Kernel panic - not syncing : VFS: Unable to mount root fs on

[rekotc]

hello everybody! yesterday i received my raspberry pi and now im trying to use it for the first time, unfortunately i cant get it to work! I connected only the monitor and the power supply in order to avoid problems with usb peripherals, i tried to install raspbian using 2 different microsd cards with different adapters (im sure they are good ones, samsung class 10 and kingston class 4 from a well known shop here in italy, no chinese stuff), but i always get the same error after the splash screen and the initial load:

Code: Select all

[  20.217557] Kernel panic - not syncing : VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(179,2)

PANIC: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(179,2)

Entering kdb (current=0xcd828ca0, pid 1) due to Keyboard Entry
kdb> _ 

is there any chance i can fix it without wasting money on new sd cards? the image file (last available) is sha-1 checked so it should be fine..

thanks in advance for your help

[thekingcat]

Can you provide more details...
How are you installing the img. to the SD card? Through the Win32DiskImager or using the DD command (Mac/Linux)

Have you re-downloaded the file from raspberrypi.org/downloads?

Have you tried any of the other Operating systems that are easy to install, such as Raspbmc (i know this isn't what you want, but it's and easy install and will probably show up any problems you have if its a problem with the installing of the img to the SD)

Another thing to check, is the power supply you are using sufficient? 5v 1a. If you have a multi-metre do a reading from the TP 1 & TP 2 points on the RasPi. Or have you got too much plugged into the board on the USB.

Hope that helps at all.

[rekotc]

thanks for your answer, ok first of all, i installed raspbian using Win32DiskImager because i didnt have access to my linux box, im going to try again using dd this time. No i didnt redownload the image because i thought that the SHA-1 checksum was enough to be safe
I didnt even know about this Raspbmc, i should give it a try, at least to understand if it's an hardware problem.

The power supply is brand new, it declares +5v and 2100 mA, i chose it because of the 2,1 A, much more than the required value. Anyway i will check the tensions to see if 5v are provided, unfortunately i need to wait until monday.. i will let you know

thanks again

[charliedurrant]

I just got this too - mine was working fine last week so I can only assume it is the SD card.

[thekingcat]

Well I have come across this issue a few times when DD'ing the img to the SD card. All appears to go well but some files are obviously not copied, or bad sectors written. So if you havent tried it... try formatting the card and re-download the image.

[mcgyver83]

Today I had 3 times the same issue, the last time I launched xbmc-standalone and after 10 minutes, when I went to the livingroom to see what happened I found an error message, raspberry was freezed, I unplugged and replugged the power and here it is, the third "kernel panic unable to mount" error...
I'm using the 900Mhz standard overclock...each time I have to "dd" mi backup img on the sd...

[rekotc]

ok today i've tried to redownload the image file, but this time i didnt use the torrent link...and...it worked! the strange thing is that i double checked the checksum of both images and they are fine..so i dont understand ..anyway i solved it !

[rajeev_n]

After using the image 2012-10-28-wheezy-raspbian for few days , I got the same issue.Looks like it is a OS bug. I re -imaged my SD card and it started working.

[dauhee]

this has happened to me twice in one day! First image was built 4 months back. I was in the process of customizing the second image. This happened to me before also. I tried copying bin + elf files back in boot partition but no success. I ran crystaldisk and SD cards are reporting ok. There is either a bug in wheezy, or my 1amp power supply (from Farnell) is not enough to support a serially attached in arduino uno on the RPi model B (512Mb ver). Am currently going for build #2 today. . . . . . .

[abishur]

This happened to me a lot when I was overclocking with overvoltage, once I went to standard over clocking it stop creating this issue. It doesn't happen to everyone, but if you're one of the unlucky few it does happen to, lowering overclocking and checking PSU voltages is a good place to start.

[bjorge]

I took the card and ran a fsck on the second partition (I run raspbmc) and it started working again.

[Tishkata]

Hi!
I have the same strange problem. I have tryed 2 different SD card, SanDisk class 4 and Extreme.
Preformated (several times), downloaded new NOOBS (1.2.1 atm), hash check is OK. After install (Raspbmc), system is going to update kernel (or something, don't understanding linux), after step 2 - system is rebooting ang hangs on.
I have pulled out LAN cable on the next clean install, and system started. Pluged LAN again... and after update - stuck again..
Now it is useless...
I'll try ti check SD under Ubuntu OS, and I hope it will sucseed. I'll let you know...
Have faith!

[Tishkata]

This worked for me!
http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewt ... 6&p=374323

[gounthar]

HI,

I have the very same problem, but as I work with windows, I just can't modify the files once they've been written on the SD card.
I will try on a Mac.
Maybe is my card too big (16Gb)?
Tried Android, Raspbian, Noob, and nothing worked.
VFS: Cannot open root device "mmcblk0p2" or unknown-block(179,2): error -6
Please append a correct "root=" boot option; here are the available partitions:
b300 15659008 mmcblk0 driver: mmcblk
PANIC: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(179,2)

[gounthar]

I tried mmcblk0 and mmcblk0p6 instead of mmcblk0p2, but it fails the same way.

[gounthar]

I have the answer:

Kingston microSDHC 16 10 SDC10/16GB Doesn't work with N0390-002.A00LF though (tested with Raspbian “wheezy”) - mmc0 timeouts, waiting for hw int. I wouldn't recommend buying this card. Arrow 14 Jun 2012, J3rGuS 19 March 2013

That's the card I used.