Kernel nightmare
 

Hi folks,

I have installed the 2.63-7mdk kernel sources, cleaned, configured, made and installed bzImage modules etc etc

And made an initrd.img .. but i STILL get a kernel panic, saying no init found, try passing an init= argument to bla bla (ive tried doing this kernel quite a few times).

It's driving me mad and I know im probably missing something simple :(

Please help!

Firstly, had you been booting the stock 2.6.3 kernel?
Then, try just recompiling the kernel sources given without making any changes.
Then if that works and you dont need to do this recompile to apply some driver patch or something, try simply disabling things you know you dont need, eg maybe HAM radio support.

Trying to get every config option correct first time is very hard, better to start with the working system and strip it down slowly.

I patched the kernel to support a USB ADSL modem.

Ive configured it the same way I do all my kernels and normally i dont have problems.

Why won't it find my init.img? :(

Well if you've had no problems recompiling the 2.6 kernel source before then I suggest the problem is with the driver patch. What modem is it and what instructions are you following to install the driver? Are you sure it requires a kernel recompile or just a module compile against the sources?

"You must recompile and reinstall the kernel"

I have not yet been able to compile a kernel in mandrake, but I have managed to do it in gentoo and fedora core 1/2.

Edit: You seem to have updated your profile. :)
I just wanna confirm is that Mandrake 10.0 Official with 2.6.3-7mdk?
Have you tried compiling from clean/unpatched mandrake kernel sources first?

Which modem are you trying to install? Some have userspace drivers as well as kernel ones.

USB ADSL BT Voyager 105 using eciadsl's nortek driver. http://eciadsl.sourceforge.net

its insane

I havent tried an unpatched kernel, Ive had the same problem with the standard 2.6.7 kernel from kernel.org... and i dont think that was patched actually

edit: and yes its 10.0 official with 2.6.3-7mdk

So you've got the 2.6.x-usb.patch from here and read the Readme.txtI strongly suggest you try to compile a freshly installed copy of the kernel sources without doing anything to them. If that works then we know the problem is to do with the modem patch.

I will try that, ty.

I will get back to you later

Just a quick question.. how come gentoo compiles the kernel in 5 mins and mandrake takes about 40 minutes?

My custom kernel doesnt have that much more, surely?

Is there any way I can speed it up?

I'm not sure, I doubt gentoo can cause that much of a performance increase-are you sure that's not due to reusing sources that have been compiled in before. Eg. if you just patched a gentoo kernel it wouldnt have to recompile most of the code?
I'm sure 9.2 compiled faster than 9.1 but I havent tried 10.0 yet. Modules takes a while too, but I havent done many recompiles in a while.

I bought a router instead, it arrives on monday/tuesday. :)

I will be using gentoo :D