Debian Boot Problem

[ChasM Marshall]

> kernel panic not syncing: VFS: unable to mount root fs on unknown -block(0,0)

Usually this is a GRUB issue:
One of these;
/boot/grub/menu.lst   (used first)
/boot/grub/grub.conf  (used if menu.lst is missing),
still specifies the wrong initrd, or the wrong kernel.

The kernel upgrade can change out the softlink pointer:
/boot/vmlinuz
but this may no longer match the initrd softlink pointer:
/boot/initrd

For example, kernels in my /boot/ directory are named:

/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.33-puppy
/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.37.1-1.2-desktop
/boot/vmlinuz-3.0.0-12-generic
/boot/vmlinuz-3.1.0-1.2-default
/boot/vmlinuz-3.3.4-5.fc17.i686

and I must name them explicitly in /boot/grub/menu.lst 
to be in sync with their matching initrd files:

/boot/initramfs-3.3.4-5.fc17.i686.img
/boot/initramfs-genkernel-x86-2.6.39-sabayon
/boot/initrd-2.6.33-puppy
/boot/initrd-2.6.37.1-1.2-desktop
/boot/initrd-3.1.0-1.2-default
/boot/initrd.img-3.0.0-12-generic

But if not GRUB:
Also, I've seen similar errors, just like yours, when the /etc/fstab
no longer supports specific mount options for the upgraded kernel.

BTW, I found that new kernels no longer tolerate the way I mount / (root).
For me, /boot/ is a seperate partition, and it must be fsck(ed) first 
and not in parallel to other partition checks (even / root!).

  (-:  Chas.M.  :-)

-------------------------------
Date: Tue, 22 Oct 2013 16:49:51 -0700
Subject: Debian Boot Problem
From: mark at phillipsmarketing.biz
To: plug-discuss at lists.phxlinux.org

I ran apt-get update and apt-get upgrade this morning on an old server (Debian Squeeze) and the system won't boot now. I get the error

kernel panic not syncing: VFS: unable to mount root fs on unknown -block(0,0)


One of the updates was to kernel 2.6.32-5-686. I can boot in to safe mode with this kernel, and the upgrade wiped out the older version of the kernel.

I have googled for possible solutions, but nothing helpful is popping up. I am also running grub, and not grub2, but that is OK for this kernel according to debian.org.


Any suggestions on how to proceed?

Thanks!

Mark


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