I'm running Red hat 4 on vmware workstation7.Initially the kernel was 2.6.9-5.I wanted to compile a new kernel,previously I've done so with Ubuntu8 and that was two years back-a debian distro.

I wanted to check out compiling rpm distro's.So I download 2.6.35.2 from the pub.I followed all the steps provided in HowToKernel configuration of digitalhermit website,build the initrd image properly & everything-put the following entry in my grub.conf


default=0
timeout=20
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES (2.6.35.2)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /bzImage-2.6.35.2 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 all-generic-ide pci=nommconf acpi=off rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.35.2.img
title Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES (2.6.9-5.EL)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9-5.EL ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.9-5.EL.img




Now one thing did turn up,it said mptbase module cannot be found before I build the initrd image.So I removed the alias section containing mpt from /etc/modprobe.conf & initrd image compiled successfully.

I've checked my labels in fstabs,blkid & compared it to entry in grub.conf to check whether it is consistent or not.It was on the mark.
So now when I booted the kernel it gave the following error message


File descriptor 3 left open
No Volume group found
mount:error 6 mounting ext3
mount:error2 mounting none
switchroot mountfailed:22
umount /init/dev failed
kernel panic-not syncing



On looking around further I found out,I've to turn off ide mode in advanced peripherals of bios & set it to ahci.I could not find that option in vmware bio's.Bio's which vmware uses is Phoenix.

So what would be the possible remedy,do I've to upgrade vmware bio's(I could not find any comprehensible link on that). or is there any other thing I missed.

Thanks for your time & help.

Cheers

Hi,

VMWare uses SCSI disk only for virtual disks. Did you ensure the appropiate SCSI drivers is available in your kernel and your initrd image?

1 members found this post helpful.

When I was trying to build my initrd image,it said mptbase not found.I looked it up & found I have to delete from modules.conf all the alias line containing mpt.One of the modules which I ended up removing was mptscsi.

So how to get over that,build the initrd without deleting mptscsi.Should I try some other kernel version.If so which one?

I've also tried 2.6.35,and it gave bug:sleeping context in rmap.c which on searching I found out was already present in that kernel.


Any suggestions on which 2.6 kernel shall boot successfully.


Thanks