Re-compiling Kernel for Dual CPU
 

Hello there!

I'm experiencing quite a problem, I'm hoping you guys could point me in the right direction. The machine I'm working with is an IBM Netfinity 5500 server. The main features here (theones that are giving me grief) are the dual 400Mhz Pentium 2 Processors and the hardware SCSI RAID 5 array. On a fresh install of Slcakware 10.1 everything is great, except for the fact that I'm running on 1 cpu.

Now, that's a waste of the 2nd processor! Never before having problems with the kernel, I decide to re-compile with symetric processing support. After it was all said and done with, I had a kernel that booted with both CPUs! (I know so because of the activity LEDs on status panel) But.. there was a kernel panic. It reads:

kmod: failed to exec /sbin/modprobe -s -k block-major-8, errno = 2
VFS: Cannot open root device "801" or 08:01
Please append a correct "root=" option
Kernel Panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 08:01
_(blinking underscore):D

I've tried compiling this many times, each time carefully checking the menuconfig, but nothings working out. I just tried the official Slackware kernel compile guide. But still get the same error. I just wish that this server would be like a desktop and work "out of the box" :cry:

Any help would be appreciated... alot Thanks in advance.

Heres my guess.... 2 things.

A) Your reference to "SCSI RAID 5 array" tells me SCSI (obviously). Are you sure you compiled into the kernel the SCSI controller driver, etc ? (and not as a module?)

B) Since the line "Please append a correct "root=" option" appears in your error, is your lilo.conf file pointing to the right device? ex. - /dev/sda1 ??? and IF you are sure it is, it might not find /dev/sda1 because of situation "A" (see above).

Thats my 2 best guesses.
GOOD LUCK
-tw