We installed Slackware64-13.1 on a dedicated server and later removed the video card to cut back on power usage. System boots just fine with the stock huge smp kernel. Later, I compiled a custom kernel but now the system will not boot unless we re-install the video card. I can't see any error messages with the video card removed, so not too sure where to look. Just curious if anyone here has experienced this before or might have some ideas.

Have you built-in drivers for the video card, or left them as loadable modules? It is possible that you built something into the kernel that is failing when the card isn't present, but it still does seem a little odd. The kernel shouldn't crash just because a piece of hardware isn't inserted, even if the driver is built in...

You might want to try setting up a serial terminal and watching the boot process from another machine. That may give you a clue as to were the failure is occurring.

This page has information about configuring LILO (and through that, the kernel) to output over serial.

Hi Rutrow,

Most systems will keep prior versions of most log files and simply name them .1, .2 (or .2.gz) etc. I would take a look at the prior dmesg after a failed boot (and subsequent start with the video card), which on my system I could do:

gzip -c -d /var/log/dmesg.1.gz |less

Good luck,
--Chris