Hi, I am hoping someone here can advise me on how to solve this problem of mine. I have just recently using the debian way to make the kernel. I have made them ok, but during booting, I only see these:

Linux version 2.6.11.240505 (root@debox) (gcc version 3.3.6 (Debian 1:3.3.6-5))
#1 SMP Tue May 24 21:31:51 SGT 2005
BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009fc00 (usable)
BIOS-e820: 000000000009fc00 - 00000000000a0000 (reserved)
BIOS-e820: 00000000000f0000 - 0000000000100000 (reserved)
BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 000000000f7f0000 (usable)
BIOS-e820: 000000000f7f0000 - 000000000f7f3000 (ACPI NVS)
BIOS-e820: 000000000f7f3000 - 000000000f800000 (ACPI data)
BIOS-e820: 00000000fec00000 - 00000000fec01000 (reserved)
BIOS-e820: 00000000fee00000 - 00000000fee01000 (reserved)
BIOS-e820: 00000000ffb00000 - 0000000100000000 (reserved)
247MB LOWMEM available.
found SMP MP-table at 000f4dc0
On node 0 totalpages: 63472
DMA zone: 4096 pages, LIFO batch:1
Normal zone: 59376 pages, LIFO batch:14
HighMem zone: 0 pages, LIFO batch:1
DMI 2.2 present.
ACPI: RSDP (v000 IntelR ) @ 0x000f6bf0

Right after this last line i pasted above, the booting scripts is no more visible, after a few seconds, my X will start as expected. I have initially thinking that my kernel was faulty, but after some closer observation and waiting, my kernel actually boots. So my problem is how to get the booting process visible? I like to see them scrolling up and making sure that there's no errors being reported.

I am using kernel 2.6.11 source from debian. I followed this guide closely:

http://newbiedoc.sourceforge.net/system/kernel-pkg.html


TIA.

"Right after this last line i pasted above, the booting scripts is no more visible, after a few seconds, my X will start as expected. I have initially thinking that my kernel was faulty, but after some closer observation and waiting, my kernel actually boots."

One possible reason that your new kernel does not display boot messages is that you may not have the frame buffers configured correctly. Look in your kernel config and see if you have frame buffers configured correctly and make sure that they are set to y, not m.

------------------------------
Steve Stites

As stated above, this is a framebuffer problem. You can fix it by editing /boot/grub/menu.lst Look for your custom kernel entry for "vga=" that sets the resolution. Set it instead to "vga=normal" or delete it altogether. You should then see boot messages in standard VGA resolution. If you want higher resolution, you will have to get the framebuffer driver configured properly. Good luck!

Here is my kernel entry in /boot/grub/menu.lst if it is of any help: Note that I have no "vga=" entry so it boots with standard VGA resolution for boot messages.

Thanks guys for the tips. But i have my frambuffer all built in, take a look of my config:

# Graphics support
#
CONFIG_FB=y
CONFIG_FB_MODE_HELPERS=y
# CONFIG_FB_TILEBLITTING is not set
# CONFIG_FB_CIRRUS is not set
# CONFIG_FB_PM2 is not set
# CONFIG_FB_CYBER2000 is not set
# CONFIG_FB_ASILIANT is not set
# CONFIG_FB_IMSTT is not set
# CONFIG_FB_VGA16 is not set
CONFIG_FB_VESA=y
CONFIG_VIDEO_SELECT=y
# CONFIG_FB_HGA is not set
# CONFIG_FB_RIVA is not set
CONFIG_FB_I810=y
# CONFIG_FB_I810_GTF is not set
# CONFIG_FB_INTEL is not set
# CONFIG_FB_MATROX is not set
# CONFIG_FB_RADEON_OLD is not set
# CONFIG_FB_RADEON is not set
# CONFIG_FB_ATY128 is not set
# CONFIG_FB_ATY is not set
# CONFIG_FB_SAVAGE is not set
# CONFIG_FB_SIS is not set
# CONFIG_FB_NEOMAGIC is not set
# CONFIG_FB_KYRO is not set
# CONFIG_FB_3DFX is not set
# CONFIG_FB_VOODOO1 is not set
# CONFIG_FB_TRIDENT is not set
CONFIG_FB_VIRTUAL=y

#
# Console display driver support
#
CONFIG_VGA_CONSOLE=y
# CONFIG_MDA_CONSOLE is not set
CONFIG_DUMMY_CONSOLE=y
CONFIG_FRAMEBUFFER_CONSOLE=y
# CONFIG_FONTS is not set
CONFIG_FONT_8x8=y
CONFIG_FONT_8x16=y
#
# Logo configuration
#
CONFIG_LOGO=y
CONFIG_LOGO_LINUX_MONO=y
CONFIG_LOGO_LINUX_VGA16=y
CONFIG_LOGO_LINUX_CLUT224=y
# CONFIG_BACKLIGHT_LCD_SUPPORT is not set


Here's my menu.lst:

title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.11.240505
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.11.240505 root=/dev/hda2 ro
savedefault
boot

No vga being set. I have my initrd built in too. Could that be a problem? I like to have stuffs all built in rather than in modules.

#
# Block devices
#
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_FD=y
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_XD is not set
# CONFIG_PARIDE is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_CPQ_DA is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_CPQ_CISS_DA is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_DAC960 is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_UMEM is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_COW_COMMON is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_LOOP is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_NBD is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_SX8 is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_UB is not set
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_RAM=y
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_RAM_COUNT=16
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_RAM_SIZE=4096
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_INITRD=y
CONFIG_INITRAMFS_SOURCE=""
CONFIG_LBD=y
CONFIG_CDROM_PKTCDVD=y
CONFIG_CDROM_PKTCDVD_BUFFERS=8

Please advise.

I'm not sure what is the culprit, but I suspect you need to recompile. There isn't much advantage that I see in having everything built in. Please e-mail me if you like and I will send you a kernel 2.6.11 config file that is great for desktop/workstation use.

Just want to report back that i have finally made a working and "visible" kernel. The culprit was:

# CONFIG_FB_VGA16 is not set

So i set it up as <*> and a recompile will make it visible during booting. Quite a perculiar thing. I have never needed to do this for Slackware or gentoo.

Cheers.