*BSD News Article 61633


Return to BSD News archive

Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!nntp.coast.net!howland.reston.ans.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!usenet.eel.ufl.edu!warwick!yama.mcc.ac.uk!news.york.ac.uk!pih100
From: pih100@york.ac.uk (PI Halliday)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: panic: cannot mount root
Date: 9 Feb 1996 00:10:17 GMT
Organization: The University of York, UK
Lines: 39
Message-ID: <4fe3d9$h87@netty.york.ac.uk>
NNTP-Posting-Host: tower.york.ac.uk
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2]

I keep getting the above subject message when trying to reboot FreeBSD 2.1.0 
after installing it.
There shouldn't be anything special with my hardware (486DX2/50 - 8Mb RAM), 
except that I'm running two IDE HD's:
			1Gb   Seagate 
			250Mb Seagate

I don't have an EIDE controller but this has never presented a problem - 
I've been running DOS, OS/2 and Linux for almost a year now without any 
real complaints (obviously neither DOS nor OS/2 can access the second 
half of the 1Gb disk, but I have Linux using most of that).
I can install FreeBSD without any apparent errors. I can work using the 
'install shell' that is spawned during installation - compiling things is 
no problem. Mounting other partitions such as DOS is ok.
I've tried installing it to both disks in various places but always the 
same problem occurs - there should be no EIDE problems with the second drive.
Its only 1001 cylinders. I'm trying to use this drive for FreeBSD at the 
moment.

Despite selecting the various boot options (standard boot manager, or 
boot partition option) it doesn't seem to alter the boot parameters of  
the first drive. Thats ok - I always boot Linux off floppy.
I reboot the machine using the installation boot floppy, enter the 
partition device name, and it starts booting quite merrily, probing for 
the various devices, then at the end, gives the 'panic' message and says 
its going to reboot in 15 secs. Having tried this 12 times I figure its not
just the location on the disk.
Trying to mount the partition under Linux warns me that there is 'invalid 
superblock information' at the beginning of the partition so it won't mount.

Haven't located anything in the FAQ's I've looked at about this.

Any ideas as to why this is happening?
Thanks anyway.

Paul.

--
Paul Halliday,	pih100@tower.york.ac.uk