Felicia fails on VMWare after update to kernel 2.6.27-11

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vsajip

Felicia fails on VMWare after update to kernel 2.6.27-11

Post by vsajip »

I installed Felicia from a LiveCD in a VM under VMWare Server 2.0. After installation, it booted as expected and appeared to work normally. However, following the first update (in which the kernel got updated), Felicia no longer boots. The error is:

VFS: Cannot open root device "sda1" or unknown-block(0,0)
Please append a correct "root=" boot option: here are the available partitions:
Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0)


It's a 512MB VM with an 8GB virtual SCSI disk (default as created on VMWare Server 2.0, VM Version = 7).

I re-did the installation from the LiveCD again, and again got the same problem. Note that after the update, I get options to boot kernel 2.6.27-11-generic (normal or recovery mode), or kernel 2.6.27-7-generic (normal or recovery mode). For both normal-mode options, the "boot options" line is

root=/dev/sda1 ro quiet splash

If I select the 2.6.27.7 kernel, it boots correctly and appears to work normally. However, 2.6.27.11 fails in both normal and recovery modes with the same kernel panic. So, it would appear to be a 2.6.27-11 related problem.

Anyone else seeing this?

Regards,

Vinay Sajip
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
Fred

Re: Felicia fails on VMWare after update to kernel 2.6.27-11

Post by Fred »

vsajip,

My first question would be, "why are you updating the kernel?"

Fred
vsajip

Re: Felicia fails on VMWare after update to kernel 2.6.27-11

Post by vsajip »

Hi Fred,

I just did a "sudo apt-get update" followed by a "sudo apt-get dist-upgrade". I normally do this to avail of updates to the system of any packages I have installed. Did I do something wrong? I've been doing this on Ubuntu for ages, and also with earlier Mint releases - without problems. I didn't fiddle with the repositories. Is there a different way of getting updates on Mint?

Regards,

Vinay
Fred

Re: Felicia fails on VMWare after update to kernel 2.6.27-11

Post by Fred »

vsajip,
Did I do something wrong?
No, not wrong, just quite risky. Look at my post in the thread below. In addition, you should keep in mind that replacing a kernel is potentially a show stopper in many areas. The decision to replace a kernel should be because it has the ability to fix some issue you have or you need some feature that it has. Replacing a kernel just because a later minor revision is available is not a good reason to risk the breakage that can/may occur.

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... de#p134170

Fred
vsajip

Re: Felicia fails on VMWare after update to kernel 2.6.27-11

Post by vsajip »

Fred wrote: No, not wrong, just quite risky. Look at my post in the thread below. In addition, you should keep in mind that replacing a kernel is potentially a show stopper in many areas. The decision to replace a kernel should be because it has the ability to fix some issue you have or you need some feature that it has. Replacing a kernel just because a later minor revision is available is not a good reason to risk the breakage that can/may occur.
Thanks for the link to that thread - I understand better now. I've been spoilt by Ubuntu - dist-upgrade has rarely failed. But I've learned my lesson now, on Mint it's "upgrade" rather than "dist-upgrade" from now on!

Thanks & regards,

Vinay Sajip
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