<p dir="ltr">The strangest part of the problem is that the machine started to boot again without any changes. I went into recovery mode, poked around to check that grub was configured correctly, ran shutdown -h now, and then it was able to boot normally. It rebooted correctly several times after that, so I stopped worrying about it. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Thanks for your help!</p>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Oct 28, 2013 3:25 PM, "ChasM Marshall" <<a href="mailto:chasm750@hotmail.com">chasm750@hotmail.com</a>> wrote:<br type="attribution"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
> kernel panic not syncing: VFS: unable to mount root fs on unknown -block(0,0)<br>
<br>
Usually this is a GRUB issue:<br>
One of these;<br>
/boot/grub/menu.lst (used first)<br>
/boot/grub/grub.conf (used if menu.lst is missing),<br>
still specifies the wrong initrd, or the wrong kernel.<br>
<br>
The kernel upgrade can change out the softlink pointer:<br>
/boot/vmlinuz<br>
but this may no longer match the initrd softlink pointer:<br>
/boot/initrd<br>
<br>
For example, kernels in my /boot/ directory are named:<br>
<br>
/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.33-puppy<br>
/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.37.1-1.2-desktop<br>
/boot/vmlinuz-3.0.0-12-generic<br>
/boot/vmlinuz-3.1.0-1.2-default<br>
/boot/vmlinuz-3.3.4-5.fc17.i686<br>
<br>
and I must name them explicitly in /boot/grub/menu.lst<br>
to be in sync with their matching initrd files:<br>
<br>
/boot/initramfs-3.3.4-5.fc17.i686.img<br>
/boot/initramfs-genkernel-x86-2.6.39-sabayon<br>
/boot/initrd-2.6.33-puppy<br>
/boot/initrd-2.6.37.1-1.2-desktop<br>
/boot/initrd-3.1.0-1.2-default<br>
/boot/initrd.img-3.0.0-12-generic<br>
<br>
But if not GRUB:<br>
Also, I've seen similar errors, just like yours, when the /etc/fstab<br>
no longer supports specific mount options for the upgraded kernel.<br>
<br>
BTW, I found that new kernels no longer tolerate the way I mount / (root).<br>
For me, /boot/ is a seperate partition, and it must be fsck(ed) first<br>
and not in parallel to other partition checks (even / root!).<br>
<br>
(-: Chas.M. :-)<br>
<br>
-------------------------------<br>
Date: Tue, 22 Oct 2013 16:49:51 -0700<br>
Subject: Debian Boot Problem<br>
From: <a href="mailto:mark@phillipsmarketing.biz">mark@phillipsmarketing.biz</a><br>
To: <a href="mailto:plug-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org">plug-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org</a><br>
<br>
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<br>
<br>
kernel panic not syncing: VFS: unable to mount root fs on unknown -block(0,0)<br>
<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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 <a href="http://debian.org" target="_blank">debian.org</a>.<br>
<br>
<br>
Any suggestions on how to proceed?<br>
<br>
Thanks!<br>
<br>
Mark<br>
<br>
<br>
---------------------------------------------------<br>
PLUG-discuss mailing list - <a href="mailto:PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org">PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org</a><br>
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:<br>
<a href="http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss" target="_blank">http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss</a><br>
---------------------------------------------------<br>
PLUG-discuss mailing list - <a href="mailto:PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org">PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org</a><br>
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:<br>
<a href="http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss" target="_blank">http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss</a><br>
</blockquote></div>