I can't get my custom kernel to work.

I installed Slackware 12 today, on my Asus A8Js.

The "Huge SMP" kernel worked out of the box.

The "Generic SMP" kernel worked after I create an initrd for it with "mkinitrd -c -k 2.6.21.5-smp -m reiserfs -o /boot/generic.gz".

So far so good. Unfortunately, neither kernel had CONFIG_HOTPLUG_CPU enabled, which meant I would have to build a kernel before I could suspend.

So I downloaded a kernel from kernel.org (2.6.22.2). Then I configured it by copying /boot/config-generic-smp-2.6.21.5-smp to the root of the kernel source and doing a "make oldconfig." I did not alter the kernel configuration aside from accepting the defaults for options that were new. While I do plan on making changes later, I want things working on this level first. Then, after building the kernel and copying /arch/i386/boot/bzImage to /boot/vmlinuz-custom, I did a "make modules_install" and got a directory full of kernel modules at /lib/modules/2.6.22.2-smp.

Next, I created an initrd file for my new kernel, using the same steps as above, changing only the version number and the output filename (to "custom.gz").

The relevant sections of my lilo.conf looked like this:
When I booted the new kernel, I got:

How can this be, when my new kernel has exactly the same configuration as one known to work?

So I tried compiling reiserfs support into the custom kernel, and booting it without an initrd. The results are below:

This is a SATA machine, so the above is rather strange.

I had that same problem.
Compile ReiserFS support into the kernel, not as module and loose this initrd and you're good to go.

Thanks. But as I already mentioned, that didn't work for me.

I just tried building a custom kernel using the huge config. Didn't work either (same error as when I compiled reiserfs into the kernel and got rid of the initrd.

EDIT: SOLVED IT!!!!

I removed the entire ATA section except for CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDE and CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDE_GENERIC. It works now.

My new problem is that my screen is blank when I return from suspend (after doing an "echo mem > /sys/power/state"), even if I suspend at the console. But that's for another thread.

I had exactly the same problem as Dugan, three times in a row: kernel panic. Still haven't got a clue what went wrong (and why), but what did work, was Alien Bob's howto: http://alien.slackbook.org/dokuwiki/...kernelbuilding
Worked for me.
Good luck!

EDIT:
A little too late...
Good that you worked it out.

i prefer to build filesystem support in to the kernel itself (select "*" not a "M") when building a kernel, this makes an initrd unnecessary (i use ext3 exclusively)...