Hi,
I have a fedora core 2 distribtion with 2 kerrnels 2.6.5 and 2.6.9
I want to configure kernel 2.4.x on it since some appllication I want to run needs it.
How can I compile and build the kernel.

I tried the usual way of
make xconfig
make clean
make dep
make bzImage
tille here the process is normal .the trouble i guess starts from here.
make modules
make modulles_install
but when i run make modules it gives all the output on the screen like any othe 2.4.x kernel but the output here says that no need to do anything for eahc module

and the when i run make modules_install
the last line of the output is
if [ -r System.map ]; then /sbin/depmod -ae -F System.map 2.4.24-28; fi
It does not give any error though.

I thiink the building is not done properly.However I tried to do all the ususal formalities of updating grub.conf.

But when i reboot into the 2.4.x kernel it gives me an error saying
kmod failed to exec /sbin/modprobe -s -k scsi_hostadapter , err no =2
kernel panic to mount root on fs

thanks,
Nitesh

That's correct, that usually means it worked.

Did you remember to make a new initrd? (If your kernel doesn't have the drivers it needs in order to talk to your hard disk compiled into it, then it needs those drivers placed in an "initial ramdisk" or initrd. man mkinitrd.)

Moy

Hey Moy,
Thanks for a prompt reply
I did run
mkinitrd /boot/initrd-2.4.24-28.img 2.4.24-28

cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.24-28
cp System.map /boot/System.map-2.4.24-28
$ ln -s /boot/System.map-2.4.24-28 /boot/System.map

made the changesin grub.conf.
Everything looks fine but the loading of scsi_hostadapter error i get during boot.I think its got something to do with loading of modules

Nitesh

From the mkinitrd man page:
Since you had a question earlier about a 2.6 kernel, I assume you're going from 2.6 down to 2.4, so you probably don't have a modules.conf. I'm guessing that's what the problem is.

I don't remember how to build a modules.conf, but perhaps this howto might help. If you can figure out which modules you need, you may not need the modules.conf since you're just trying to put them in the initrd---you can use the --with switch on mkinitrd instead. (Of course, you might possibly need a modules.conf later for some other modules your hardware needs but you can cross that bridge when you get to it.)

Also, since you're building this so specifically for a particular app on your particular machine, wouldn't it be easier to just compile all that stuff into the kernel instead of building it as modules?

HTH.

Hi Moy,
This is on a different computer.I do have a modproe.conf file in my etc directory.

I have a working 2.6.5 and a 2.6.9 kernel installed on this computer.
the contents of modprobe.conf reads as follows:

alias eth0 via-rhine
alias snd-card-0 snd-via82xx
install snd-via82xx /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-via82xx && /usr/sbin/alsactl restore >/dev/null 2>&1 || :
remove snd-via82xx { /usr/sbin/alsactl store >/dev/null 2>&1 || : ; }; /sbin/modprobe -r --ignore-remove snd-via82xx
alias usb-controller ehci-hcd
alias usb-controller1 uhci-hcd

I need to load modules.

I will give one more try to do everything again from scratch and let you know what happened. I will also try with compiling into the kernel.

Thanks,
Nitesh

Right. Sorry, I don't think I was clear: the 2.4 kernel uses a file called modules.conf, not modprobe.conf (which is a 2.6ism, although the two files should look almost or even exactly the same). I was guessing that you're missing a modules.conf.

Anyway, with those and the SCSI modules (either compiled in or added by way of modules.conf or mkinitrd --with), hopefully you're up and running by now.

Hi Moy,
I got rid of the scsi devices support error by playing around with the config file.But now one more problem has started.

When i try to boot into the 2.4.24-28 kernel
the following is what i get when i try to boot

initrd /initrd-2.4.24-28.img
[Linux initrd@ 0xdfc3000 0x 1c....]
uncompressing Linux .. ok booting the kernel

xd : out of memory
kernel panic :unable to mount root fs 00:00

Thanks,
Nitesh

Wow, man, you're having all kinds of weird problems, aren't you? :-)

Googling suggests that xd is a driver for something (a USB flash card?) and might possibly have had issues in the past. I guess you could try leaving that out if you don't need it, and seeing how that works.

Other than that, I'm really running out of ideas, sorry.

Where did you get this kernel from?---ie. did you start from scratch or are you modifying some distribution's kernel? The safest kernel-building approach IMO is to start with the .config from some stable distro (Slackware is a good choice for this), add what you need, and then subtract incrementally (or I guess decrementally...).

Good luck.

yeah man . I got this kernel from kernel.org man ( ftp.kernel.org )
I will try with some other kernel.I wanted to compile a 2.4.x kernel .Is slackware really trouble free in compilation?
I willr give it a try.
Thanks,
Nitesh

Sounds like your ramdisk is to small. I dont use initrd but its a common prob for gentoo users who use it.The kernel line in grub.conf looks like this "kernel /bzIamge root=/dev/ram0 init=/linuxrc ramdisk=8192 real_root=/dev/hda3 ". You need to increase the size of your ramdisk probably in1024 chunks.