3.2.29 kernel and Lilo
 

Slackware 14 uses 3.2.29 kernel. in my boot directory after upgrading are vmlinuz-generic-smp-3.2.29-smp and vmlinuz-huge-smp-3.2.29-smp, etc. Is there a difference in these, and which should lilo point to?

See the "switch to a generic kernel" part on this page, it explains them very well.

In short, you want a generic kernel running the system after you're done with the installation, since it runs a little bit faster and loads fewer things.

Ah, somehow I messed up. I think I did it right, but there is a kernel panic and now I cant boot. I am using an Ubuntu livedisk to access my slackware data, so I was able to edit the lilo.conf. But now I cant set it to the MBR due to the inability to run the command "lilo -v" from inside the livedisk.

Any way to manually move the new lilo conf to MBR? For now I cant bootmy computer either way.

Ive been using these directions that I found on a different threadZ

So far I was able to mount my slackware inside an Ubuntu liveCD that I happened to have around. Then I was able to chroot it. Finally I am able to run lilo! Very tricky! But there is an error:

"Fatal: Default image doesn't exist."

Not sure what that means. It says it added

then it errors.

You need to create an initrd.gz for the generic kernel to work
Add an entry to similar to this
reboot, use this entry to boot slackware. Then run this to find out what is needed to run mkinitrd. After creating an initrd.gz. Edit you generic entry to look like this
rerun lilo then the generic kernel should work. Vmlinuz is linked to the huge kernel

why cant I use /dev/root anymore? It returns

This always worked before. I am going to use it anyway and see if it works.

I did that before actually. I ran that command and used the output. Well, trying your smp edition.

use it if it works

I didnt include this originally:

initrd = /boot/initrd.gz

I think that is what was missing! The output from lilo is different now. Thanks!

I Yeah that was the problem, glad you got it working,

It doesnt kernel panic now, but I still cant boot that generic kernel. It gives an error related to not being able to find "mnt" or to mount /dev/sda2 as root, even though that is root. It also said could not find "init". That is from what I remember. I installed a non-generic kernel in order to get around using that suck livedisk. Though I restarted so many times with that livedisk I became proficient at mounting and chrooting folders and filesystems as root. Good experience, but I would rather just avoid such troubles. Never realized what chroot was for.

at the lilo prompt hit tab select the entry for the generic kernel type root=/dev/sda2 then boot if it works then add the line to the generic entry

Nope, the error is the same:

I am sure it is /dev/sda2, because the command

# df -h

produces sda2 in the '/' root.

Are you able to boot slackware with the huge kernel?

Yes, I am using a custom kernel right now. Earlier I commented out the custom kernel thoughtlessly, expecting the generic kernel to work, so I had to use a livedisk to uncomment the custom kernel via some tricky chroot of my /dev/sda2 into the livedisk environment, which I found interesting.

I am not sure what is going on, since when I run 'lilo -v' it gives me verbose information and updates my lilo to MBR without any errors or warnings.

I am thinking to keep the custom kernel and forget this issue.

If your custom kernel works and the generic kernel doesn't, there must be something missing/wrong with your initrd.gz for the generic kernel.

I only used the commands to automatically create the initrd.gz. So it is only what the system told me.

Though it can be maybe that the custom kernel I made has created an initrd.gz incompatible with the 3.2.29 generic kernel?

try booting the huge kernel rerun the scripts to create an initrd.gz for the generic kernel and see if that helps. The only possible problem with this is if you are using an initrd.gz to boot your custom kernel.

My new redhat 9 installation is not booting, it says: <0>kernel panic: Attempted to kill init!
I've tried different machines but will get the same error. How should i correct this

@ stfwala you need to start a new thread with your question to prevent confusion. This is a Slackware problem and not any way related to a redhat problem.

No, I would not use an initrd.gz to start the custom kernel, as I already have an entry for it in the lilo.conf. I'll try this with huge.

Yes, the solution was that. The creation of a custom kernel unrelated to the huge kernel that comes with the generic results in a bad initrd.gz.

I switched to the huge kernel, then ran the command:

/usr/share/mkinitrd/mkinitrd_command_generator.sh

This produced the right initrd.gz. So I learned from this, the initrd.gz for a generic can only be produced with the right huge kernel related to it, and not with a custom kernel.