[vox-tech] grub not finding root partition

[Jonathan Stickel]

Peter Jay Salzman wrote:
> New install.
> 
> Grub seems to work for my Debian kernels:
> 
>    title		Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.8-2-686 
>    root		(hd1,0)
>    kernel		/vmlinuz-2.6.8-2-686 root=/dev/hda6 ro 
>    initrd		/initrd.img-2.6.8-2-686
>    savedefault
>    boot
> 
> But not for a home compiled kernel:
> 
>    title		Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.11
>    root		(hd1,0)
>    kernel		/vmlinuz-2.6.11 root=/dev/hda6 ro 
>    savedefault
>    boot
> 
> When I try to boot 2.6.11, the kernel can't find the root filesystem and
> panics.
> 
> I don't know grub very well -- anyone have a guess what's going on?
> 

Here is a typical grub entry for me, if it helps:

title=linux-2.6.10-gentoo-r6_4-19-05
root (hd0,1)
kernel (hd0,1)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.10-gentoo-r6_4-19-05 root=/dev/hda5

I notice you don't specify an initrd for your custom kernel.  My guess 
is you missed specifying 'y' rather than 'm' for something important, 
something that's required for your root filesystem.  I've done that a 
few times, and that's the error message I get.

Jonathan