Jerry Geis wrote:> I am trying to use extlinux on centos 5.2 i386 to boot a thumbdrive.
>
> I ran the commands:
> mkdir -p /boot/extlinux
> extlinux /boot/extlinux
> cat /usr/lib/syslinux/mbr.bin > /dev/sde
> cp /boot/vmlinux.latest.kernel /boot/extlinux/linux
>
> I then tried to boot the USB stick and it started booting
> but then it says:
>
> kernel panic unknown root device.
>
> What else do I have to do. I followed the instructions in
> /usr/share/doc/syslinux/extlinux.doc
>
You successfully booted the kernel, however, the kernel has no idea
where to mount the root filesystem.
Furthermore, most distribution kernels also need an initial ramdisk
(/boot/initrd*). All in all, you need a configuration file
(extlinux.conf) which probably needs to look something like:
label linux
kernel vmlinuz-blah
append initrd=initrd-blah.img ro root=something
where "something" is a description of your root device, like a device
name, a LABEL or a UUID.
-hpa