Problem upgrading kernel from CD2 of Slackware 10

Corallis · 07-19-2004, 01:14 AM

I was trying to upgrade my kernel to 2.6.7 using the following guide:

Quote:

The relevant package can be found in the testing/packages/linux-2.6.7 directory on the second CD. There is no option to select this kernel during installation so you will have to install it manually with 'installpkg':

installpkg kernel-generic-2.6.7-i486-1.tgz

You can also install the alsa-driver, kernel-headers and kernel-modules packages with the same command. Before you can boot the new kernel you will need to do two more things. Firstly, you will have to create initrd so that you can load certain kernel modules before mounting the root partition. The details are in the README.initrd file in the same directory as the kernel 2.6.7. The required command depends on the root partition's file system - you were given a choice between ReiserFS (default) and ext3; if you chose ext3, then navigate to the /boot directory and issue the following command:

mkinitrd -c -k 2.6.7 -m jbd:ext3 -f ext3 -r /dev/hdb3

The /dev/hdb3 in the above command should of course be replaced with the root partition of your Slackware installation. If you chose ReiserFS, you can achieve the same with this command:

mkinitrd -c -k 2.6.7 -m reiserfs

Secondly, you will have to update your /etc/lilo.conf file to look something like this:

image = /boot/vmlinuz-ide-2.4.26
root = /dev/hdb3
label = Linux-2.4
read-only
image = /boot/vmlinuz-generic-2.6.7
initrd = /boot/initrd.gz
root = /dev/hdb3
label = Linux-2.6
read-only

Again, you need to replace /dev/hdb3 with the root partition of your own Slackware installation. Don't forget to execute the 'lilo' command after saving the modified lilo.conf file.

When you reboot, the lilo prompt will give you a choice to select between the two kernels. While the majority of users are unlikely to experience problems with the newer one, some hardware combinations are known to cause problems. If this is your case, the tried and tested kernel 2.4 is still available for your booting pleasure.

Now, I ran into a problem because my root filesystem is ext2, not ext3. So when I tried to format it with the first mkinitrd command (ext3), it gave me alot of errors and wouldnt boot into the new kernel. So I completely reinstalled slackware, and made my root filesystem ext3, but still got the same errors, it tells me that the filesystem cannot be found. Does anyone have any idea what is wrong?

Marsanghas · 07-19-2004, 06:18 AM

What are the errors ?

I have used the exact same guide and it worked flawlessly for me. Did you change the /dev/hdb3 mentioned to YOUR root partition?

steveed · 07-19-2004, 12:59 PM

I actually just installed the new kernel and rebooted, no changing anything around. I also installed all the additional packages. I booted right into 2.6.7 and then removed the 2.4 kernel. I am using ext3 as my filesystem for all my partitions.

Corallis · 07-19-2004, 02:20 PM

Yes, I changed it to my root filesystem.

The exact message is as follows:

(Everything seems to be going fine, then...)

VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem)
mount: Mounting /dev/hda1 on /mnt failed: no such device
ERROR: mount returned error code 1. Trouble ahead.
mount: Mounting /dev/hda1 on /mnt failed: Invalid argument
mount: Mounting /dev/hda1 on /mnt failed: Invalid argument
/boot/initrd.gz exiting
pivot_root: pivot_root: Device or resource busy
Freeing unused kernel memory: 144k freed

Then it drops me back to a very limited shell.