Hello,

I've been trying to compile the 2.6 kernel for over a week now and have hit a proverbial brick wall. My system is using a RAID-1 (mirrored) array on a Highpoint 372 controller and no matter what kernel parameters I set in "make xconfig" I get the same error message when trying to boot the new kernel i.e.

VFS: Cannot open root device "7201" or unknown-block (114,1)
Please append a correct "root=" boot option
Kernel Panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block (114,1)

Steps I have taken when compiling the 2.6 kernel:

make mrproper
Copy the .config file from the Slackware CDs ataraid.i kernel directory to /usr/src/linux-2.6.0 (I installed using the ataraid.i kernel)
make xconfig
Make sure that the HPT36x/37x chipset support and reiserfs file systems are compiled into the kernel (not loadable modules).
make clean
make bzImage
make modules
make modules_install

cp System.map /boot/System.map-2.6.0
cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/bzImage-2.6.0

lilo

Then reboot..... When I try using the new kernel I get the VFS kernel panic. (thankfully the backup still works !)

With the exception of the "make mrproper" step I have tried running "make xconfig" again many. many times to try to spot what is missing/wrong but it all looks reasonable to me (but then again I'm new to this so know practically nothing)

I should also mention that I edited my /etc/lilo.conf file so that the end section looks like this:

# Initial "safe" 2.4.22 kernel
image = /boot/vmlinuz.safe
root = /dev/ataraid/d0p1
label = Slak-2-4-22
append = "hdc=ide-scsi"
read-only

# New 2.6 kernel
image = /boot/bzImage-2.6.0
root = /dev/ataraid/d0p1
label = Slak-2-6-0
read-only

I have also updated the /usr/src/linux symlink to point to the 2.6 kernel source folder and can confirm that when the working 2.4.22 kernel boots it addresses my ATA RAID arrays partitions as device(114,1), device (114,2) etc. etc.

Any help gratefully received as I just can't get the bugger to work.

Ataraid isn't supported in 2.6.0 yet. See http://www.linux.org.uk/~davej/docs/...loween-2.6.txt .

Well thankyou rotvogel for pointing this out (I suppose I really should have found this myself though)

But it does seem strange to me that ATA RAID is fully functional in the 2.4.22 kernel but then it's not working again in the 2.6 kernel ? I would have expected that ATA RAID would be used quite a lot in small business/home servers so it's current non functionality is a bit puzzling....

Oh well I suppose I'll just have to keep using my current 2.4.22 kernel (ataraid.i image from the Slackware CD) and keep my eyes peeled for the return of ATA RAID support.

It's time like this I wish I was fluent in C programming so I could join in and help myself ! Looks like that's something to do this year.