I'm going to boot the kernel tonight, then ccopy the dmesg with a livecd and copy the exact error message, hopefully that will help you

To make sure it's not because of the WAY you're building your kernel, you could always try to rebuild the huge-smp kernel included with Slackware 12 (ie the 2.6.21.5 kernel -- make sure to add an EXTRAVERSION option so you don't overwrite the 2.6.21.5 modules) and see if it'll boot then. Just for control purposes, you should run `make oldconfig` even though nothing should be changed (since it's the same kernel version).

You could also try downloading the latest huge-smp kernel from -current and seeing if that works (and if it does take a look at the .config file and see what's different).

Couldn't that break my system though?

The slackware -current kernel wont boot either, exact same message. I think I might have to move to a different distro to get suspend/hibernate working

The problem (I believe)is with a single option that needs to be disabled in the kernel for SATA systems to boot and not have them panic as they try to boot hda. The option is to disable IDE in the kernel.

If you use make xconfig (which I do - I'm just used to it ) the option is defined as:

ATA/ATAPI/MFM/RLL support

In the .config file for huge-smp, the option is

CONFIG_IDE=Y This is not defined in my kernel that works.

There is and option under it that only exists as an option if IDE is enabled:

CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDE=y (since this is disabled by disabling IDE, this could be the culprit as well.

I run a custom kernel on my Dell and everything runs fine. If I try to run huge-smp-2.6.24.5-smp it fails with a kernel panic as it tries to boot from hdax.

It has nothing to do with anything else on my setup seeing as the custom kernel boots fine.

I'm rebuilding the huge kernel now and disabling that option was the only change I made.
This may have caused other options to be undefined as well, but I don't know which.
I had wanted a safety kernel along with my custom, but a kernel panic is not much of a safety. It's taking awhile so I'll let you know (note to self - don't rebuild huge if you're in a hurry)

OK - confirmed - huge kernel boots with sda now and no panic.

Edit: Just wanted to add that entering "hda=noprobe" at the lilo prompt will also allow you to boot the huge kernel without the kernel panic due to the kernel trying to boot hda instead of sda. I will assume that, as stated in the changes and hints text, passing this option during the install will also enable the install to procede without error.

It boots now, thank you so much Franklin

Glad to hear it!
Kernel options can be a bitch.


Steve