kernel panic, what does it mean?
Understanding is certainly the beginning of solving problems. I assume that kernel panic indicates that there is something terrible wrong with the computer. But it does not give me more than those well known Windows info's. Reason I want to know is of course that a kernel panic is affecting my computer at startup. After the information that my cdrom drive is configured the kernel panic starts with "VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 16:01" What is VFS? fs? and where is 16:01? If I use the first cd of my Suse 8 I can boot normally if I use the choice to boot an existing system. Why panic in one case and not via the other way to boot? I have already tested my memory with the program supplied with Suse and that program cannot find any problem. When I start using norton utilities, ndiags, I get after a certain period a nicely checkered screen with a lot of blinking squares and ascii signs. What discovers norton which is not found by the Suse memory checker? -- " Every little BYTE helps " NTReader v0.36w(P)/Beta (Registered) in conjunction with Net-Tamer.
On Friday 16 August 2002 9:42 am, you wrote:
Understanding is certainly the beginning of solving problems. I assume that kernel panic indicates that there is something terrible wrong with the computer. But it does not give me more than those well known Windows info's.
Yes it does - you just don't understand what it's telling you. You did the right thing asking on here. It's probably not terribly broken, since you can still boot using the SuSE CD as an emergency disk. Basically, the Linux system can't get its disk service going. It's missing something important like a driver (do you have SCSI disks?), or the bit of code which tells it how to read the information on the disk (the filesystem module, in technical terms). How did you get into this state? My guess is you upgraded your kernel, then forgot to recreate the initialisation ramdisk file? -- The past: Smart users in front of dumb terminals
On Friday 16 August 2002 10.42, Constant Brouerius van Nidek wrote:
where is 16:01?
16:01 is the major and minor number of the device in hexadecimal notation. 0x16 is 22 decimal. Major number 22, minor number 1 is /dev/hdc1 //Anders -- 'Deserves [death]. I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.' --Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
On Friday 16 August 2002 18:17, Anders Johansson wrote:
On Friday 16 August 2002 10.42, Constant Brouerius van Nidek wrote:
where is 16:01?
16:01 is the major and minor number of the device in hexadecimal notation. 0x16 is 22 decimal. Major number 22, minor number 1 is /dev/hdc1
While we're at it - where can one find this information? Is there one system file that is a sort of "dictionary" for these values - or is there one of the kernel source files in which this can be translated? Best regards, David List
On Monday 19 August 2002 19.03, David List wrote:
16:01 is the major and minor number of the device in hexadecimal notation. 0x16 is 22 decimal. Major number 22, minor number 1 is /dev/hdc1
While we're at it - where can one find this information? Is there one system file that is a sort of "dictionary" for these values - or is there one of the kernel source files in which this can be translated?
/usr/src/linux/Documentation/devices.txt has a list of the mappings between major/minor numbers and the devices they represent, provided that the kernel sources are installed (kernel-source.rpm) //Anders -- 'Deserves [death]. I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.' --Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
On Monday 19 August 2002 19:09, Anders Johansson wrote:
On Monday 19 August 2002 19.03, David List wrote:
16:01 is the major and minor number of the device in hexadecimal notation. 0x16 is 22 decimal. Major number 22, minor number 1 is /dev/hdc1
While we're at it - where can one find this information? Is there one system file that is a sort of "dictionary" for these values - or is there one of the kernel source files in which this can be translated?
/usr/src/linux/Documentation/devices.txt has a list of the mappings between major/minor numbers and the devices they represent, provided that the kernel sources are installed (kernel-source.rpm)
Thank you very much. Best regards, David List
participants (4)
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Anders Johansson -
Constant Brouerius van Nidek -
David List -
Derek Fountain