Kernel Update
 

hello everyone,
I have just updated my kernel from 2.4.18 to 2.4.19. The configuration and istallation process seemed to be alright as I have not had any error messges but unfortunately when I first rebooted the system I had this message:
Kernel panic : VFS : Unable to mount root fs
I know next to nothing about virtual file systems and haven't got a clue about what I've done wrong, can anyone help figure out?

Thanks

I think you may have missed something out of your kernel configuration. What filesystem are you using? ext3? Make sure that it's built into the kernel (not a module) when you're configuring it. You might also want to take a look at /etc/fstab and just make sure you haven't forgotten to include anything you might be using.

If this isn't the problem then I've got no idea. I'm also not too sure about the VFS thing. If you do a 'man mount' this is what it displays as one of the ways to use it:
mount -a [-fFnrsvw] [-t vfstype] [-O optlist]

I wonder what vfstype can actually include.

Check your /usr/local/linux Makefile and look for The line may be preceded with a "#" - meaning it's commented out. Chances are if you're using one of the more popular distros your vmlinuz + system.map files are in your /boot directory. But when you download the standard patch files the Makefile defaults to / for images. Not to mention that you will get tons of module errors if you manage to actually boot properly.

Thank you guys, I'll try right away

I have a same question to updating kernel. Like brother Shaopudding's ,when I reboot my computer, it says cannot mount root fs. But it didn't happened on the other kind distributions.

Did you update the kernel or just rebuild it from the SuSE source? (Which kernel ships with SuSE 8.0???) You should be able to boot from the CD/DVD to your original partition. One snag from SuSE 7.3 was that when I installed it using reiserfs and rebuilt the kernel I forgot to include reiserfs support. No boot for me. I trust they changed the default in 8.0 and up.

The ACPI modules should already be part of source on the SuSE distribution. You should only need to config the kernel for ACPI. I doubt you need to actually patch the kernel.

As for ACPI in general - everything but ospm_battery module works on the Stinkpad.

I did do that from /usr/src/2.4.18-SuSE, no errors prompt except a warning which is said" the kernel is too big to run standalone". each step is right, but I faild.Why?
ACPI have be part of source on this kernel,but this distribution didn't complie it to module, by the way, how to patch kernel? I have download a new kernel(2.4.19) and its patch. When I do this : #patch p1 <../patch-2.4.19 in the kernel directory, it always ask me to confirm yes or no,why? I had complied my kernel for times, but never succeed!
Give me an advice, please!
thanks!

On my Suse 8.0 the default kernel is 2.4.18 When I tried to upgrade to the new kernel 2.4.19 i made another image (so that if the installation failed I could still run my system). As far as the configuration of the new kernel is concerned I copied the file .config from the directory /usr/src/linux in the directory of the new kernel so all the modules support are the same as those in the kernel I normally use. When I tried to comment out the line

export INSTALL_PATH=/boot

in the Makefile after my first reboot I noticed that I not only I got the error message in the image of the new kernel, but that my old kernel had the same message and therefore I have been forced to boot from disc and I can't understand why since I conmmented out the Makefile in the 2.4.19 dir and not in the 2.4.18 dir

Try 'make bzImage' or 'make 'bzlilo' to compress the image.

mcleodnine,
how to patch kernel? How did you complie you kernel?

to all:(specially shaobudding)
http://sdb.suse.de/en/sdb/html/rootfs_0803_install.html
you can use key word when searching!
I was just find it, good luck boy!

thank you a lot beyond_2000 for the link you supplied. Hopefully I'll get things right with it

If you did,tell me . I am trying now.

Unfortunetly, I faild again. we should try another way.

>2K - I think you should back up a step and work with the supplied SuSE kernel. The SuSE sources are different than the kernel.org standard source and you may find yourself in a serious muck when you patch or build from the sratch code. The problems you are looking to fix (ACIP?) should be in the SuSE stuff. The first time I patched a SuSE kernel it was way too much grief for my experience at the time. If you're really stuck you could boot from the CD/DVD and install one of the pre-built SuSE kernel images using YaST2.

Also - check to see which directory the link '/usr/src/linux' points to.