Okay: I was using 2.6.11, and everything worked great. But I'd got 2.6.13 sources courtesy of portage, figured it was as good a time as any to do an upgrade.

So, used my existing 2.6.11 .config file to make the new kernel, then ran "make" and "make modules_install", then manually copied the new bzImage to /boot because I prefer doing it that way.

Rebooted with the new kernel. It failed.

Blast, something in the new version has broken something in my config, I think. So I boot off my old 2.6.11 kernel, and take a look.

But I hunt and I hunt, and it all looks OK to me. I start to wonder if there's a problem with the .config file I'm using. It should be the same config as the working kernel, but mistakes do happen. . .

So I try compiling a new 2.6.11 kernel with the same config as the 2.6.13. Then I try & boot it. It fails, same error.

Blast it, the config itself is at fault then, I think, and reboot yet again with the good kernel.

Or, what USED TO BE the good kernel, because now I have problems. No modules will load - I have no sound from esd, no temperatures from lm_sensors, nothing. lsmod shows nothing but the nvidia module.

And yet cross-checking shows everything to be set properly. Error messages tell me that the i2c-nforce and snd_intel8x0 modules can't be found, for instance. And yet, the config has both of these selected as modules, so they should exist & work. Right??

I have looked & looked but I cannot find anything wrong with my kernel config. But now I can't even use the 'safe' kernel without problems.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what on Earth is wrong with the blasted thing? Google hasn't helped! Ideally, I'd like to know how to fix the config so I could at least compile a bootable kernel, but I'd settle for just some working modules right now!

Never mind, fixed it, courtesy of a helpful chap on the Gentoo forums.

I hadn't got support for my SATA chipset compiled in. Added it in, and the problem went away. Brand spanking new kernel & all modules behaving