Hi,

I tried to build a lightweight kernel(2.6.17.7 from kernel.org), so I only compiled things I need.
But my new kernel refused to boot with this weird message:
..and booting stops. In recovery mode, booting stops at Waiting for root file system...

So I tried to add some more drivers, because I thought I simply miss some IDE or chipset driver. Well, after one week and countless compilations I gave up.

I took the old .config and changed only these things:

• processor model
• unchecked kernel debugging
• unchecked support for >2TB disks and files and >4GB RAM
• unchecked all IO schedulers but CQF

But I'm left with the weird zero once again..

So what am I doing wrong. Isn't initrd the trouble? I was compiling it using make-kpkg --initrd, so it was created and has its entry in grub. I don't really know, what else could be causing this,

You shouldn't use a config unchanged from a different kernel version. Changes might make config files incompatible. The proper way to use an old config file is to run make oldconfig.

I used
make oldconfig && make xconfig

Aargh, I'm sorry. I thought I read your post properly, but now I see that I really only read the title.

You might try to isolate the problem: try compiling a kernel that doesn't use initrd, maybe try using a different kernel version.

Hmm, I tried using make && make modules_install && make install. This way no initrd was created (and I think none was needed, because drivers related to FS and IDE were compiled statically) - but no success.

Could't udev be the trouble? I have 069 and I think most recent is 096. Anyway I will try to install fresh version tonight.

You may have made a bad assumption there. Run "depmod -a" and then "mkinitrd".

Otherwise, you could boot up to your last working kernel version. If the kernel is configurated to provide a
/proc/config.gz, you could use that as a base .config to start over. ( Although, I believe that make oldconfig does the same thing ).

When should I do it? After running make modules_install?

I was wrong about depmod -a. It was performed during the kernel build process.
Run "mkinitrd" after "make modules_install". Your distro may have an /etc/sysconfig/kernel file which includes a variable containing additional modules to be included into initrd, such as "processor", "piix", "thermal", "fan" and "reiserfs".

Be sure to read your distro's /usr/src/linux/README.<distro> readme file. It will probably outline the entire process. Also read the mkinitrd manpage.

Good Luck!