Need help to understand /boot entries with 2 Kernels

Orangutanklaus · 08-20-2006, 03:27 PM

Aloha!

I started today to compile a 2.6.x Kernel.
After reading many guides (they called themself so far) I started with the compile procedure,...anyway.

I copied the vmlinuz*,System.map*, and config* file into the /boot directory.

Now...the old symbolic links are linked to the 2.4 kernel files. Ok, but I need different ones for the lilo entries to choose between the 2 kernel versions.

Would it work if I create 3 new symbolic links called vmlinuz-2.6, System.map-2.6 and config-2.6 and set the image entry into the lilo.conf file?

Further, why are these files linked at all and not used directly?

Good night,
OKlaus

titopoquito · 08-20-2006, 04:29 PM

There should be no need to link them. But it's very convenient that the "make install" with recent 2.6.x kernels copy the files to /boot automatically (this is what I know and what my installation does, don't know why you had to copy them manually). This way once you have a Lilo entry pointing to vmlinuz you should always be ok if the last messages from "make install" show a succesful Lilo run.

You can of course rename the files to get more descriptive names and create a link to,let's say, vmlinuz-2.6.16-oklaus, with the name vmlinuz. If you look in /boot the former vmlinuz is just a symlink to vmlinuz-ide-xxxxx or another kernel. You could change the entry for your old 2.4.x-kernel to that longer name and add a new vmlinuz for the (automatically??) copied 2.6.x one.

Daga · 08-20-2006, 04:30 PM

I haven't done this in a while, but I think it will work. As long as the 2.4 configs aren't touched you don't need to worry about making your system unbootable. And even then if you have a copy of the Slackware install CD, you can boot with it (there are instructions before you boot a kernel from the CD).

The symbolic links are there to allow quicker recovery if you mess up something. If you miscompile, you kill the vmlinuz file and create a symlink to the old kernel. Et voila, things will work until you have a chance to fix the kernel

comprookie2000 · 08-20-2006, 04:48 PM

Try to keep it simple and some of the guides you read may be old or not for slackware.
Here is the slackware way;
ftp://slackware.oregonstate.edu/pub/.../README.initrd
I have also used a kernel from kernel.org and did it like this.
cd /usr/src/linux
make menuconfig
make && make modules_install && make install
this creates the symlink from
/usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot/bzImage (this you created with make and make modules_install
(I think)
and names it vmlinuz
or you can copy it yourself without the make install like;
cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/kernel-2.6.12-gentoo-r10(this you can name yourself)
I hope I didn't confuse you more ...

Woodsman · 08-20-2006, 05:42 PM

Here is my

:

I dislike using soft links to my kernels. Whenever I update a distro, or a kernel package from a distro vendor, the distro vendor always installs and then overwrites that soft link. PV does this too.

If I am not paying attention, my boot loader menu no longer matches. So instead of using the soft links in my boot loader, I always hard-code the boot loader menu option directly to the actual kernel rather than the soft link. I then ignore the soft link. I then add a new boot loader menu option for the new kernel. Then, if things are mucked up, I can revert to my previous kernel and menu options. After a while and I become satisfied that my new kernel is working according to Hoyle, I then edit my boot loader menu to remove the previous kernel option.

With this strategy I never worry about distro vendors confusing me. Getting out of bed each day is tough enough of a challenge!

Orangutanklaus · 08-21-2006, 05:25 AM

Thank's a lot guy's.
All post are really helpful.

I will install the new kernel from scratch again and use your tip's.

/edit

Really, make install(.sh) copies the image and map file to /boot, after it set new links to the old kernel files and set no new symlinks. It copies the image and map file to /boot and name it vmlinuz & System.map.

But it will not add new lilo.conf entries. I had to insert the option for the old kernel (files named *.old from install.sh) manually.

Anyway, I get a kernel panic.

All posts I read so far including my Panic message are related to filesystems which are not build-in the kernel or SCSI/RAID solutions. But I only use ext2 on my IDE HD. It's built-in definitely and I guess initrd is needlessly. But that's another issue and if I don't figure it out I will start a new Thread.

With regards,
Orangutanklaus