I can boot with a kernel compiled by Gentoo, and moved to the LFS
/boot directory.

Using LFS and the .config used by Gentoo and compiling in LFS
fails to boot.

Basic error is it can't read the partion table.
It fails the fsck.ext3 check, " no such file or directory"

Running fsck.ext3 from Gentoo says the LFS partion is clean.

I must have screwed up the compiler or libraries on LFS,
although I get no errors when compiling.

Any ideas?

does your kernel panic on boot ?

if so i had this problem, make sure you have compiled the ext3 into your kernel, otherwise you will end up with a chicken and egg situation:

you cannot read the disk - need module to do so, modules on the disk, cannot read disk - need module to do so, module on disk....
its like putting the driver for a network card on a network server with out any means to get it to the workstation !

and so on i think you will get the idea.

as far as compiling problems go with LFS i found that mandrake as the host system is quite useless, most of the libs are missing etc. most people here recommend downloading knoppix of the internet, i followed their instructions and it works perfectly for me.

knoppix is a bootable linux cd ( a root boot i beleve is the correct term ) just stick it in and off you go

No panic.
I used the exact .config file (kernel parameters) used by Gentoo.
I did "make mrproper" and "make clean".

If compiled by Gentoo it boots.
If compiled by LFS it can't read the partition.

Of course modules are not installed when compiled in Gentoo,
but the system boots ok.

I have knoppix, debian, suse and many other distributitions.
I have compiled kernels for most it not all of them. Never seen
this problem.

hummm
sounds all okay

just to make sure do the make menu xconfig and check under file systems to see and make sure you have support for experimental stuff too

could you post the exact message so we can see where it happens on boot ?

Screen messages:
Mounting proc file system [ok]
Mounting root file system in read-only mode [ok]
Checking file systems.....
fsck.ext3: no such file or diretroy while trying to open /dev/hdb10
/dev/hdb10: The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2 filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2 filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
e2fsck -b 8193 <device>

File system errors were encountered that couldn't be fixed automatically. This system cannot continue to boot and will therefore be halted until those errors fixed manually by a System Adminstrator.

When you press enter, this system will be halted.
Press enter to Continue.

okay

i think your root filesystem should be mounted in read-write mode and not read-only ( i guess )

use a different kernel and see if the device hdb10 exists ( /dev/hdb10 ) under LFS

i am guessing not

I have discovered that if I add :
append="devfs=nomount"
to lilo.conf, it boots just fine, without any errors.

Everything seems ok, with the exception of ping.
ifconfig shows eth0 and the network to be OK.
When I ping 192.168.0.1 or any address on my network, I get:
>ping: unknown protocol icmp

I doubt any relationship between ping and devfs.

Still no clue why the kernel compiled in Gentoo, and
moved to the lfs partition boots with devfs enabled.

Can anyone shorten my journey to understanding?