Laptops :: kernel panic hd install hack

Hi all, I posted this message on the HD Install forum with no responces, so I thought I'd try here.

I’m getting a kernel panic signal on boot from a hd. The error is “VFS: cannot open root device ‘812’ or 08:12”…”kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 08:12”

Situation: I have an old dell laptop with no floppy, and a bios that will not allow boot from cd. So:

1) Took the hd out then mounted it on another machine with a little usb adapter. Did the partitioning as recommended (i.e., swap on sda1 and root on sda2 –ext2).
2) Then booted the machine with the dsl disk and did a hd install to /dev/sda2. I have tried both the standard and expert install, and get the same error.
3) Went with the lilo option in the dialog.
4) Then put the little hd back into the laptop and rebooted, and get the error above.

Could someone offer a suggestion; other than give-up. The error also suggests appending a correct “boot=” option. But I don’t know what that option would be.

Thanks for your help, from what I have seen, this is a great product!

-andy

Try to find bios update or <do network install>but I don't know about the second option.
If the hard drive has an OS that you can network and share a cdrom maybe copy to drive..........
get creative .
Dig in to posts .

Post back if you get it ,sounds interesting.
Good luck

original here.