I was wondering if anyone has had any problems with this kernel. I have been trying for days to get this kernel installed the Debian way. Each time I get really weird errors, many of which no one seems have clear answers to. Today I got the 2.4.20 kernel sources and packaged it the Debian way and it works and boots 1st time.

I mainly use debian, but also redhat and vine; thus I have never compile
the kernel for distribution specific way; thus I do not need to know three or
more of the same thing to accomplish, I believe.
If you want to read the experience of 2.4.22, you can read them at
http://www.e-aiyama.com/~toshi/Computer/Linux/SATA.html
If you want to go to the extreme of fresh install of debian with 2.4.22, then
read:
http://www.e-aiyama.com/~toshi/Compu...ux/LiveCD.html
In fact, I am writing this message using kernel 2.4.22. I really enjoy whole
array of new device support.

Toshikazu Aiyama

Hi..

Just posted a problem I have in the Software section..:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...threadid=90414

Is this anything like the errors you get??

Øyvind

The first boot error I got was;
kernel panic: VFS : unable to mount root fs on 16:41
The opinion on this error was that there is a problem with ELF support although ELF/a.out was included and in the kernel.
After another recompile I get the following error;

failed exec /sbin/modprobe -s -k binfmt-0000 errno = 8

There is no conclusion on this error on Google apart from a fix which did not work. Suggestions were of a problem in the kernel.

Some of otjervaag's problems I cannot answer because I do not use Samba at all. For the boot-promt inser the following 2 lines before imgae= in lilo.conf
prompt
timeout=50 ; or any value of one tenths second to wait before default boot

TogerOC's 1st problem looks familiar to me. Do you install / to the partition
above 20th? If so, default debian refuse to load because it does not know
where it is. Look at our url's LiveCD.html, you may find an answer.

I have installed 2.4.22 to a couple of machines without any significant errors of the kernel; thus I doubt these errors are caused by the kernel. I did not use debian way of compiling. I use pristine way and documented also at my url.

Of course, the kernel is still under development, but if you truely believe
it is their problem, report to the kernel maintainer.

Happy debian computing!

Toshikazu Aiyama

I am using separate hard drives and the system is located on the 3rd drive. I seem to have solved the problem but not sure how. It may have been involved with initrd and or ext3 support in the kernel.

The later problem of kmod: failed exec /sbin/modprobe -s -k binfmt-0000 errno = 8 is a run away process. The suggested fix was a line in /etc/modules.conf of alias binfmt-0000 off. I tried this but with no success.

The 1st problem's message means "cannot find where the root is". While you
are upgrading what is the point of creating intrd image unless you are sure
you have created the proper one for your PC. Since I am a frequent installer, I do not create initrd image at all.
I do admit I encounter a couple of errors I have not solved after upgrading.
But none of them appears to be serious like yours. Do you use debian way
of compiling? If so, try pristine way of compiling, and compare the result.

Toshikazu Aiyama

I use the Debian method mainly because it is very straightforward;
make-kpkg clean
fakeroot make-kpkg --append_to_version -X --initrd \ --revsion=.01 kernel_image
You ask "what is the point of creating initrd unless you are sure you have created the correct on for your PC." I am not sure what you mean by this. When I have compiled the kernel I have always made an individual boot floppy for the new initrd. The point is that I used exactly the same routines to create the 2.4.20 kernel and it worked 1st time. I have either got something wrong in the config or there is some other bug causing a problem. What I may try is using the config from 2.4.20 to configure 2.4.22 and see if I get a working kernel.

I think that mkinitrd, by default, will setup initrd as an ext2 filesystem, which means you must have ext2 support built into the kernel, not as a module.

As an update I downloaded the debian kernel-source-2.4.22 today and used the same procedures described above to compile the kernel package. Installed 100% and is working perfectly. The debian source packages must be tweaked in some way. I will at some stage compile this kernel in the conventional way and see what the result is.