Problems with kernel 2.4.10 and bootdisk

[Stephan Henningsen <stephan@nerd.dk>]

I have read Bootdisk-HOWTO.txt, Documentation/ramdisk.txt,
and most of the LinuxFromScratch book.  I have looked at
the readme.txt on a Debian bootdisk and tried out what other
mini Linux dists do.  And still I cannot get my boot+root
disks to work properly!  I have asked on IRC but surprisingly
few people actually know about *making* boot+root disks.

I am desperate for help.  And since the problem is in the
kernel-phase (my conclusion for the time being anyway), I
dare to ask on this list, though it is not directly
*kernel* development related.

I want to make a boot and root disk.  The root disk is ok so
far; it mounts and gives me a login prompt, when I use it
together with another boot disk, which I have not made.

However, my boot disk (with kernel dd'ed directly to floppy),
crashes instantly after pressing Enter when it prompts for
root disk.  It gives an Oops:0000, a stack dump and a kernel
panic.  This boot disk I have chosen not to use anymore,
since I would like LILO.

My bootdisk with LILO works a littel better.  It loads
and prompts.  It still crashes upon prompting, but leave one
simple error:
	Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 02:00
which I don't exactly know what means; is it mounting the
wrong device?  Unknown file system?

Then I took the kernel .config from a 2.3.0 from the tiny
linux dist, which boots and loads my root disk fine.  I put
the .config in my 2.4.10's tree and compile.  But this
kernel gives me the same error.

So: The exact same config from a 2.3.0-kernel, which works
doesn't work with a 2.4.10-kernel!  This I find weird.  And
this is where (hopefully) you people can help me out =).

I have made a tarball with all my work so far including
(real tiny, honestly) shell scripts that compress and write
the kernel and image.

http://212.10.213.249/~stephan/bootdisk/
http://212.10.213.249/~stephan/bootdisk.tar.gz

mkroot.sh	compresses root.img and writes it to floppy.
mklilo.sh	formats, copies kernel and installs lilo on floppy.
mkboot.sh 	writes kernel raw to floppy -- "obsolete".

I use Debian potato 2.2.r2 with kernel 2.4.0 and undated
versions of (most of) the system packages like modutils,
util-linux (rdev), and more.

I would be thankful for any help!

-- 
Stephan Henningsen  /
                   /  tisprut productions[tm]


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