I get the follwing boot error on my upgraded kernel (2.6.0) at the INIT stage:

{
mount: error 19 mounting ext3
pivotroot: pivot_root (/sysroot, /sysroot/initrd) failed:2
umount /initrd/proc failed:2
freeing unused kernel memory:260 freed
kernel panic: no init found Try passing init=option to kernel
}

I have compiled 2.6.0 before on mandrake 9.1 with success but redhat 9.0 appears to be failing to load my root partition. Any help would be appreciated.

AFAIK the mkinitrd script in redhat9 doesn't work properly with 2.6, therefore one solution would be ditch the initrd, modify /etc/fstab and change the LABELs to actual devices, then compile again with filesystems,ide/scsi chipset modules directly into the kernel.

I'm getting a mount error on another kernel I compiled....was also unable to find the root partition is there any correlation or am I just doing something wrong?

make menuconfig
make clean bzimage modules modules_install
make install

I know the parameters for kernel compilation are different on 2.6.0, but having an error running any kernel I compile makes me wonder if my current redhat 9.0 configuation is to blame, on mandrake I didn't have any problems.

The error on my 2.4.23 kernel is as follows

{
ds: no socket drivers loaded!
Vfs: Cannot open root device "/label=/" or 00:00
Please append or correct "root=" boot option
Kernel panic:VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 00:00
}

In your bootloader config file try explicitly pointing to the root partition with a line like:

root=/dev/hdxy

and take out the reference to

root=LABEL=/

(if your using lilo.conf run /sbin/lilo afterwards)

Grub doesn't seem to be responding to changes in kernel configuration they all boot up but they stop right before the INIT system and check hardware system, right when the computer is about to mount the root partition both on 2.6.0 and 2.4.23.

for 2.6, u only have to do "make xxconfig", "make", "make modules_install". then copy the image and system.map to /boot.
then in ur bootloader, go and explicitly specify where your root partition is, as skyliner said.. there is no need for initrd.
also, in lilo, we have to run "lilo" after making any changes to see the effect. check if you have tyo do anything of the sort for grub?

can you also post here the relevant lines in ur grub conf file?

The following is my grub.conf file
{
default=3
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,1)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
password --md5 $1$0HBLFpQl$LBDV6PptgnvksB9Xn2JmP.
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.23)
root (hd0,1)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.23 ro root=LABEL=/ hdb=ide-scsi
initrd /initrd-2.4.23.img
title Red Hat Linux (2.6.0)
root (hd0,1)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.0 ro root=dev/hda3/ hdb=ide-scsi
# ro root=LABEL=/ hdb=ide-scsi
initrd /initrd-2.6.0.img
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.20-8)
root (hd0,1)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.20-8 ro root=LABEL=/ hdb=ide-scsi
initrd /initrd-2.4.20-8.img
title DOS
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
}

i dont remember using grub (as im using lilo), but for the 2.6.0 lines u have,
root=dev/hda3/ hdb=ide-scsi should be root=LABEL=/ hdb=ide-scsi?
if you're not sure about which is your root use "fdisk -l" to see which one is. in case your other kernels were working fine, then you might as well copy their root labels to the 2.6 one.

also, is there reallly an initrd reqd? during kernel compile, you owquld have noticed a line saying it was no longer in use.

As far as I know initrd is required, the grub boot file doesn't work either way, I think my whole problem is ext3 support but I think its properly compiled with any kernel. I'm stuck as it seems and I can't get any of my kernels to run right.....I didn't have a problem on mandrake....might have to switch back.

ok, from the beginning:
make config
make
make modules_install
cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.0 *
cp System.map /boot *

look up your root partition with "fdisk -l". edit grub to reflect that, and REMOVE your initrd lines (you dont need it!!) because most likely you did not run mkinitrd (it just doesnt appear by itself after the compile) among the steps i just wrote leaving you with NO initrd file to pass as a paramter to grub. do you see any file called initrd /initrd-2.6.0.img anywhere on ur system?

and ok, afaik, grub shouldnt have any issues reading from ext2/ext3. so that doesnt arise.

just give the direct path to your kernel image as option to the "kernel" argument and specify exactly what your root is going to be.

can you post here what "ls -l /" and "fdisk -l" give you?

* (this could be under / and not /boot in your case)

still won't boot

but I do have hda1 as XP vfat
hda2 as boot ext3
hda3 as root ext3
hda5 as swap swap
hdd1 > >
hdd2 > > these are just storage vfat >>
hdd5 > >

is what we're lookin for. you might have to run that command as root.

also,

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5824 Jan 25 2003 boot.b
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 612 Jan 25 2003 chain.b
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 44252 Mar 13 2003 config-2.4.20-8
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1024 Jan 3 18:52 grub
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 149364 Dec 21 00:47 initrd-2.4.20-8.img
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 84240 Jan 3 10:51 initrd-2.4.23.img
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 479 Dec 21 09:14 kernel.h
drwx------ 2 root root 12288 Dec 20 19:37 lost+found
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 23108 Feb 24 2003 message
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 21282 Feb 24 2003 message.ja
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 20 Dec 21 00:47 module-info -> module-info-2.4.20-8
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 15436 Mar 13 2003 module-info-2.4.20-8
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 640 Jan 25 2003 os2_d.b
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 19 Jan 3 10:55 System.map -> System.map-2.4.20-8
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 518322 Mar 13 2003 System.map-2.4.20-8
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 610967 Jan 3 10:51 System.map-2.4.23
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 913817 Jan 2 19:43 System.map-2.6.0
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 910802 Jan 2 18:05 System.map-2.6.0.old
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3149072 Mar 13 2003 vmlinux-2.4.20-8
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 14 Jan 3 10:51 vmlinuz -> vmlinuz-2.4.23
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1117254 Mar 13 2003 vmlinuz-2.4.20-8
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1243115 Jan 3 10:51 vmlinuz-2.4.23
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1458491 Jan 2 19:43 vmlinuz-2.6.0
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1451788 Jan 2 18:05 vmlinuz-2.6.0.old

I don't have the fdisk software but ls -l shows the files. the previous post was my hard disk partitions.

Disk /dev/hdd: 20.4 GB, 20493656064 bytes
16 heads, 63 sectors/track, 39709 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 1008 * 512 = 516096 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdd1 * 8323 16644 4194288 c Win95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/hdd2 16645 39706 11623248 c Win95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/hdd3 2 8322 4193784 f Win95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hdd5 2 8322 4193752+ b Win95 FAT32

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/hda: 20.5 GB, 20525137920 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2495 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 1002 8048533+ b Win95 FAT32
/dev/hda2 1003 1015 104422+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda3 1016 2430 11365987+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda4 2431 2495 522112+ f Win95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda5 2431 2495 522081 82 Linux swap