Very Computer

I just installed linux from the infomagic cd rom that came with the
Que book. After installation, I'm getting the following error message
on boot after LILO, at the very end it says:
Linux version 1.1.59
GCC version 2.5.8 #5
Kernel panic: VFS: unable to mount fs on 08:01

 I have a maxtor 540 SCSI, controlled by a 'ISA' Adaptec AHA-1522A
The motherboard is a NexGen p-90 with 8mb ram. The setup seemed to go
fine, I partioned the drive under linux Fdisk and created a 20mb swap
file. A system disk was created on floppy, but that gives the same
error message as booting from the HD.

I have been using Linux for about two years and have seen this problem
quite a few times. Since you indicated that it does not work for hard disk
or floppy boot, I would guess that your root partition line is incorrect in
your /etc/fstab file.

The line for the root partition should look like:

/dev/sda2 / ext2 defaults 1 1

If you do not know which is the name for your root partition,
check it with DOS fdisk. It will be a partition type 'Other'
If it's partition '2' then your root drive would be /dev/sda2
(This assumes you do not have other linux partitions. However,
you did indicate that you have a swap FILE and not a partition).

Once you determine the partition, you must now boot into Linux
to be able to change the value.

Use the BOOT disk (not the recovery disk, but the installation boot
disk) to boot your system. When you get the first prompt type:

mount root=/dev/sda? (fill in your partition number)

Edit the /etc/fstab file, save it and reboot.