mkinitrd Problem when trying to boot new kernel

Bruce Hill · 09-21-2008, 11:55 AM

Okay, I've installed and booted that kernel, nothing amiss
except the NVIDIA-Linux-x86-173.14.12-pkg1.run driver did
not install with it. I just changed the driver to nv in my
/etc/X11/xorg.conf file, and X started okay. Does not look
as good as the Nvidia module, but I'm not spending time to
get one or patch this one simply for this kernel.

These are the steps I took:

Code:

mingdao@silas:~/kernel/linux-2.6.27-rc6$ zcat /proc/config.gz > .config (put my 2.6.25.6 running .config in place)
mingdao@silas:~/kernel/linux-2.6.27-rc6$ make xconfig (and only added the options mentioned in post #30)
mingdao@silas:~/kernel/linux-2.6.27-rc6$ make
mingdao@silas:~/kernel/linux-2.6.27-rc6$ su
Password:
root@silas:/home/mingdao/kernel/linux-2.6.27-rc6# cp System.map /boot/System.map-2.6.27-rc6 ; ln -sf /boot/System.map-2.6.27-rc6 /boot/System.map
root@silas:/home/mingdao/kernel/linux-2.6.27-rc6# make modules_install
root@silas:/home/mingdao/kernel/linux-2.6.27-rc6# cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-rc6
root@silas:/home/mingdao/kernel/linux-2.6.27-rc6# cd /boot/
root@silas:/home/mingdao/kernel/linux-2.6.27-rc6# sh mkinitrd_command_generator.sh -i
root@silas:/home/mingdao/kernel/linux-2.6.27-rc6# mkinitrd -k 2.6.27-rc6-smp -f jfs -r /dev/cryptvg/root -C /dev/md/2 -L -R -o /boot/initrd.gz (NB: no -c parameter}
root@silas:/home/mingdao/kernel/linux-2.6.27-rc6# vim /etc/lilo.conf
(added the following)
image = /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-rc6
  initrd = /boot/initrd.gz
  root = /dev/cryptvg/root
  label = 2.6.27-rc6
  read-only
root@silas:/home/mingdao/kernel/linux-2.6.27-rc6# lilo
Warning: '/proc/partitions' does not match '/dev' directory structure.
    Name change: '/dev/dm-0' -> '/dev/mapper/root'
Warning: Name change: '/dev/dm-1' -> '/dev/cryptvg/root'
Warning: Name change: '/dev/dm-2' -> '/dev/cryptvg/home'
Added 2.6.27-rc6
Added Slack-2.6.26.5 *
Added Slack-2.6.26.3
Added Slack-12.1
Added memtest86
The Master boot record of  /dev/sda  has been updated.
Warning: /dev/sdb is not on the first disk
The Master boot record of  /dev/sdb  has been updated.
4 warnings were issued.

Here I am:

Code:

mingdao@silas:~/kernel/linux-2.6.27-rc6$ uname -a
Linux silas 2.6.27-rc6-smp #1 SMP Mon Sep 22 00:32:22 CST 2008 i686 AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5000+ AuthenticAMD GNU/Linux
mingdao@silas:~/kernel/linux-2.6.27-rc6$ less .config | grep -i rtl8187
CONFIG_RTL8187=y

Follow those steps and I don't see why it won't work for you.

BobNutfield · 09-21-2008, 03:04 PM

Thank you very much, Bruce. Got it up and running. The new kernel would NOT let me set the rtl8187 to anything but a module, but as soon as I enabled the ext3 filesystem support, removed the initrd.gz, and it booted up just fine. Modprobed the rtl8187, and, PRESTO, my wireless was recognized with iwconfig and it saw my network right awaay. No need for ndiswrapper. So, it IS true that this kernel finally natively supports the rtl8187B. It will not connect to my network because the dhcpd wlan0 command returns errors because the dhcpd.conf file is empty and asking for subnet entries. But, I am sure with enough googling I can figure that one out. At least I have been successful in what I wanted to do, and that was to test the support for my wireless card (an odd one since it is internal usb).

So, now to figure out how to get it to connect. Alsa was also configured as a module because it too said it depended on something else, but did not tell me what, so I will have to also modprobe ALSA. But it is up and running. My other working kernels are also running, so I am a happy bunny!

Thank you very much for all the help everyone posted: T3slider, Bruce Hill and keefaz.

EDIT: Wireless now working completely. Edited rc.inet1 with my correct wireless info, all OK. I can confirm now that the RTL8187B wireless chipset is natively supported by the 2.6.27 kernel. No need for ndiswrapper with this kernel.