Error after installation of slackware

Question

After installation of slackware I am getting this error.It happens just after fresh installation and solution mentioned here doesn't work. Tried reinstalling 4 times but same error.When booting with huge kernel I got this error. Please let me know am I missing something?? Thanks in advance !!

Answer 1

Your first screenshot only shows "prepare_namespace" and "mount_root" functions as the last thing before panic.

The second one has the correct error message:

VFS: unable to mount root fs on unknown-block...

I had the same problem, with different kernels; the kernel panics are very variable, depending on how unable the kernel is. In one word, it is the essential root= boot param that is not working, directly or indirectly.

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One simple reason is mentioned here: VFS: unable to mount root. This gives some context.

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In my case it was the missing initrd= boot param. Most kernels need the modules from the initrd to access the disk.

I guess you booted and installed from a USB Flash with a slackware image. So it is only a configuration problem.

Tried reinstalling 4 times

I know what you mean, and sometimes I try a fifth time, but then I try to take a systematic approach.

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Here are the two kernel command lines I saved for booting slackware from Uefi Shell.

slack\huge.s root=/dev/sda2

and

slack\huge.s initrd=slack\initrd.img

Neither will work like that, though: it takes both paramters to work. Grub has an almost identical line.

This works:

arch5\vmlinuz-linux initrd=arch5\initramfs-linux.img root=/dev/sda3

And this also, only kernel that has the modules for SSD built in:

fedora\vmlinuz root=/dev/sda2

slack, arch5 and fedora are just dirs I created to store the kernels and their initrds.

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I see the tag slackware says: A linux based operating system.

I totally disagree with that, which may sound ridiculous, since I want to call it a linux distribution. But this site is called Unix&Linux and not Posix&Distros.

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mount_block_root() in init/do_mounts.c has this (I deleted the #ifdefs):

                 /*
                 * Allow the user to distinguish between failed sys_open
                 * and bad superblock on root device.
                 * and give them a list of the available devices
                 */

                __bdevname(ROOT_DEV, b);

                printk("VFS: Cannot open root device \"%s\" or %s: error %d\n",
                                root_device_name, b, err);
                printk("Please append a correct \"root=\" boot option; here are the available partitions:\n");

                printk_all_partitions();

                panic("VFS: Unable to mount root fs on %s", b);
        }
        if (!(flags & SB_RDONLY)) {
                flags |= SB_RDONLY;
                goto retry;
        }

        printk("List of all partitions:\n");
        printk_all_partitions();
        printk("No filesystem could mount root, tried: ");
        for (p = fs_names; *p; p += strlen(p)+1)
                printk(" %s", p);
        printk("\n");

        __bdevname(ROOT_DEV, b);

        panic("VFS: Unable to mount root fs on %s", b);
out:
        put_page(page);
}

So the helpful error messages are there, but if the problem is the (missing) block device driver/module itself, it can break a bit anyhow - I really had all sorts of kernel panics with an incorrect kernel command line.