firs off, I am so new to linux I can barely spell it, so be forewarned.

OK, I DL'd and burned the R5A12 ISO, and attempted to install. everything seemed to work fine, enterd config info, user name, pass, root pass, etc.
when it said to remove the CD and hit enter to reboot, I did so.

then my comp would not find the installation, I got a file system not found error. after a bit of head scratching, I switched my drive from master to cable select. this produced a bit of progress, but still with no real luck.

it now seems to start to load the LILO thing but then I get the following message:

Kernel panic - not syscing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(3,1)

there is no active prompt at this point.

I tried to reinstall, thinking that installing with the drive set as master, and trying to run with it set to CS might be a problem. however, I get the same thing.

my hardware is a bit dated, but for now I am really just trying to get a feel for this, and plan on building a decent dedicated box for this.

my specs are:
VIA MS7177C mobo
P3 1ghz
512mb
WD 80gb hdd, IDE
unknown optical drive
PS/2 keyboard, usb mouse

any help would be appreciated.

thanks,
Cam

How hardware savvy are you? For a painless install you need to have your HD as the primary master (first IDE channel, first device on the channel). This means:

- plugging the cable into the right IDE connector on the motherboard
- jumpering the drive as CS or MA to match the prejudices of your BIOS
- if there is more than one device on the cable the jumpering must be compatible (both CS or one MA and one SL)
- for CS using a CS cable and plugging into the right connector on the cable

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/ide/confCS-c.html

I had to jumper my WD drive to CS or it wouldn't get recognized by by nforce2 chipset as a bootable disk. YMMV, so try both CS and MA.

BTW - When the system formats the drive try selecting the "check for bad blocks" option. I also have an old Dell box that Linux installs always fail miserably on when I forget that, but is otherwise rock steady.

I am pretty well versed in the hardware. I have built several systems, and do all the IT work at my company.

I have tried the install both set up as master on the primary channel, and as CS, and get errors of one type or another. also, this is the only drive in the system.

I dont see any point where i can select any options during formatting the drive.

-Cambo

Cambo,

I had the same issue on a test system I'm putting together. I'm using an nForce3 Mobo and 1GB of Kingston PC3200 RAM. I kept getting the same error over and over. I thought it was a bad burn on the CD, so I downloaded R5A15.1 again, checked the MD5Sum (again) and burned the CD again--same problem.

I tried another OS distribution to verify the problem was with my hardware or with my OS/CD. It tried to install FC3, but it had the same problem.

It then dawned on me that the VFS: unable to mount root FS is not on a Hard Disk, because the OS installation hasn't gotten to that point yet. It was trying to write the Root FS to a RAM Disk.

I fixed the problem by going into the BIOS and changing DRAM Settings. The only setting I changed was the Speed Setting. It was set for "Auto", so I changed it to first 200 (representing PC3200 RAM). This didn't work, so I changed it to 180 (or something in the 180's). This told the BIOS the RAM is slower than it is rated for. This solved the problem with the "VFS: . . . " error message.

I hope this helps you.

bbutler