Hi all,

I just tried to upgrade from the 2.4.x kernel to the latest 2.6.14.5 kernel.

So this is how it went. I just did what was in DaOne's great tutorial; did the first couple of steps, made a menuconfig, saved it, ran make, installed some modules, ran make install, (no errors whatsoever till this point) and then got the first 512 bytes of the harddisk to copy to my C:\ for boot.ini. I rebooted after finishing updating the bootsect.lnx in windows and rebooted in Linux - first chose it in the windows boot, then Lilo came up just fine, displaying the new boot options. I chose linux, and now comes the horrible part.

It loaded my image, and then it wanted to boot the rest in 1024x768x256. Screen went black for a while as usual, and nothing came up then. Nothing but a nice green, blue, and red line on the top of my screen. Extremely boring.
I've been sitting in front of my computer for half an hour to see whether I liked the so called "kernel-improvement", but I didn't. I think I want my trusty shell back.

Can anyone help me with this? The only thing I *possibly* could have done wrong, was either chosing the wrong config options in make menuconfig, or making the wrong adjustements in the makefile. Cause something has changed since the 2.6.0 kernel:

isn't outcommented by default any more, the default modus is
The first time I tried to update, I left the line what it was, getting the same results as above. The second time I tried, a few min's ago, I changed it as desired in DaOne's tutorial. Getting the same results, though.
I'll post my .config file as well as anyone pleases...
Ohw for those interested, another very strange thing was going on after the kernel update: when I tried to reboot using init 6 in bash, messages were fine, screen went black, but my computer didn't want to reboot automatically again. Never had similar problems before either...
So please help!

cheers,
Pazkaw

Could you post your .config? Seems like something is up with your Framebuffer

Ok, I've got more things working now. I just installed the 2.6.13 kernel which was on the slackware disc, using a slightly different and more careful menuconfig. I just compiled it and removed the previous 2.6.14.5 kernel and I now got a kernel panic... Anyways:

Clicky for my old .config file

Clicky for my new .config file


Clicky for my new syslog (net very useful info in this one, though...)


With the new kernel I compiled, it's now able to load the kernel-image file and display a nice Tux on the top of my screen and outputs some info about what's it doing! This is the error I now receive, however, when it hangs halfway through the kernel load:

However, my lilo config file seems to be fine, and I'm sure I did not forgot to include "make install" or sth. after the kernel "make". Just did it as the tuto mentioned...

When I roll my own kernel, I don't mess with the makefile. Here is what I do.....

Download that your kernel of choice from kernel.org. I chose the 2.6.14.4 since 2.6.14.5 and the 2.6.13 with Slackware gave me buku problems.

Copy the downloaded kernel source to /usr/src and untar:
tar -xzvf for .tar.gz
tar -jxvf for .bz2
cd /usr/src
rm linux
ln -s linux-2.6.X.X (replace X with your exact version)
cd linux
make mrproper
**Copy an existing custom .config to /usr/src/linux**
make xconfig (if in GUI with qt installed) or menuconfig, make any changes that you wish and SAVE IT.
make
make modules_install
cp /usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/bzImage-2.6.X.X
cp /usr/src/linux/System.map /boot/System.map-2.6.X.X
cp /usr/src/linux/.config /boot/config-2.6.X.X
cd /boot
rm vmlinuz System.map config
ln -s bzImage-2.6.X.X vmlinuz
ln -s System.map-2.6.X.X System.map
ln -s config-2.6.X.X config
joe /etc/lilo.conf and edit lilo (you may not need this step, I always give my new kernel a specific name)
save and run lilo
reboot

My laptop is screaming fast now...........

Thanks for your reply, SqdnGuns,
I just compiled the 2.6.14.4 kernel just as you told me to, (except added linux after the "ln -s linux-2.6.X.X (replace X with your exact version)" command ), but I'm getting the same results all over again as I've been telling in my first post: nothing but a green, blue and red line at the top of my screen... very strange...

Greetz,
Pazkaw

Update:
I just tried to recompile my 2.4.31 kernel file, using the .config file without having made any modifications; I got the same
Please append a correct "root=" boot option
Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(8,6)
error! Help, my kernel is flipping out!

I once got this error and it finally turned out to be something to do with the kernel being too far from the 'start' of the partition (not very technical, I know!). But I cured it by deleting as many old kernels and system.map files etc from the /boot and then copied the new 'vmlinuz' and 'system-map' into /boot, ran Lilo again and all was then fine.

Hmmm I just did that, but it seems to have no effect...

I was thinking, does it have something to do with my harddisk being sATA?
BTW, my latest .config file is to be found here

Ohw, and a happy new year to all of you!

"Unable to mount root fs" simply means that you do not have support for your root's filesystem compiled into the kernel. It *must* be compiled in; a module won't cut it.

You have to compile in file system support or use initrd.

My root filesystem is ReiserFS, if that's what you you mean, and I have had it enabled every time I compiled the kernel...(check the posted .config files ) So that can't be the problem... can it?

Hmmm do you mean the same thing as mdarby? And about initrd, never worked with it... Can you please be more specific?

Thanks,
pazkaw

YES! Finally got it working!!!
After some more very Carefully Caried-out Kernel Compilations(TM) I rebooted it and and simply worked. What it exactly is what change has done the job is still unclear to me, I think it got something to do with adding some options for sATA or sth in my kernel config...

My last .config file can be found here: clicky!

Thanks for all your replies and effort!
Pazkaw