[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: Problems with kernel 2.4.10 and bootdisk
On Fri, Oct 05, 2001 at 10:09:22PM +0200, Stephan Henningsen wrote:
> 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 don't know all gory^Wfine details of the x86 boot process, but I've
recently put together a small bootable ramdisk for StrongARM (which has a
*much* cleaner boot process).
> 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.
I think you'd better go for syslinux for floppy disks. Much more
flexible.
> 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?
It means that the kernel can't mount device 02:00, which is /dev/fd0.
Can either be that you didn't compile the correct filesystem into the
kernel, or the floppy is broken (floppy disks are unreliable).
> 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.
I hope you did that the right way:
cp config-2.3.0 linux-2.4.10/.config
cd linux-2.4.10
make oldconfig
[normal way of building a kernel]
> 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 =).
Could you give 2.4.10-ac5 a try? The -ac tree contains a floppy probe
fix since 2.4.9-ac3 and I'm not sure if it's already propagated to
Linus' tree.
> 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.
If you're using Debian, apt-get install mkrboot.
Erik
--
J.A.K. (Erik) Mouw, Information and Communication Theory Group, Department
of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Information Technology and Systems,
Delft University of Technology, PO BOX 5031, 2600 GA Delft, The Netherlands
Phone: +31-15-2783635 Fax: +31-15-2781843 Email: J.A.K.Mouw@its.tudelft.nl
WWW: http://www-ict.its.tudelft.nl/~erik/
-
Kernelnewbies: Help each other learn about the Linux kernel.
Archive: http://mail.nl.linux.org/kernelnewbies/
IRC Channel: irc.openprojects.net / #kernelnewbies
Web Page: http://www.kernelnewbies.org/