RedHat 9 install cannot open root device and kernel panic

[Rick Stevens]

Allen, Catherine wrote:
> Hi,
>  
> I have looked through the archives for this and have seen a similar 
> question asked for RH5 but not answered.
>  
> Goal:
>  
> Install RedHat 9 on HP DL380 G3 with 2 Logical drives (hardware RAID) 
> which are already configured.  First logical drive is just under 8GB, 
> second is around 80GB.  The DL380 already has Windows 2000 installed on 
> the first logical drive and I want to overwrite this.  Not dual-boot.  
> 3GB memory.
>  
> Fail / Error Messages:
>  
> Creating block devices
> kmod: failed to exec /sbin/modproibe -s -k block-major-104, errno=2
> VFS: Cannot open root device hda2 or 03:02
> Please append a correct "root=" boot option
> Kernel panic

Didn't load the correct driver for the RAID card.  I'm not familiar
with that particular model of HP machine.  What kind of RAID card is
in it?

>  
>  
> What I've tried so far:
>  
> 0. searched all redhat mailing lists ; then looked thread by thread 
> through the redhat-install-list but couldn't recognise an answer.
>  
> 1. attempted to install from cdrom using "linux noprobe"
>     It asked what hard disk I have, loaded the cciss driver and gave me 
> the option of /dev/cciss/c0d0p1 or /dev/cciss/c0d1p1
>     chose /dev/cciss/c0d0p1
>     then it could not find the CD in the drive.  Even though it had 
> booted from that same CD (installation cd 1 of 3 from the boxed set).

Is it a SCSI CD or an IDE CD?  Using "noprobe" can cause issues as
you've forced the system to not scan your hardware, therefore the system
may not load all the drivers you need.

> 2. attemped to install from boot floppy using "linux noprobe"
>     Failed with same message as above (can't open boot device hda2, 
> kernel panic)

Hmmm.  How did the boot floppy know you would have an hda2 partition
(a partition on the primary master IDE drive)?  Did you also get a
driver floppy?

> 3. attempted to install from boot floppy using "linux 
> root=/dev/cciss/c0d0p1"
>     Failed with same message as above, except that hda2 was replaced by 
> cciss/c0d0p1

If you're using a SCSI CD, you probably need to have a driver floppy
and boot using "linux dd" at the "Boot:" prompt.

>  
> 4. booted from HP smartstart CD - but this only supports Windows 
> installation (this is how windows was installed, I think)

Yup.
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- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
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