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I have a machine with the following spec:

CPU: Intel i7-2600S 2nd Gen Core 2.8GHz Low Voltage CPU 65W TDP RAM: 8GB DDR3 - 2 of these so I got 16GB of RAM.

I want to install a Linux distribution and use the machine as a server. I tried Ubuntu (both desktop 32) and I get the following error:

Kernel Panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown um-block(8,1)

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Did you search for that error message on the internet (and on Ask Ubuntu)? What did you try to resolve this? How did you go about doing the installation? Did you get any kind of error message during the install? How did you partition your system? ... – Mat Mar 31 '12 at 13:15
1  
"Unknown block", either you dont have support for your drive in the kernel, or you passed the wrong root= parameter to the kernel. – Patrick Mar 31 '12 at 22:59
Are you getting this error when booting the installer, or after the install completes? – jsbillings Apr 2 '12 at 23:38
What matters here: kernel commandline (including root=), so we can know what is the kernel trying to mount as /, the specifications of the drive and filesystem where / lies (e.g. SATA, SCSI, PATA, ..., partitioned with MS-DOS partition table, Apple partitions, ..., / formatted with ext3, reiserfs, ...); how is the kernel being booted (kernel mounts root or uses some initrd image first?). The CPU and RAM specs are of little use here. – njsg Apr 3 '12 at 6:50

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