Kernel panic with generic kernel Slackware 13.1

goodadamgood · 01-31-2011, 11:17 AM

Hi everyone,
I'm very new to Slackware, installed 13.1 32-bit on my Lenovo T61 several days ago and already it's been a lot of fun...I'm learning so much.

I really fear that this has been asked about a million and a half times but I just can't help but be confused.

Background...
I have three distros on my machine, Linux Mint Debian Edition, Ubuntu Studio and Slackware 13.1

I have a /boot partition on my drive btw...

Ok, the Slack Huge kernel (vmlinuz-huge-2.6.33.4) boots up fine from Grub which by the way was installed by Mint Debian. From what I can see it's Grub and not Grub2. How can I figure out which I have??

I tried to install everything I'll need to use my Nvidia drivers but couldn't get X using the Huge kernel and figured maybe I should try Nvidia drivers under the generic kernel. Booting into the generic gives me a kernel panic.

Having done some googling I think I need to install an initrd. Does this seem like the direction to go? If so well I tried it and get an error:

Code:

$ sudo /sbin/mkinitrd -c -k vmlinuz-generic-2.6.33.4 
ERROR: No /lib/modules/vmlinuz-generic-2.6.33.4 kernel modules tree found for kernel "vmlinuz-generic-2.6.33.4"

Can't figure out where to take it from there but am I really barking up the right tree?

Hope to hear from some people. I'm loving Slackware so far and look forward to getting into it more.

best,
Adam

Cepoon · 01-31-2011, 11:48 AM

Change to the boot directory:

Quote:

cd /boot

Log in as root and type:

Quote:

mkinitrd -c -k 2.6.33.4 -m ext3 -f ext3 -r /dev/sda2

ext3 and /dev/sda2 = Depends on your filesystem and check your fstab.

Now you have created initrd.gz in /boot direcotry. You must configure lilo bootloader now.

Add these settings to your /etc/lilo.conf:

Quote:

# Linux bootable partition config begins
image = /boot/vmlinuz
initrd = /boot/initrd.gz
root = /dev/sda2
label = whatyouwant
read-only
# Linux bootable partition config ends

The last thing, apply changes in your lilo.conf

Quote:

lilo -v

That's it.

bgeddy · 01-31-2011, 12:43 PM

Quote:

Can't figure out where to take it from there but am I really barking up the right tree?

The command

Code:

su -c "/usr/share/mkinitrd/mkinitrd_command_generator.sh "

will show you what mkinitrd command to run to succesfully generate an initrd on Slackware 13.1. Then just follow the steps Cepoon gave to update lilo.conf and rerun lilo.

goodadamgood · 01-31-2011, 04:57 PM

Awesome thank you guys for the tips and quick reply! Following Cepoon's post it's booting the kernel. Actually at installation I didn't add lilo / bootloader figuring Grub would be enough. After adding initrd to my grub.cfg it's all good.

Now on to getting Nvidia drivers up without errors...