Kernel 2.6.20-rc3 does not boot

twinky · 01-02-2007, 06:52 AM

Hello,

I'm trying to upgrade my 2.6.19.1 Kernel to 2.6.20-rc3, but I can't boot with the new kernel. The message

Code:

waiting for root filesystem

stay forever...

So my question, what could have change between 2.6.19 and 2.6.20 regarding filesystems ? I took the same config file as the one I was using for compiling the 2.6.19 version.

My system :
Laptop Core 2 Duo
100 Go SATA, with ext3
Debian SID

Thanks

Emerson · 01-02-2007, 06:25 PM

Welcome to LQ!

Using old .config file won't work. One should do at least make oldconfig. It still may not work, make oldconfig is known to choke when parts of config tree are moved. The only clean solution is to build it from scratch.

Quakeboy02 · 01-02-2007, 08:44 PM

"waiting for root filesystem"

Could this be an initramfs issue? i.e. kernel is compiled requiring initramfs but there's no initramfs image? Debian's dpkg takes care of this for me, so I can't tell you how to get around it. I believe it's under Device Drivers -> Initial RAM Filesystems... You may also need RAM disk support.

Quakeboy02 · 01-02-2007, 08:54 PM

Come to think of it, check your configuration for the SATA drivers section. They're making a lot of changes to libata and you may have run across a situation where your boot drive has changed from /dev/hd* to /dev/sd* under the new kernel, but grub/lilo is still pointing to /dev/hd*. If that's the case, you need to turn off whatever is running your pata device as a sata device. You could maybe change grub/lilo, but that would make booting from your fallback kernel difficult.

twinky · 01-05-2007, 03:22 PM

Thanks all for your reply. The kernel compile and boot fine with the latest git patch (git4 at this time).