIG_SECURITY_NETWORK=y
CONFIG_SECURITY_CAPABILITIES=y
CONFIG_CRC_CCITT=y
CONFIG_CRC32=y
CONFIG_LIBCRC32C=y
CONFIG_GENERIC_HARDIRQS=y
CONFIG_GENERIC_IRQ_PROBE=y
CONFIG_X86_BIOS_REBOOT=y