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vmlinuz-generic-2.6.30.5 boot problem

To try and get an essential device working I have installed the kernel from /testing in Slackware64-13 being vmlinuz-generic-2.6.30.5. I am running this system from an external USB drive (for now) and have managed (eventually) to get this to boot with 2.6.29.6 supplied kernel.
To do this I had to suuply a "rootdelay=" stanza to lilo for the huge kernel and add several devices to the initrd for the generic. Here is my command to create an initial ram disk (works with 2.6.29.6):

Code:

mkinitrd -c -k 2.6.30.5 -m ehci-hcd:usb-storage:ext3 -f ext3 -r /dev/sdc5 -w 20"

All this works fine with 2.6.29.5 but the newer kernel hangs with the old unable to load from root device errors. These are what caused me to investigate the rootdelay and additional kernel modules options in the first place!

Anyway - as the kernel in /testing is only supplied in generic (not huge) form I have tried rebuilding this with the huge .config and "make oldconfig". This kernel errors out the same as the supplied generic one with my added modules.

Looking at the screen I can see the rootdelay working but the drive is not being spun up - this means the "unable to mount root" problem is crashing it.

I find it odd that all this worked fine with the old kernel but not with the new. From boot message observation it looks like the drivers I supplied to the initrd (ehci-hcd:usb-storage) may not be getting loaded and causing the boot to crash. Hopefully all this isn't going to mean 2.6.29 is the end of the line for my hardware support (no - I'm being too pessimistic there). Trouble is I don't know where to look next !

Any ideas more than welcome.

With ext3, you also need the mbcache and jbd modules. Try this:

Quote:

mkinitrd -c -k 2.6.30.5 -m ehci-hcd:usb-storage:ext3:mbcache:jbd -f ext3 -r /dev/sdc5

Quote:

With ext3, you also need the mbcache and jbd modules. Try this:

Yes - I know but mkinitrd seems to insert these if i just supply ext3 i.e. it seems to grab dependencies (of a sort) as well. These modules are definitely in my initrd as I have looked at load_kernel_modules in the /boot/initrd-tree and it contains this :

Code:

# This is a script used to load the kernel modules.

# To use it, chmod it 755, and then add the insmod

# lines needed to load your modules, like this:



insmod -v /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/usb/host/ehci-hcd.ko

insmod -v /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/usb/storage/usb-storage.ko

insmod -v /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/fs/mbcache.ko

insmod -v /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/fs/jbd/jbd.ko

insmod -v /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/fs/ext3/ext3.ko

It definitely looks like (to look at the screen) the boot process is waiting as I have requested but usb-storage and/or ehci-hcd aren't being loaded. I only say this as the many times I observed this to get 2.6.29.5 booting the displays looked different i.e. "sdc" was originally not being detected and spun up (you can hear this) till i added the modules to the initrd.

Thanks for the quick reply - oh and thanks for fixing my headphone problem earlier !

OK - so the plot thickens ! I've tried the 2.6.32.7 from current and it works ! OK - so I know mixing -current and -stable is not recomended but hey - it's only the kernel ;)! Maybe something weird going on with 2.6.30.5. Anyway - more good news with the new kernel - the whole point of doing this was to get a /dev/ttyUSB device for some equipment I'm trying to communicate with. This now appears as well - result ! At the moment I'm testing with the huge version but will try the generic next to see if the modules load up and make a difference to my USB boot disk setup.