i cannot understand the meaning of using modules in the kernel .

also "Make sure you don't cofigure your filesystems as modules"

anyone can help out there . I face the problem of compiling the 2.6.5 kernel
which gives error- panic about the root partition .

Thanks in advance

Hello, consider that the kernel modules could be called plugin if you prefer.

What you have with a kernel is basically an interface for software to communicate with the hardware. It is more or less complete as this but to suit hardware evolution and to work with different hardware configurations, it has add-ons called modules. Most of these modules are drivers, but somes can accomplish other things.

These modules can be compiled as :
built-in : code go directly into the main kernel file
modules : code go on separate files called modules

The kernel loads the modules at boot stage by following the instructions given by the init scripts (etc/rc.d/*). But before to be able to read these scripts files it has to mount root partition first.

In your case, if the module required to read your root filesystem, say ext3 was not compiled as built-in (built-in: the module does not need to be loaded by init script because it is built in the kernel) so it has no infos to how to mount and read your root partition.

Another way (instead built-in module for filesystem) is to compile root filesystem module as module and mount it at boot by bootloader instruction (initrd)

Cedrik great answer thank you very much