2.6.10 Kernel
 

Ok, having troubles installing the precompiled kernel (2.6.10) with slackware 10.1. First I was getting a blank screen when booting with 2.6.10, fix that turned out to be a framebuffer error with the graphics card. vga=normal worked for that unless I was to compile my own kernel. It finally get to start loading and freezes at

checking if image is initramfs...


I've searched google and found nothing except its suppose to be new with the 2.6.x kernel. 2.4.29 works fine for me I would just feel really good about myself If I could get a running 2.6 kernel in slack.

Its a 300mhz Sony Vaio on slackware 10.1, specs unknown otherwise.

I would boot into the working kernel, do lsmod to find what drivers are being used for your hardware, then compile 2.6.11 by hand.

It may seem daunting, but it's really rather easy to do (kernel compiling instructions are all over this forum)

Have you a README.initrd file in /boot installed with 2.6.10 kernel ?

keefaz:
yes I've read the readme.initrd file thats how I installed it.

and I've tryed compiling my own kernel on another computer and it didn't work, but I think it was because I didn't install the modules. If I can do this then maybe I will attempt a recompile later on. I've been away from linux for about a month or two so I'm slowly relearning

ok, just a few things when doing the kernel, (note there are loads of faqs about it on here too).

put source code into /usr/src/linux-2.6.10

change into that directory

type make menuconfig

This is where you need to know your hardware, open another terminal and as root type lspci this should give you a good idea of what you have.

as you go through the menus, be sure to select the right processor. Also futher on down the list make sure your filesystem type is supported. I use ReiserFS and don't have any others so I uncheck the rest.

your hardware should be in the devices section (think that's it, i'm going from memory) as well as the bus/pci stuff.

once you have everything exit out and then type

make
then
make modules_install
then you have to copy over 3 files to your /boot directory
cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/kernelname-2.6.##
cp .config /boot/config-kernelname-2.6.##
cp System.map /boot/System.map-2.6.##

then go to /boot
delect the sym links to System.map and config and remake them pointing to your new ones you just copied over, i.e.

ln -s config-kernelname.2.6.## config
ln -s System.map-kernelname-2.6.## System.map

then edit your lilo.conf file in /etc/lilo.conf you should be able to follow the syntax for the 2.4.## kernel, but instead of vmLinuz put in the name of your kernel.

then type lilo and it will be added. NOTE: you MUST type lilo and run it again for the changes to take effect.

reboot your machine and try it out. you can monkey with the configuration until you get it the way you like. Just remember the simple steps:

make menuconfig
make
make modules_install
copy the 3 files, (edit the sym links if necessary)
run lilo (adjust lilo.conf if necessary)
reboot

thats but that not really what i'm looking for right now, its the precompiled 2.6.10 kernel that comes on the second cd on slackware 10.1.

Heres what I did so far:

installpkg for:
kernel-generic-2.6.10-i486-1.tgz
kernel-modules-2.6.10-i486-1.tgz

cd /boot

mkinitrd -c -k 2.6.10 -m reiserfs

and added initrd and image to lilo and ran lilo without errors.
it will boot into the 2.6.10 kernel untill it hits that above and freezes, keyboard locks up.

Is reiserfs compiled into the kernel, because I had a problem with that, but it might have shown up at the mkinitrd stage.

samac

I don't know why it would be... I'll try not loading it and see if the kernel picks it up. The readme said only ext2 was supported.

nope. im getting this without it:

Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(3,1)

I noticed README.initrd wanted me to install mkinitrd-1.0.1-i486-1.tgz also but it wasn't in the testing/packs/2.6.11/ directory. Is it even on this cd and would this effect it?

did you try to indicate your root partition to initrd like (say /dev/hda2 is /) :
mkinitrd -c -k 2.6.10 -m reiserfs -f reiserfs -r /dev/hda2

you added

initrd = /boot/initrd.gz

to lilo right? Had the same problems with that kernel, Im used to compiling my own.

sweet. thanks keefaz thats all it needed was the -f and -r commands. Strange what do those do anyways?

hmm mouse doesn't work now and alsa conplained and said it was going to use null. Not worried about the sound right now it doesn't have any speakers but my mouse is dead with 2.6.10 kernel booting up? 2.4.29 works fine with it. No power at all.

ok this is strange, It booted up fine once in 2.6.10. I rebooted into 2.4 to fix the mouse problem which is solved but now I'm getting the same error! first it will freeze at an acpi error. Reboot. then its back to the checking if image is initramfs. now its strange because if I redo mkinitrd -c -k 2.6.10 -m reiserfs -f reiserfs -r /dev/hda1 it works upto the acpi error and then back to checking if image is.... whats changing to mess it up again?

I don't use an initrd.
If you recompile you probably won't need it.

Why do we need one?
Only if you have a big kernel.


kernel compiling is easy.
2 or 3 weeks and you'll do it in your sleep.

Last night I scrubbed a partition.
installed slack 10.1 (2.4)
then compiled 2.6.10 just so that I could CVS a clean
etc directory!!