Hi, The attached patch dumps a list of partitions (in a similar format to /proc/partitions) to the console just before the kernel panics complaining that it can't mount /, the aim being to allow the victim to see quickly if all his devices have been found and to understand if they have the names he expects them to have. This is especially useful when debugging problems on other peoples machines, systems you don't know the hardware config of, or machines where the config has just changed (who moved that scsi device.....). The patch displays the minor/major numbers (in hex for use on a root=), the name and the name of the device driver associated with it (e.g. ide-disk) - suggestions on easy ways to get the model of the device in a generic way would be appreciated. One of the annoying things about the fail to mount / panics is that you can no longer scroll up to find out what errors came from device driver initialisation - I'm tempted to remove or delay the panics. Thoughts? The patch is against 2.6.11-rc5 and has been tested on Alpha and x86. I ask that it be included in the main kernel tree. Comments and reports welcome. Dave Signed off by: Dave Gilbert -----Open up your eyes, open up your mind, open up your code ------- / Dr. David Alan Gilbert | Running GNU/Linux on Alpha,68K| Happy \ \ gro.gilbert @ treblig.org | MIPS,x86,ARM,SPARC,PPC & HPPA | In Hex / \ _________________________|_____ http://www.treblig.org |_______/