Slackware (just upgraded) stops in the middle of boot process
 

Hey I just upgraded from Slackware 11.0 (kernel 2.4.33.3) to Slackware 12.0 (kernel 2.6.24.7) and I now have a very odd problem. This slackware is running on an old Toshiba Libretto 70CT (Pentium MMX, 32MB RAM).
I had just upgraded the network (n) package set, for those familiar with the slackware package structure. It worked fine before I upgraded the applications (ap) and network (n) package sets. I didn't reboot after upgrading the (ap) set, so I don't know if it broke there or when I upgraded (n).
It appears to boot fine, with the framebuffer penguin in the corner and it mounts all of the partitions fine and everything until it gets to:
I think it does that successfully because there appears to be a good deal of HD access, but then it just stops (the keyboard does not respond either). Does anyone know what the problem might be? Any help would be appreciated, even if someone could just tell me what step in the boot process normally comes after this line, so that I could see if I could figure out what's broken.

Can you boot in single mode? When you get to LILO, select your kernel and then add the word one or the number 1 after the kernel name at the prompt. That boots you into single mode and bypasses a lot of the normal startup scripts.

The other thing, is that from your description it sounds a bit like you were kind of doing an ad hoc upgrade. The changes between 11 and 12 was pretty substantial and if I remember correctly, if you didn't closely follow the directions in UPGRADE.TXT and CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT you were in for real trouble. How closely were you following those instructions?

I'm using GRUB, but I added the 1 at the end of the line of commands passed to the kernel (I think it's in the right place) and there's no change.

As far as the UPGRADE.TXT and CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT files, I didn't even know that these files existed, so do you think it would be best to just restore from the image I took of the HD before I started the upgrade and try again following those files?

Also, I'm assuming that I need to follow the Slackware 11.0-12.0 upgrade first, then the 12.0-12.1 upgrade, right?

Absolutely this would be the best way to go. As I said, this was a pretty major upgrade with more than a few potential "gotchas", so if you can roll back to your starting point, that would be a good idea.
Normally, I would say no, you could jump right to 12.1. The way it is suggested to upgrade Slackware is by using upgradepkg --install-new for most of the upgrade. In theory, if a package exists in both 11 and 12.1, it should be upgraded and if it only exists in 12.1, it should be installed. That should get you to 12.1 no matter what your starting point. My hesitation to recommend this now is that I haven't done a detailed comparison of the README and CHANGES_AND_HINTS files in 12.0 and 12.1. If they are telling you to do the same things, then go ahead and jump to 12.1, but if not, do the stepwise upgrade. Since the 11 to 12 was so involved, this is one you gotta research before you jump.

By the way, I'm asking that this thread get moved to the Slackware forum here. You'll attract a more knowledgeable crowd there.

Moved: This thread is more suitable in the Slackware forum and has been moved accordingly to help your thread/question get the exposure it deserves.

I believe that is at the end of rc.S. Take a look at the scripts under /etc/rc.d/. These are your startup scripts. Since your machine got caught in single user mode (rc.K) as well as multi user mode (rc.M) then the problem is probably something originating in rc.S. You can put echo statements, comment out lines, and whatever you want. They are pretty easy to play with.

Hangdog42 gave you some good advice on the upgrade. Unless you feel comfortable with a manual upgrade then I don't recommend that you try combining 11-12 and 12-12.1 upgrades. But yes, the part where you would save time is during the mass upgrade of packages. You just have to make sure that you read and become familiar with all of the UPGRADE.TXTs and CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXTs before beginning. You might want to see the upgrade thread in my signature for an in-depth example of how to make use of that documentation.

I'm generally following the 11.0-12.0 instructions just using the 12.1 package set and it seems to be going OK so far...

That would have saved a lot of effort if I knew that before, but oh well. At least if it happens again I know now.

P.S. Thanks for moving this to the slackware forum, as I didn't really even know that it existed (yeah I know it sounds dumb but it's true).

You don't have much memory on that machine - this is from the Slackware 12.0 HOWTO
and this from Slackware 12.1 HOWTO :
You may have problems with 32Mb on your box.

Yeah... that could be why when I'm booting now I get so many errors along the lines of...

Could not [do something]: no space left on device

when I still have a ton of space on my HD

I do have 64MB of swap, though.

Would it help to switch from huge to generic kernel and make an initrd? Or should I just give up and stick with running slack 11.0, maybe with a 2.6 kernel?

Well, that was an unnecessarily large amount of time that could have been saved if I wasn't so stupid. The sad part is, after I read that post, I remember specifically not going above 11.0 because I had read that you needed <32MB to run it, and I had forgotten. Sorry for wasting your time, everyone who's tried to help. Please don't yell at me and say things like, "next time, why don't you just READ THE FRIGGIN' MANUAL" because I know already, and I did and then forgot about it. My apologies.