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Date: Sun, 15 Sep 1996 17:01:31 -0500 (CDT)
Organization: Computer Specialists  /  Astrolab Development
From: Randy DuCharme <randyd@nconnect.net>
To: "Josh Emmons (skia)" <j-emmons@sjca.edu>
Subject: RE: PANIC!: unable to mount root
Cc: questions@FreeBSD.org
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On 15-Sep-96 "Josh Emmons (skia)" wrote:
>>I have a computer with three IDE devices (UGH! I hate them, but they were
>cheep...):
>a Seagate 2gig hard drive.
>a 8x CD-ROM
>and a Conner 800Mb Hard disk.

< snip >

>The installation seems to run fine.  It probes all the drives, sees them
>all.  It works fine.  I set up a slice on the 800Mb drive and use the
>correct geometry.  I have FreeBSD auto-generate the lables, select the
>"X-User" distribution, and then commit.  After installation is finishe, I
>reboot the machine and wait for Booteasy.  I the hit F5 to switc to the
>other drive (the 800Mb one) and hit F1 for BSD.  It then gives me a boot:
>prompt and I hit enter to use the defaults.  It probes and finds all my
>drives.  Then it says something like "switching root system to WD1a" and
>the line after that says: PANIC!: unable to mount root.
< snip >

At the boot prompt type wd(1,a)/kernel and it should boot.  (kernel.GENERIC 
boots the GENERIC kernel)  For it to boot automatically, you'll have to 
build a kernel with the option:
 
    config	kernel root on wd1

When I set up my system, I did it pretty much the same way as you did except
I used SCSI drives.  I installed FBSD on the 2nd drive as a dedicated UNIX
drive (ie: the "not compatable with other operating systems" option during
the installation.) I then only installed the boot manager only on the first 
hard disk.  It eliminates the second Fx prompt.  Just a thought... something
to play with :)

Good luck

Randy