Oh well, didn't work. Same error. Guess I will once again have to give up on compiling a kernel. I don't know how much more I could have studied it. Just do not understand why the 2.6.16.5 kernel cannot mount the root file system on the same partition as the 2.4.31.

Thanks for all your attempts to help. I really appreciate it.

Bob

Thanks, probably would have been an easier attempt with lilo, but I have been using grub for a long time now and I just seem to like it better. I have restored the old 2.4.31 kernel back to working order. As I said, this was my third attempt at installing a new kernel and something has gone wrong everytime. This one baffled me though.

I will try again at some point. For right now, I guess I will have to be happy with the older kernel. There may not have been any real advantage to a new kernel, anyway. Just glad I could get the old one back.

Thanks again for your help.

Bob

Thanks for the encouragement, but I think I will study a little more first. I really thought I had it licked this time because the boot up started normally then hung on the error I mentioned. It had nothing to with SCSI support because I had it configured in the kernel. It just baffles me that the error was not being able to mount the root filesystem on sda2 since that is what I had been using all along and in fact am using again after restoring the old kernel.

I did find another thread in this forum for the exact same problem, but it was in the Gentoo forum and the solutions didn't work for me. I feel sure that it has something to do with the SATA drive, but not really sure.

Once I do figure it out I'll be able to help someone else because I am sure this one will come up again.

Thanks,

Bob

Just one last thought...In studying the .config file, I noticed this entry:

CONFIG_INITRAMFS_SOURCE=""

I do remember this from makeconfig, and I am wondering if this could be the problem.
If anyone can tell what this entry is for, it will help in my next attempt.

Thanks

Bob

Do you have the drivers for your sata/raid chipset compiled into the kernel?

Just if it cant even see your sata I guess it doesn't matter if it understands the file system.

Just a though

I know my sata is not seen until I compile the kernel with the correct chipset driver.

Thanks for responding.

I did not see a specific option for SATA in the config process. I did choose my motherboard chipset, which is nVidia nForce. I assume that covers the chipset drives.

Don't know of anything else to try.

I have reconfigured one last time to try. Instead of overwriting my vmlinuz this time, I am just copying the /boot/bzImage to a new file in boot called vmlinuz-2.6.16.5 and put the same entry into grub. I did not make the symbolic link to linux and left that link to 2.4.31 (at least I won't foul up my existing installtion that way.) I know that some software refers to the "linux" file in /usr/src, so they may not work with the new kernel, but at least I can test it to see if it even boots. If this doesn't work, I'll give it up.

Thank you for your help.

Bob

Well, it was worth a try. Got the same error trying to boot the kernel this way:

Cannot mount root filesystem on "sda2"
Please append "root="

However, I did learn something. I did not have to overwrite the vmlinuz file and could have named the new kernel anything I wanted and I could immediately boot back into the original 2.4.31 because all of the entries were still intact. Useful for future tries. Nonetheless, no matter what I called it, it still won't boot.

Thanks,

Bob

hi there,

seems you allmost got it right.
specific options for sata yo9u can find under :

device drivers-->scsi-->serial ata(sata)

i think you're missing that one.
( i believe you have your chipset and filesystem )

furthermore, somewhere back in this thread you mentioned
the "/usr/scr/linux " symlink.
well...that one is not needed for anything.

the programs that need to find the kernel-source ( mostly scripts
that compile/install kernelmodules ) use the symlink /lib/modules/<version>/build.

just try again.
my first kernel took me a lot of attempts,
but it's " learn once, never forget "

egag

I agree with egag. You must compile the sata driver. From memory mine had a specific Silicon Image driver. (My MB has an Nforce 2 chipset) This may have been surpassed by a generic driver in the latest kernels.

And you must compile ONLY ONE and the proper sata driver for your chipset. It must be suitable for your chipset - different drivers or lots of them compiled at the same time won't work and will give you this error. I had similar problem before.

Thank you for all the responses. I do not recall an option fpr serial ATA in the SCSI section. I simply enabled SCSI support, saying no to obscure things like tapes and old CD roms. I will try it again, but as it turns out, my computer went down during the process. For some reason, the processor overheated during the compile process, and shortly thereafter just shut itself down. The brackets holding the CPU
fan broke off (from the heat, I suppose.) So, for some period of time, the coputer ran without CPU fan operation. I will try to repair that tonight, hoping my CPU hasn't packed it in.

I will report back when I can make another attempt.

Thanks again to everyone for your help and comments,

Bob

Well, Bob, I recently had a fun time getting from 2.4.31 to 2.6.15.3 with grub and an initrd. I wasn't using SATA, though, so it was a little different (and less complex, I think) than your situation. I was really just trying to get Highmem turned on, but decided to take the dive and try for 2.6. I asked for a shortcut condensed guide to building the kernel, and I was chastened for being lazy and it was suggested that I RTFM. But everyone was actually quite helpful and gave me the needed encouragement, without which I might have given up.

I finally succeeded and I'm now convinced that I can work through a kernel version upgrade via the compilation process with a bit of study and effort, lots of coffee, a couple of pizzas, and a contemplative pipe or two. Although it won't address any of the questions you've raised, feel free to read of my fun here if you like.

I did have some problems, a non-functional mouse being the major issue, and I was still trying to sort things out when disaster struck. Within a day of achieving kernel-compiling version upgrade nirvana, I suffered a catastrophic hard drive failure and lost EVERYTHING. And shame on me, I didn't have any backups. Nada. Neither dd nor dd_rescue could salvage much from my really sick drive. and lessons learned.

Anyway, since you had the CPU fan meltdown and CPU overheating problem after trying a 2.6 upgrade, I'm wondering if 2.6 is cursed or something.

Z038 - Thanks for responding. I, too, am beginning to wonder about the 2.6 kernel, though it doesn't seem to pose a problem for most everyone here. I had another motherboard of the same type as mine which failed me last year, so I was able to use the CPU fan bracket from it. It seems OK now (an awful lot of work taking the entire system apart just for one piece of plastic to replace.) The CPU (AMD643400+) still runs at what I believe to be a little too hot (45c idle temperature.) Maybe someone will post what the safe temperture of this type of CPU should be. I just replaced the fan with one that runs at 3200-3275 rpm, and the CPU seems to work OK.

I finally got to the point that I was able to compile the kernel correctly, but must not have configured it properly at some point. All the other distros, including Slack 2.4, have no trouble with my SATA setup, so when I try it again, I will study the SCSI section with a fine toothed comb. I will eventually get it right, somehow, I always do.

Thanks again,

Bob