can't boot without "root=..." on kernel cmdline

[Chuck Lever]

i'm stumped by this problem.

hardware is SC450NX with 4 CPUs and 2 PCI buses, many SCSI disks, 512M.
kernel is anything from 2.2.late through 2.3.
distribution is RedHat 6.0.
lilo version is 21.

i can't boot the machine without specifying "root=/dev/sda1" on the kernel
cmdline (at LILO: prompt).  the last few lines of "make bzImage" look like
this:

make[2]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot/compressed'
objcopy -O binary -R .note -R .comment -S compressed/bvmlinux
compressed/bvmlinux.out
tools/build -b bbootsect bsetup compressed/bvmlinux.out CURRENT > bzImage
Root device is (8, 1)
Boot sector 512 bytes.
Setup is 4475 bytes.
System is 710 kB
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot'
bash$

/etc/lilo.conf has this:

boot=/dev/sda
map=/boot/map
install=/boot/boot.b
prompt
compact
timeout=50
read-only

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.3.39
        label=test39
        root=/dev/sda1

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.3.17
        label=dev17
        root=/dev/sda1

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.2.13
        label=stable13
        root=/dev/sda1


without specifying "root=...", the kernel panics on boot with the message
"VFS: Cannot open root device 00:80".  i have no idea where it's getting
major=0, minor=128.  specifying "root=/dev/sda1" on the LILO: cmdline
allows linux to boot correctly.  also the distributed RedHat kernels boot
correctly without "root=..."

any advice or pointers greatly appreciated.

	- Chuck Lever
--
corporate:	<chuckl en netscape.com>
personal:	<chucklever en netscape.net> or <cel en monkey.org>

The Linux Scalability project:
	http://www.citi.umich.edu/projects/linux-scalability/



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