Hello everybody,

I'm trying to compile my own kernel for the first time, and found some problems, and there are a few things I don't understand. Hope anyone can help me out.

I'm using Debian sarge, kernel 2.4.24.

First another question: I was said to make a soft link. Making a link isn't a problem, but what is the use of it (in general)? It's not a problem, but I just don't understand why I have to do that.

When running make menuconfig, I've deactivated a lot of modules and stuff. I've packaged my kernel with make-kpkg. The package is only 2,6 MB: that surprises me. Is it normal? Or have I overdone deselectingmodules?

When installing the package I'm getting al lot of errors like

"depmod: *** Unresolved symbols in /lib/modules/2.6.3/kernel/sound/core/snd-timer.ko"

Not only about sound, but about all kind of drivers and whatever. All like "depmod: *** Unresolved symbols ... ". If I've understood it right it has to do with "module-init-tools (or has it to do with deselecting too many things with make menuconfig?)": I haven't installed module-init-tools, because synaptic tells me it conflicts with modutils. I can't remove modutils because that would remove my package-installed kernels. What does such a conflict mean? Can I safely install module-init-tools or work around the problem somehow?

Anyway, my kernel doesn't boot : kernel panic when mounting the root-file-system. Hope anyone can help me.

Corien

After make menuconfig run make dep, make bzImage, make modules, make modules_install. Specify all modules you want to start in /etc/modules and boot the kernel. that always works! You have to compile directly into kernel support for the filesystem you use

That looks fine for the size of the package.
You do need to have the module-init-tools installed what version of Debian are you running Woody, Sarge or SID if you are running Sarge/SID it should install without problems and modutils should co-exist.
If you are running Woody then you need to go to http://www.apt-get.org or http://www.backports.org and find a suitable line to put in your sources.list to allow you to get the module-init-tools built for Woody. As has already been mentioned the kernel panic is you not having compiled in support for you root filesystem not as a module but built into the kernel. If you are talking about the /usr/src/linux symbolic link then it is there for packages that still need it.

damn- one day later same issue- been trying to recompile the kernel so many ways with the same modules error - i tried to get the moduleinit tools from apt-get but couldnt find the package and that was b4 i started

a good 5 hours blown but its good to learn -
here is where i got modules-init-tools from

#


# (Verified) Some woody backports (alsa0.9, icecast2, samba 3.0.1 ...) and customized kernels. (Added 2004-01-26, last checked 2004-01-27) (Download as text)
Here you found some debianized, backported and custom packages for Debain Woody. Most of the packages are in daily use. The 2.4.x kernel packages are containing the grsecurity patch - you should know about it before using them.
Packages in database: acx100-firmware-dlink-airplus, acx100-modules-2.4.23-fiasko-ide-athlon, acx100-modules-2.4.23-fiasko-ide-i486, acx100-modules-2.4.23-fiasko-ide-k5, acx100-modules-2.4.23-fiasko-ide-k6-1+2+3, acx100-modules-2.4.23-fiasko-ide-pentium, acx100-modules-2.4.23-fiasko-ide-pentium-ii, acx100-modules-2.4.23-fiasko-ide-pentium-ii-smp, acx100-modules-2.4.23-fiasko-ide-pentium-iii, acx100-modules-2.4.23-fiasko-ide-pentium-iii-smp, ...
Architectures: all, i386
deb http://home.manos.dd.sn.schule.de/~1tl1/debian/ stable alsa backports icecast2 kernel main non-free samba

# Matches:
module-init-tools 0.9.15-pre3-2-woody1 (i386)





worked perfect -