RH 7.1
kernel 2.4.18

hi all,

I am a linux newbie.

I have needed to upgrade my kernel from 2.4.2 to 2.4.18 to support my nic. I have followed the kernel rebuild instructions

make clean
make xconfig
make bzImage
vi lilo.conf
cp /arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.18

and my system was working great with the new kernel. It even booted first time and the nic was found and working ( i like this linux thing).
However my floppy was unable to read dos fs. The error is

'mount: unable to determine file type and none specified'

The floppy was reading DOS under 2.4.2 kernel. So i figured it was due to the kernel configuration params that relates to DOS fs. So i set

CONFIG_FAT_FS='y'
CONFIG_MSDOS='y'

And then did the build procedure above.

Now when i boot i get the following error

Loading linux-2.4.18 ...................
uncompressigng linux....ok, booting the kernel.


ran out of input data

-- System halted.


Not a good start. If i set the

CONFIG_FAT_FS='n'
CONFIG_MSDOS='n'

and recompile the kernel boots fine. Why?:-/

I have only found one other thread about the above error but there was no response :-(

So my question is
'how do i get my floppy reading dos fs and my kernel to load?'

Any help is most appreciated.


-shameless

try just one at a time

did you try making them modules?

also normally you should do make modules and make modules_install when you build your kernel, and copy the System.map file to /boot/System.map-2.4.18 and link to it with /boot/System.map

did you build an initrd.img for the kernel, or are you not using one

hi david,

I build the msdos fs as modules and then did the modules_install and guess what.... the kernel boots and the floppy is mountable. I guess the msdos support can't be compiled into the kernel.
Never mind i am happy.

thanks again

-shameless

make mrproper
make menuconfig
make dep
make clean
make bzImage
make modules
make modules_Install
copy the image to /boot
add entry to lilo.conf
rerun lilo

I have been attempting to rebuild my 2.4.18 kernel. I am having lots of very strange errors depending on what i select on the make xconfig. The latest error is the following.

'invalid compressed format (err=1)' -- system halted."

I guess the error itself explanatory. But what is causing this?

I am doing the following steps. recommended by jayakrishnan.

make mrproper
make menuconfig
make dep
make clean
make bzImage
make modules
make modules_install
copy the image to /boot
add entry to lilo.conf
rerun lilo


Someone has mentioned copying the System.map file to boot but i don't understand why.

I am really confused about this kernel building. Depending on which option are set to 'y' or 'm' i get kernek loading errors from

'run out of input data' ( very common ).

or

The make modules_install generates symbolic link failures on elf.o. What have i done incorrectly?

Any help is MOST appreciated.

thanks

-shameless

When i build a kernel myself i normally don't use modules at all but put all the thing i needs directly in the kernel - minus one source of possible trouble.
There are some things that are only available as modules but i don't need them.

I have found that modules_install may not be a bad idea if you have no modules, the mkinitrd will need to see something there, there may be other reasons as well.

Sometimes building a kernel takes one or both of two things.
use the old config as a starting point. Or trial and error to determine what works.

usually, when I re-compile a kernel, I do the following:

make menuconfig
make dep
make modules
make modules_install
make bzImage
make install

it's much quicker...and I let the Makefile handle the dealing with lilo. much better than what I used to do (try construction a .config file by hand...ouch)

your problem sounds like it's a dependancy. I'd install the msdos support as a module from within menuconfig. it's easier

I believe the problem to have been the way i was saving the config from make xconfig. I was saving the config to an external file, since i didn't know what i was doing i thought it was a good idea at the time. Once i tried saving the file to the default location ( i have no idea where ) it worked OK.

I think i'lll put this down to 'follow the kernel building instructions EXACTLY'

thanks

-shameless

<plug>I usually use buildkernel to compile a kernel<endplug> Since i never get it right the first time and can still do all the configurations it helps a lot. Don't have to mess with make this and that.

I got the 'ran out of input data' for the first time today, grabbed a boot disk, restored the previous config file (which I keep a backup of) and recompiled to as it was before. My problem is tho, that I still get the error

HELP!!!!

hi slack-penguin,

All my numerous problems disappeared when i followed the steps below. My problem was that i wasn't running lilo on the new image. I don't unsderstand what lilo does on the new image but it worked for me. Maybe a guru can shed some light on this?

make mrproper
make menuconfig
make dep
make clean
make bzImage
make modules
make modules_install
copy the image to /boot
add entry to lilo.conf
lilo

-shameless

I took it through step by step, and I think that in the end all I forgot was to run lilo