If compiling a newer kernel it seems any newer than the 5.15.x LTS branch do not boot(i did not try every single minor release but did several of them up to 6.6.23 the one from current). I am using Slackware 15.0.

Actually I think all newer than 5.15.28 dont boot but I havent tried testing those in a long while. I just finally got the wherewithall to try some new kernels recently and figured I would post and find out.

The boot issue is that it does not find init and panics.

Some may tell me make a initrd, but I always have done that using mkinitrd, and placing all the files myself into the folder they need to be in. Been compiling slackware kernels since ancient times and rarely had a kernel panic on a new build. And I have a very simple system configuration with no unusual file system types, nothing much that has to be passed to the kernel.

If you made it reading this far and think you know the culprit of new kernels not finding init despite the same type of ramfs I always used, and a stock config from slackware ftp matching the version to compile, hit me up, thanks.

If it is not possible to upgrade past a certain point I may give current a whirl at some point but its more work probably than its worth yet. Don't feel like a full system install.
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System Spec
Dual Xeon E5-2680's 12 cores
64GB DDR4 2133Mhz
980GTX 4GB EVGA
2TB SSD on a quad card
Slack 15 with plasma 5 desktop using x.org

Kernels 5.15.1?? have been running fine for me, though I use a fairly heavily modified .config file from Pat's. I'm posting this from my Slackware 15.0 MacBook Pro 2012 running kernel 5.15.152 with an initrd because I'm running LVM and LUKS and i915 graphics compiled as a module. I haven't tried any newer kernels.

Yeah I got 5.15.28 right now I just wanted to try out some newer kernels but it seems like they all panic on init or go to recovery console no matter what, makes me wonder what major change happened. Does it have something to do with not using systemd? Edit: No if slackware current is runnin 6.6 it must be some other thing.

If you changed the .config, then perhaps you're missing some important option.

One of the most common causes of this error is that the kernel can't find the driver for the root partition's file system.

You can circumvent this by building an initrd which contains the correct file system module.

Another way to fix it is to build the root file system support into your kernel:

In the kernel config:

File systems --> change the driver for your root file system from <M> (or < >) to <*>

When you build your initrd, do you first check what modules you will need by running Patrick's mkinitrd diagnostic script?

With a huge kernel there is no need for initrd.

The official kernel for Slackware 15.0 is nowadays 5.15.145 and it works fine in my experience.

Like others, my guess is that your custom kernel misses support for hardware drivers or filesystem needed to mount your root partition. Another possible problem could be if you have compiled yourself a 32 bit kernel trying to run a 64 bit init or vice versa.

regards Henrik

Check the mkinitrd section here https://wiki.alienbase.nl/doku.php?i...kernelbuilding and post back if you have any questions. You should make sure to have the kernel, kernel headers, and modules installed on your system.

I'm running the kernel from -current on 15.0, and everything is -mostly- working fine. The system -sometimes- hangs when switching over to the new root, which I put down to a (cheap) hardware support issue. It may be the same for you?

Another thing, needed drivers may take time to load before switching over to the new root, adding a wait time ('WAIT') to /etc/mkinitrd.conf may help.

I have not really had any issues in the past, and all versions that I was building were ones slackware had in their ftp. I just copied Pat's config. And used the built in mkinitrd -c -k yada yada.. scripts and added it to a lilo entry instead of trying to make a initrd the hard way.

Long as you say it can work with this version of the distro I will try again.

Maybee I was grabbing the wrong configs or something. I will make sure they say huge.

It probably is just something silly that I missed like that.
One thing if it was simply a mistake once, but choosing wrong that much seems out of place for me since I been always building kernels since back to early Mandrake days.

I've built like 20+ rebuilds over the last year or so of many version trees up to 6.x. Only takes 20 mins to compile but my pc is slow to reboot and I leave it on most of the time and dont reboot often.

This weekend I will try building and maybee use the .SlackBuild they provide and see if it does something different. I will post back then.

Please excuse me if this seems inappropriate, but one wonders why you're bothering to compile your own if you're just going to use Patrick's config files with no modifications at all.

Why not just use Patrick's binary kernels? They are quite good.

I do change a couple things for each system in my house and a special config for the laptop, but always use his as a base so I know it will work for sure in slackware. And since they werent booting I tried building some just stock. When one is trying to figure out something reduce variables of what could be wrong and starting with a suposedly known working config seems prudent.

But this doesnt help me to figure out why new kernels wont boot for me. I have been following the same process I have done for since I started using linux long ago. Which was sometime around 1998 or so.

Now days its too cumbersome to look over every menu every time. Back in the day I would take the time to go through the whole config to get exactly what I wanted for a minimal kernel since every tweak mattered then, but now I always start with a slackware config base.

Do you have a idea as to why this happens?

Added:
I can build all earlier versions and they all work, even built hardened grsecurity 4.7.0 which I built a seperate earlier version gcc for so the plugins would work, for a seperate install and it booted up and after configuring ran X.org/plasma 5 and mprotect was working though couldnt load firefox. I did that just to see if it could be done. So on another partition I got a working hardened install of slackware 15 mostly.

Its working now. I ripped a copy of the source/config directly out of the slackbuild from current and 6.6.25 managed to boot on my pc. I feel dumb now I must have missed something critical or was using the wrong configs for the various attempts I made for the base config. 6.6.26-generic SOLVED.

Sorry to make you read through all that when it ended up being something that simple. Gonnag go mark this thread.