Seeing blank screen after updating kernel
 

Hello there, first sorry for my bad english, its not my mother tongue..

Well, i've installed slackware 11.0 few days ago and i've noticed that if I want to use my RTL8139 and Marvell net adapters I have to upgrad to kernel 2.6, well, i looked up this site and found out an excellent guide for doing this ( http://www.linuxquestions.org/linux/...Slackware_10_1 )
I followed it step by step and everything went just fine except one little thing is when finally I typed 'lilo' to initialize it , it showed my an msg that goes something like that: "warning: master boot and system map are not on the same disk", well, I kind of ignored that just for its being a simple warning and typed finally 'reboot' and then lilo popped up, I chose my new kernel from the menu and unfortunately I had nothing on my screen, a totally blank screen but I heard my hard-drive is working so I realized that the booting process is happening but it doesn't show me nothing, while it was a black screen , I waited it to boot completely (just by hearing my hard-drive) and tried to log-in as root (while I see nothing on my screen).. well, I heard my hard-drive works again so I realized that it DOES work but it just shows me nothing.. well, I typed on my console (again, while I see a blank screen) a 'startx' and for my surprise it opened up my kde (from the new kernel, and it even made a cool sounds at the beginning so all the kernel compiling at the beginning was quite successful) so I realized that maybe there is some problem with my kernel modules so in the kde KConsole i typed 'xconfig' while im in /usr/src/linux-2.6.20.1 and I chose all the modules that I thought that might help me figure it out (for example frame-buffer stuff and this kind of things), after closing the 'xconfig' i typed:
1) make
2) make modules
3) make modules_install
well, it made all this compiling process and then I tried to reboot.. and unfortunately while im still trying to boot it from the new kernel I still see a blank screen and hear that my hard-drive is booting it out :\

please help me because im kind of desperate already :\
I think im missing some part while im trying to update the kernel (I mean im missing some step from the steps i wrote above, after doing changed in the xconfig I mean).

Thanks,
Gonroise.

Did you make sure to include frame buffer support? Also, what does your lilo.conf file look like?

I think masonm is right,

I have experienced this problem myself when building kernels and forgetting to change the vga mode in lilo.

the quick and dirty answer is just change lilo.conf:

vga= XXX # XXX = some number
vga= normal

During your kernel configuration:
If you want a nice framebuffer and pengy during boot up you either have to build in framebuffer support (Y) or create an initrd if you want fb as modular (M).

I did include the frame buffer support but my question is: after im including this, and after exiting the menuconfig, what command should I type? only these 3 ones that I mentioned? or maybere there is something more?


my lilo.conf looks like this:

# Slack NEW begins
image = /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.10
root = /dev/hdb1
label = Slack_2.6.10
read-only
# Slack NEW ends
# Slack OLD begins
image = /boot/vmlinuz-old
root = /dev/hdb1
label = Slack_OLD
read-only
# Slack OLD

and the vga is set to normal..

thanks again,
gonroise

mmmm and I actually didn't really understand what should I put in the lilo.conf file? (the dirty way u talked about). It would be great if you'll show me an example of your file or something like that..

per your request...
I'm a bit confused.. So did you recompile and you made sure framebuffer support was compiled in?

there are a few options you need under framebuffer support, here is what I have:

that is the best I can do..

I'd be lying to you if I said anymore than "I kept trying until it worked"

if you're still getting a black screen with vga=normal then ??? maybe its not your framebuffer thats screwed up?

you could try just commenting out the global vga line altogether

mmm well, it quite worked but still only when the vga (in the lilo.confg) is set to normal even though I chose all the frame buffer options in the kernel config but when I type 'make intall' or 'lilo' I get this strange warning that I can't figure out:

root@darkstar:/usr/src/linux-2.6.20.1# make install
sh /usr/src/linux-2.6.20.1/arch/i386/boot/install.sh 2.6.20.1 arch/i386/boot/bzImage System.map "/boot"
Warning: The boot sector and map file are on different disks.
Added New_Linux *
Added Old_Linux
Added Windows


so maybe the problem starts with that :\

dude.. I'm sooo sorry. I didnt catch this before, I was kind of assuming you were following a guide:

i use these commands _every_ time I build a new kernel. For a more in-depth look at kernel compiling check the link in my sig.

again, I am sorry I didn't catch that lilo error before.

btw- the X.Y.Z thing is purely optional, I always do kernel version number and because it sometimes takes a few tries to get it right some alpha suffix to keep them ordered in my head. (this is reflected in my lilo.conf where 2.6.19.1f )

hope this helps!
:D

-ack- I keep thinking of other things to ask: how are your partitions & HDs set up?

is the MBR where lilo is installed on the same disk as your /boot directory?

if you have a separate partition for /boot do you fully specify the path in lilo.conf?

I followed these steps man and I loaded the new kernel but unfortunately only when vga=normal, and I still dunno why :\

my partitions goes something like that:
/dev/hda1 - an NTFS (40GB)
/dev/hda2 - FAT32 (40GB)
/dev/hdb1 - ex2fs (12GB)
and another swap partitions that is about 1.5GB

well, I haven't really chose where to install lilo besides of choosing 'MBR' at the slackware installation but I guess its not on the same disk as the /boot directory.
How can I fully specify the path in lilo.conf?


mmm I got another problem popped out.. afer compiling this kernel and loading it up I can't reach the NTFS hard-drive, even though I chose the modules for the ntfs and compiled them but I can't see nothing in the /fat-c folder.. even when I try to do: mount /dev/hda1 /fat-c , it writes me something like that: ntfs: unknown filesystem.. plz help me ;\

thanks again,
gonroise.

that means you are missing ntfs support in your kernel. I'd re-run your xconfig or menuconfig and double check the fs support. keep in mind that if you are just:

make xconfig

w/o first running 'make oldconfig' then you'll lose your previous setup and have to reset all your options. I had a # of kernel panics before I figured this out.

do you get the same error from /sbin/lilo ??

as far as the boot path you didn't post that part of your lilo.conf, but something like:

boot=/dev/hdb1 <or> boot=/dev/hdb

I think should do the trick.

Are you sure you did all the compile steps?

make menuconfig (or xconfig)
make modules
make modules_install
make install


As you're installing Lilo to the MBR I don't think the warning about the map being on a different disk is anything to worry about. I'm sure that's not causing your problem.

It appears that you've either not compiled and installed the modules or you've misconfigured the kernel.

mm I did these steps:

make
make install
make modules
make modules_install

in the same order as I wrote them.. after i leave the menuconfig do I have to do 'make oldconfig' too? I never did that.. I chose all the ntfs support (first I tried as a module and it didn't work and after that I just put an asterisk on it and it didn't work too) and then I hit 'exit' and clicked on yes to save the changes and after that I typed all the steps that I wrote above without any 'make oldconfig', do u think its necessary? if so, then why?

I dont get the same problem running /sbin/lilo (and that's quite weird), the same problem I got running /sbin/lilo is this warning about the system map that I already mentioned.. the lilo sees the /dev/hda1 perfectly withuot any problems but when I try to mount the /dev/hda1 to some folder it shows me that thing that the ntfs is an unknown filesystem.

anyone? plz.. im kind of desperate already

i find that if I don't 'make oldconfig' before runnning make xconfig all my previous settings are lost. ergo if I want to change just a few options then I run make oldconfig to read in what I last did, then run 'make xconfig' to adjust.

I know nothing of 'make install' I suspect it just copies the bzImage and system.map and creates the link for you. either way i think the error from lilo is gone because of the make install command.

so, before skipping prblem #1 - is that fb working now?

I did some more reading, you can try this:

that helped me, turns out you can not 'append="vga=<anything>"' - but each image can have its own vga= argument.

problem2
can you show your fstab and or mount command using for ntfs?

well, I finally chose to go back to my fav 2.4 kernel and I got there everything works just fine except the sound which still must be installed..

thanks all (: u guys are great