cannot Open Root Device' Linux Boot Error

Root device refers to the device from which a Linux system boots from. While booting if you are getting errors that system cannot access or open the root device, you might need to install a fresh copy of operating system. Thus, you are always suggested to maintain a good data backup of all valuable information you have stored. In such situations, you probably loose data and if backup fails to restore, you will need to use Linux Data Recovery software to scan and restore the data.

You might receive the similar error message while attempting to boot your system:

Cannot open root device "nnn" or unknown-block(maj,min)

Please append a correct "root=" boot option

Where, nnn represents the name of device and maj,min is the address value of block. You cannot boot your system after you receive this error message.

Cause

Some of the possible reasons for this error message to occur are:

Incorrect entry in grub.conf file

Incorrectly configured kernel

SCSI controller or IDE chipset support is either not compiled or is compiled as a module instead of initrd

File system support is either not compiled or is compiled as a module instead of initrd

If you have recently installed the system, then the odds are that you havent edited /etc/fstab file while installing. fstab is the file referenced by Linux to determine available disks and disk partitions and is most commonly used by mount command.

Solution

To solve such issues, you need to boot your affected system using Linux Live CD and check and reset the faulty parameters that are preventing your Linux system from booting. If this doesnt help, you should reformat and reinstall the system as the last resort. You can then restore your lost data from the most recent data backup you have. But backup availability is not must in each case. In such situations, you are recommended to use Linux Recovery software.

Linux Data Recovery applications are advanced applications that are specifically designed to scan a logically crashed drive. After a thorough scan, they restore lost data at a safe location, without harming actual data.

Stellar Phoenix Linux Data Recovery is a powerful Data Recovery Linux software that supports Ext2, Ext3 and ReiserFS file systems. It is a non-destructive tool with rich user interface and advanced recovery abilities. It natively supports all Linux distributions like Red Hat, Turbo Linux, SlackWare, Caldera, Sorcerer, SUSE etc.