not a valid root device..

[OkydOky]

Hello,

I am Having Issues Installing Gentoo on my Nvidia Controlled Raid 0 Array.

I Followed the Steps in the Gentoo Manual and Wiki.

My grub.conf is the following:
default 0
timeout 15
splashimage=(hd0,2)/grub/splash.xpm.gz


title=Windows XP Pro. Corp. SP2
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

title=Gentoo Linux
kernel (hd0,2)/boot/kernel-genkernel-x86-2.6.20-gentoo-r8 root=/dev/ram0 real_root=/dev/mapper/nvidia_iaccijfe6 init=/linuxrc ramdisk=8192 dodmraid
initrd (hd0,2)/boot/initramfs-genkernel-x86-2.6.20-gentoo-r8

It starts to load, and when it tried to mount my root partition i get the following: !! Block device /dev/mapper/nvidia_iaccijfe6 is not a valid root device

[bwkaz]

My guess would be that your initramfs doesn't have support for device-mapper-RAID. Did you modify that kernel line at all, or is that what the installer created?

Actually, was that error before or after the rest of the init scripts started running? (Before or after you saw it mount /proc and /sys? You may want to boot in a non-graphical setup so you can see the scripts run.)

[OkydOky]

I Followed the steps here:
http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Gentoo_Install_on_Bios_(Onboard)_RAID

The Kernel was created with genkernel --dmraid all

I added "dodmraid" at the end of the line, at the suggestion of someone else, with no luck. I am at work at the moment, will have to wait and see if rest of init scripts had run.

[bwkaz]

Hmm. It still looks like the initramfs doesn't have dmraid in it, and so doesn't set up the /dev/mapper/nvidia_* devices. It also looks like there's a *lot* of old initrd stuff hanging around in those kernel options (specifically, /linuxrc doesn't exist anymore in an initramfs). Also, root= and real_root= are ignored as well: the kernel just mounts the initramfs as the root device, then runs /init; /init is supposed to find the real root (my custom initramfs uses the kernel's root= option to decide which device to use), mount it, and chroot to it.

But anyway, it's also possible that the initramfs works fine, and the issue is with your boot scripts. That's what my last question was trying to figure out. I'll wait until you can check it. :)