Hello everyone,
My problem today is due to a known issue with red hat 9.0. I have a toshiba 1800... and of course the sound card does not work with the initial installation of linux RH 9.0. My sound card is the Trident ali 5451.
In the 2.4.21 source code off of kernell-org, there is the core drivers for my ali 5451. I suspect this will solve my issue with my sound card. So for my first time I have attempted to reconfigure my kernel.
I ran into a couple simple problems initially which I easily sorted through, and I have added my new kernell to my grub.conf(everything is correct in this file), wishing to boot up my system with a working sound card.
Grub boots my new kernell up to the point where it tries to boot the INIT. I get two warnings, the first I do not quite understand, then I get a Kernel panic... argh... I geuss I have done something wrong.
I have tried to reconfigure numerous times, but I always get this same problem(I believe there may be a problem with my source code I downloaded, but before the next 24 I will not have the Internet to try and redownload the source code.... I hate moving :-(... and I love NF ):

this is the first warning:

-EXT2-fs warning (device ide0(3,1): ext2_read_super: mounting ext3 filesystem as ext2

I do not quite understand why it does this, but it does not seem to have a visible affect on the boot sequence...

then it goes on to say:

-VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem) readonly.
-Freeing unused kernel memory: 128k freed.

now here is the real ISSUE:

-Warning: unable to open an initial console.
-Kernel panic: No init found. Try passing init= option to kernel.

this is where the system freezes...

I cannot seem to resolve this issue... no matter how hard I try... but I will not... give up...

Any help on this would make my life a lot easier... all I want to do is listen to some music...

Without music... there would only be Chaos...

Thanks for taking the time to read my problem... and thanks for any help you may throw my way... Cheers...

Renegade

"-EXT2-fs warning (device ide0(3,1): ext2_read_super: mounting ext3 filesystem as ext2"

The kernel seems to think that the / partition is an ext3 file system. It cannot mount it as ext3 and is therefore trying to mount it as ext2. This seems to work temporarily but eventually it fails.

My guess on the problem is that / is really an ext3 file system and in the make xconfig you do not set ext3 support to y. If you set ext3 support to m or n then the kernel cannot boot an ext3 / file system.

__________________________________________________________________
Be prepared. Create a LifeBoat CD.
http://users.rcn.com/srstites/LifeBo...home.page.html

Steve Stites

read below!

Hey,
I did what you said and included the ext3 package in the source code. It fixed the ext3 problem perfectly! Thanks!
But... It did not fix my init warning or kernel fail...
Do you have any more ideas?!?

Thanks for the help!

Renegade

"Love is my deciding to make someone else's problem... my problem..."

I love you guys! hahaha

" Do you have any more ideas?!?"

Just a guess at a likely problem area. What modules are you using in the ide, scsi, ide-scsi area and which ones are m and which ones are y?

You can try making all of them y.

Or

If you have some of them m then you probably need to set up an initrd with the mkinitrd command.

Or

You could have an incompatible mix of such modules.


___________________________________
Be prepared. Create a LifeBoat CD.
http://users.rcn.com/srstites/LifeBo...home.page.html

Steve Stites

I have already made an initrd file...

I tried reanranging the mix of the modules for ide, scsi, and ide-scsi... but it doesnt resolve my issue...

One problem I am having, besides everything is with xconfig...
When I try to load xconfig, an error comes up:
bash: wish: command not found
bash: *** [xconfig] error 127

But I just do not bother with it and use menuconfig... then continue on with reconfiguring my kernel...

I appreciate all the help... I am at my wits end with this one...

Renegade

A man would walk a million miles... just to hear a women's voice...

"bash: wish: command not found"

You can get rid of this problem by installing the tcl and tk package(s).


"-Warning: unable to open an initial console.
-Kernel panic: No init found. Try passing init= option to kernel."

The most likely cause of this problem is that the kernel is not configured correctly to mount the / partition. I thought that not having ext3 resident would fix the problem but that turned out to be only one of the problems with mounting /.

The ide, ide, ide-scsi modules have to be configured differently for different hardware configurations. To keep from having a lot of different kernels on the install CD most distributions use initrd to make a standard kernel as flexible as possible. When you know exactly what your hardware configuration is then initrd becomes an unnecessary complication in a kernel compile. Therefore I recommend that you not use it in your new kernel. Take it out of the lilo or grub entry for your new kernel (but not for your old kernel). Also delete the initrd for your new kernel in /boot but not for the old. If you are trying to use the same initrd for both your new and old kernels then that is one of your problems. In order to use the same initrd for both kernels the two kernels must be configured the same in regard to ide, scsi, and ide-scsi.

Without initrd then all modules needed to mount / must be resident, i.e. say y in the kernel source.

Which mix of ide, ide-scsi, and scsi modules that you need depends on your hardware configuration. You should get make xconfig working because the xconfig help has some terse but valuable information as to which combinations of modules are usable on which hardware.


___________________________________
Be prepared. Create a LifeBoat CD.
http://users.rcn.com/srstites/LifeBo...home.page.html

Steve Stites

Hey Jailbait,
I got my xconfig working, but ended up using the 2.4.22 source code to get around my init failure.
Now it boots up, but with many errors. And to top it all off, it refuses to boot the gui.
I am wondering where I can find the boot log for the new kernel.
Thanks.

Renegade

" I am wondering where I can find the boot log for the new kernel."

It is somewhere in /var/log.

Thanks very much for your insight into this problem. I posted on the same problem in http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=97825.

And seeing what you're going through has led me to believe I'm better off sticking with Red Hat 8.

I'm curious though. If this is a known issue, wouldn't Red Hat be doing something about it? I can't imagine why they'd want to alienate Toshiba notebook owners - Toshiba isn't that small a market segment.
Renato

Hey Jailbait,
I can now boot up into my new kernel with a working gui.

I still have a few errors in start-up... which are all to deal with three missing modules:
keybdev
mousedev
ip_tables

I was wondering how to install theses modules without having to reconfigure my kernel again with xconfig... because every time I use xconfig I have to go through the entire menu and reselect EVERYTHING...

Thanks

Renegade

Hey Renato,
It is not just red hat that are having these issues. Linux is very grueling on all laptops. They have fixed this issue with the new source code 2.4.21 or 2.4.22. It has the core drivers for your sound card.
I have already fixed my sound issue... it is just reconfiguring my kernel which I am having trouble. This was\is my first time, so I have much to learn.
I dont know why you would want to upgrade to rh 9.0 from a working rh 8.0. But it is not hard to fix your problem you have... its just takes time... and if you ever want to have a properly working linux system you will HAVE to learn how to do this.

Renegade

"because every time I use xconfig I have to go through the entire menu and reselect EVERYTHING..."

You have the config file you have been working with somewhere. Find it and remember the name. When you start xconfig load the config file and you will have all of your settings.


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

"wouldn't Red Hat be doing something about it?"

The company that should be doing something about it is Toshiba. They should sell laptops with Linux already installed. Microsoft tries to force computer manufacturers to only install Microsoft software on their computers. The manufacturers have broken away from this stricture for corporate customers but not for consumers.

So you should change your name from Renato57 to International Enron Accomplices Megacorp and then ask Toshiba to sell you a laptop with Linux preconfigured, hold the Windows.


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

I made my comment in the context of Red Hat having done it right for a Toshiba notebook, in RH8, but suddenly getting it wrong in RH9 - when most others continue getting it right.

It just seemed like Red Hat had slipped up a bit to me.
Renato