I compiled a 2.6.24.1 kernel for a debian 4 machine to support nfs root but it isn't working.


On boot I see:

Begin: Waiting for root file system... ...
Done.
ALERT! /dev/nfs does not exist. Dropping to a shell!
Check your root= boot argument (cat /proc/cmdline)
Check for missing modules (cat /proc/modules), or device files (ls /dev)


I enabled CONFIG_NFS_FS, CONFIG_ROOT_NFS, and CONFIG_IP_PNP in the kernel config.

The kernel parameters I'm using are:
root=/dev/nfs rw nfsroot=192.168.0.1:/nfs_root ip=192.168.0.2:192.168.0.1:192.168.0.1:255.255.255.0:deb4:eth0:off



Any ideas why it doesn't work?

I wonder if you need to declare your nfs shares in the /etc/exports file??

If NFS is saved as a starting daemon, it should start up.

Not sure...just a few items I thought about reading your post.

I already did that and I can mount it from any machine w/ an ip in 192.168.0.0/24. I don't think it's a problem with the server.

I'm not familiar with your kernel parameters. I have only used client side setup by editing the /etc/fstab to automount my NFS server upon startup. (below example of /etc/fstab)

192.168.1.1:/tmp /mnt/nfsdirectory nfs default 0 0

sorry I could not be of more help.