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Date: Mon, 5 Aug 1996 17:01:36 -0500
From: "James E. Leinweber" <jiml@slh.wisc.edu>
Message-Id: <199608052201.RAA20279@stovall.slh.wisc.edu>
To: questions@freebsd.org
Subject: 2.1.5-RELEASE generic kernel panics looking for mythical sd1a root
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I am experimenting with installing FreeBSD 2.1.5-RELEASE on a PC with both
an IDE and a SCSI disk, and have run into a boot snag.  After the
apparently successful install, when the generic kernel loads off of
/dev/sd0s2, it panics trying to mount sd1a as root, when it ought to
be mounting sd0a (or sd0s2a, to be pedantic).

The hardware is a Pentium 100Mhz motherboard with Intel Triton-II
chipset, 256K cache, 32MB RAM.  Adapter cards include an ATI graphics
ultra pro PCI video (mach64, 4MB vram); an Adaptec 2940 PCI SCSI card
(narrow); a 3COM 3C509B ISA ethernet card, and a soundblaster 16 pro
ISA audio card.  Storage devices are a 3.5" diskette, a 5.25"
diskette, an 800MB IDE disk (wd0, 4 slices), 4GB SCSI disk (sd0, 9
slices), a Toshiba SCSI CD-ROM, and an HP 4mm DAT tape drive.  There
is a 3-button Logitech serial mouse on sio0, a Motorola Power 28.8
modem on sio1, and a Microsoft "natural" keyboard. 

I have too many operating systems installed (DOS, OS/2, a partition
reserved for Windows-95, Windows-NT, Linux), and was trying to add
FreeBSD to the mixture.  The boot strategy is currently DOS MBR ->
Linux LILO on wd0s2 -> FreeBSD on sd0s2.  I was doing an NFS-based
install off another local machine.  I FTP'd the release files on
Saturday 8/3/96, from ftp.freebsd.org (AKA ftp.cdrom.com).

The kernel seems to boot fine off sd0s2 - the messages are identical
to what I get off the boot floppy; post-install I can mount sd0a fine
from the fixit floppy; and in general everything looks normal to me.
(I've successfully run other versions of FreeBSD on other machines in
the past.)  Except that the kernel panics trying to mount the wrong
root partition.  It claims to be looking for sd1a, and that disk
doesn't exist.

Is this a bug?  Can I install FreeBSD on a SCSI disk in a system with
an IDE disk?  Is there a way to tell a freebsd kernel where to find
its root partition, analogous to the Linux "root=..." parameter?

Other than this glitch, overall I was quite impressed with the install process.

Thanks,

-- James Leinweber
   State Laboratory of Hygiene                     <jiml@slh.wisc.edu>
   University of Wisconsin      Madison WI, USA        +1 608 262 0736