So now I know why "bigboy" can't boot modern kernels
 

This was really getting me down. I couldn't boot anything later than 4.13 on my trusty old desktop without getting a kernel panic. Of course I couldn't see how the panic started (at this stage there is no display), only how it ended, with a string of errors relating to the acpi driver.

This was in LFS, so the kernel was home-rolled. If I booted it with "acpi=off" or just didn't build the acpi driver at all, there was no panic, but this obviously wasn't a good solution. It did, though, seem to show that this was an acpi problem.

Then I did a git bisect on the kernel and managed to find the bad commit. To my surprise, it had nothing to do with acpi; it was a memory management thing. For some reason the change just threw the acpi driver and not some other part of the kernel.

There's a lovely man called Michael Shell on the LFS support list and he led me to the actual code change and told me which lines had to be reinstated. And now I can build modern kernels that actually boot! I'm using one now: 4.15.3, the native kernel of LFS 8.2.

It doesn't seem to be a common problem. There is a mention of it in the latest Crux install instructions, but that might just be because I'm on the Crux mailing list so they knew of one person who had been having boot problems.

Of course "roll your own" isn't the answer for binary distros. Something needs to be done about the actual kernel code. I've been given the names and addresses of the relevant kernel hackers and I've sent them an email. Naturally I'll be happy to carry out any tests they suggest. After all, I'm the one with the misbehaving hardware!

Member response
 

Hi,

Thanks for sharing Hazel.

I notice in your sig that you do not seem to like Tech speak so maybe this can help; https://pando.com/2012/09/11/the-tec...sh-dictionary/ :) Just kidding!

Hope this helps.
Have fun & enjoy!
:hattip:

Most of those aren't tech-speak, they're management-speak, which is much worse! I love the definition of crowdfunding as "begging for money on the Internet" and also the cloud as "the place where we steal user data." Incidentally, do you know the definition of cyberspace as "where telephone conversations happen"?

Member response
 

Hi,

I thought the linked content was kinda stupid but knew you would get a kick out of it.