Cannot boot on new installation

[gapan]

I installed a new Salix from the text-mode installer ISO into an external USB hard drive and I did a setup for lilo, just to be sure once again.

ok, step 1, I've tried to build the initrd as explained but it didn't work. When running the command:

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/usr/share/mkinitrd/mkinitrd_command_generator.sh

system don't give me the expected answer...

In what environment did you give that command? Did you chroot into your installed system? Because that command is not available in the installation iso. I would guess that you'd at least need to run

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depmod -a

(while in the chroot) as well as connecting all necessary devices, before running mkinitrd_command_generator.sh. Never done it, but I think it would work.

Meanwhile, I had another idea: Maybe I could run Salive live-cd in persistent mode written into an ext4 partition, and then remaster Salix ?! Salix have nearly all the tools I need for my work except chromium (because of some modules), thunderbird (because of mail archives) and teamviewer (because of remote internet work). If you know of a documentation on how to remaster Salix I will take it too

I'm not sure you really need any documentation for that. The process should be quite straightforward using the installer provided in salixlive and its "copy" option. Just be careful with which drive you specify as the target.

[mimosa]

The fault lies with my suggestion that it won't be necessary to chroot into the installation to create the initrd on the (as it turns out, spurious) grounds the environment is the same! My apologies.

But it should be easy enough to do it inside the chroot.

As a general comment, you are likely to get much better performance with a normal hard disk installation. That may be a pain too (dual booting with Windows) but it's a much more common procedure than this one, and I'm sure you'd get good advice here - though not from me, as I haven't done it since before the advent of UEFI.

[mimosa]

I used the Salix Live-cd 14.2 to install salix into a SDCARD 32Go with the graphic installer tool. I've selected the grub method and all went fine, no error, then trying to boot it, got the 4 pinguins, and error message:

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 Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown bloc(0,0)

and a trace dump. Then system halt.

Beaufix, I hope you have by now found a solution!

Are you certain that you created an installation on the SD card (by clicking on the right-hand button) and not a copy (with the left-hand button)? I've been trying to replicate your situation and the installer just won't install on an SD card for me, or a USB stick (I haven't tried an external HD).

It would be nice to be able to do what you were trying to do, and as gapan suggests, it is probably possible using the install (not live) iso, and creating the intrd inside the chroot.

[Beaufix]

I used the Salix Live-cd 14.2 to install salix into a SDCARD 32Go with the graphic installer tool. I've selected the grub method and all went fine, no error, then trying to boot it, got the 4 pinguins, and error message:

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 Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown bloc(0,0)

and a trace dump. Then system halt.

Beaufix, I hope you have by now found a solution!

So far, I have not been able to make it work, I'm sorry

Are you certain that you created an installation on the SD card (by clicking on the right-hand button) and not a copy (with the left-hand button)? I've been trying to replicate your situation and the installer just won't install on an SD card for me, or a USB stick (I haven't tried an external HD).

Well I did it a few times and so I have tested all available methods at hands. My SD card is plugged into an usb card reader and is seen just as any other pendrive. I formatted it to ext3.
1. running inside the Salix Live-cd, install to the SD card, first try with grub, second try with elilo. Installation went fine the two times but system was not able to run when booted on the SD card.
2. running inside the Salix text mode installer ISO, install to the SD Card, and all went fine but system could not boot.

It would be nice to be able to do what you were trying to do, and as gapan suggests, it is probably possible using the install (not live) iso, and creating the intrd inside the chroot.

may be someone with better knowledge than me

I've tried something different: I formatted my SD card to ext3 and put on it the Salix Live-cd, to run in live with persistent mode. I rebooted a
few times to check everything was. I've been able to do a lot of work and was very happy, until Salix showed me a notifier saying there were
updates available. So I told myself these guys at Salix are geniuses at work, let's update and will work later. After update I had to reboot
and the computer never started again because of a missing library

[mimosa]

I'd suggest booting with just persistent home. Delete the existing persistent file and start again. See this post for a simple explanation, and the README linked to there for the gory details:
viewtopic.php?f=31&t=7695

Since my original post I've tried to replicate your situation but been unable to because the Live graphical installer won't accept an SD card or memory stick for me, whence my question as to whether you actually "installed" (right-hand button) or only "copied" (left-hand button). So I haven't tested my instructions above, but I still think they should work, with the proviso as pointed out by gapan that you do in fact need to create the initrd inside the chroot, and before you do so, do

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depmod -a

also inside the chroot. If anybody can make this work, I'll edit my post above accordingly to make it more useful to anyone who may find it in the future.

[Beaufix]

I've tried something different: I formatted my SD card to ext3 and put on it the Salix Live-cd, to run in live with persistent mode. I rebooted a
few times to check everything was ok. I've been able to do a lot of work and was very happy, until Salix showed me a notifier saying there were
updates available. So I told myself these guys at Salix are geniuses at work, let's update and will work later. After update I had to reboot
and the computer never started again because of a missing library

@ Mimosa: I will try as you said. Just a few words, to give you some details, at reboot the missing library is ZLIB.1.2.9
just in case this might be useful for you all...

Many thanks