The brave battles of a newb against the evil Kernel...


Results 1 to 7 of 7

Thread: The brave battles of a newb against the evil Kernel...

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Apr 2000
    Location
    Indianapolis, IN, USA
    Posts
    18

    Question The brave battles of a newb against the evil Kernel...

    howdy all,

    I'm an old-time geek, been doing the PC thing since the IBM PC XT, but my Linux kung-fu is not yet strong...


    Situation: I'm trying to upgrade a RedHat 9 box's kernel from 2.4.20-8 to 2.6.11.7. Let me start out with a request that no one suggest I switch to a different distribution. Thanks!

    I went through a few kernel upgrade articles, read the CHANGES document in the kernel source, and added/upgraded the modules suggested.

    I followed the procedures to:

    - extract my kernel source to /usr/src/linux-2.6.11.7

    - make mrproper

    - coped my config file to /usr/src/linux-2.6.11.7

    - make oldconfig

    - make menuconfig

    - make dep (it responded that it wasn't necessary)

    - make bzImage

    - make modules

    - make modules_install

    - copied bzImage to /boot and renamed it to vmlinuz-2.6.11.7

    - changed the symbolic link vmlinuz to point to vmlinuz-2.6.11.7

    - copied System.map from my source directory to /boot/System.map-2.66.11.7

    - changed the symbolic link System.map to point to System.map-2.66.11.7

    - ran mkinitrd initrd-2.6.11.7 2.6.11.7

    - edited /etc/lilo.conf and added a new section, copying the syntax from the existing section and changing the references to the kernel and initrd files.

    - ran lilo which happily reported adding WinXP, RedHat9, and NewKernel

    - REBOOT!

    - chose "NewKernel" from my list of choices.

    At which point my box booted straight into the old kernel. Merde!

    Ran thru all my changes to double check for syntax and spellnig erorrss. Nope, everything's correct.

    Look in /boot to discover my symlinks to System.map had been changed back to point at the old System.map. I changed it back to point to the 2.6.11.7 map and did ls -l to check that it was pointing to the new map file. Yep, it is! So once again it's time to...

    REBOOT! and choose NewKernel.

    Same result. Boots back into the old kernel... Checked in /boot again and, sure enough, my System.map symlink had again been hijacked.

    I found one thing I think my be contributing to my problem: the module-info symlink, which is pointing to module-info.2.4.20-8 and I have no newer module-info file to replace it with. (yes, that sentence ends in a proposition!) If there should be a newer module-info file somewhere to which the symlink should point, please post that information!

    hmm... Since it keeps going back to my old kernel, what would happen if I take the old kernel options out of lilo.conf and try again? My menu offered me NewKernel and WinXP. Upon choosing NewKernel, the boot process started and died quickly in a kernel panic with the message:

    VFS: Cannot open root device "LABEL=/" or 00:00
    Please append a correct "root=" boot option
    Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 00:00

    And it was this point that I turned to that most knowledgable of all sources, the Internet. Apparently the terms involved in my problems are generic and ubiquitous enough that I can't sort out a solution with Google, talented with it though I may be...

    My current lilo.conf:

    prompt
    timeout=50
    default=WinXP
    boot=/dev/hda
    map=/boot/map
    install=/boot/boot.b
    message=/boot/message
    lba32

    image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20-8
    label=RedHat9
    initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.20-8.img
    read-only
    append="hdd=ide-scsi root=LABEL=/"

    image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.11.7
    label=NewKernel
    initrd=/boot/initrd-2.6.11.7.img
    read-only
    append="hdd=ide-scsi root=LABEL=/"

    other=/dev/hda1
    optional
    label=WinXP


    Lil help?


    Gersen
    indytech at att dot net
    There are just 10 kinds of people: those who understand binary, and those who don't...

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Location
    Tallahassee, FL
    Posts
    512
    Your system seems to take issue with the "root=LABEL=/" in your append section. You can specify the root partition directly under the heading for the kernel. Try this (replace /dev/hda1 with your root partition):
    Code:
    image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.11.7
    label=NewKernel
    root=/dev/hda1
    initrd=/boot/initrd-2.6.11.7.img
    read-only
    You can delete your append section completely because "hdd=ide-scsi" is no longer necessary with the 2.6 kernel.
    Registered Linux User No. 321,742

    "At Harvard they have this policy where if you pass too many classes they ask you to leave."
    ---Richard M. Stallman

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Location
    Republic of Texas
    Posts
    5,898

    hmm....

    I've never EVER heard of anything deleting and remaking symlinks.
    But I'm still learning too...

    Can you tell me a bit about your hardware and config?
    Like are you using SATA or SCSI?
    What does your partition table look like?

    If I were you I'd grab a livecd distro from which to chroot, and begin the reconfiguration. Perhaps remove that module-info file entirely?
    Need help in realtime? Visit us at #linuxnewbie on irc.libera.chat

    Few of us will do as much for our fellow man as he has done.
    --Andrew Morton on RMS

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Apr 2000
    Location
    Indianapolis, IN, USA
    Posts
    18
    je-fro,

    One HD running on the onboard IDE, no SCSI or SATA. I have 2 NTFS partitions, one /boot, one /, and one swap. This is sort of a learning exercise, so starting over is an option but switching distros is not, at least until I get this figured out.

    -------------------------------------


    paj12,

    After implementing a few changes from other webpages, I got to a point where choosing the new kernel from my LILO choices resulted in a quick flash of normal boot messages starting up, then a blank screen with the cursor sitting at the lower left and the system completely unresponsive.

    I then read your reply and tried editing lilo.conf to change the "append" line to "root=/dev/hda5". Testing this change resulted in the same blank screen as described above.


    I do appreciate your help! Any other ideas, shoot 'em to me.


    G.
    There are just 10 kinds of people: those who understand binary, and those who don't...

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jun 2002
    Location
    Parump, NV
    Posts
    859

    Re: The brave battles of a newb against the evil Kernel...

    Originally posted by Gersen


    - make oldconfig

    - make menuconfig

    you should do one OR the other, but not both.........

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Apr 2000
    Location
    Indianapolis, IN, USA
    Posts
    18

    Smile

    thanks, jlb! another step in my process cleared up...

    I'm amazed how many contradictory procedures I've found for kernel upgrades... My initiation into the open source community, I s'pose!


    G.
    There are just 10 kinds of people: those who understand binary, and those who don't...

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Dec 2002
    Posts
    1,088
    Something else I think is wrong.

    If you are using your config file from a 2.4 kernel it will not work with a 2.6 kernel.

    I think this is johnt's site. He has some pretty good explaination on kernel compiles for Slackware, but they should help you.

    http://www.geocities.com/jtarin47/
    Check out my ebay auction for my signature space on JLC.

    Hey if people can sell advertising space on thier bodies, I figure I can make $.02 on my signature space.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •