[vox-tech] Compile 2.6.5 kernel Debian-style, get unbootable system

[Issac Trotts]

Part of the problem now seems to be resolved.  I used GRUB this time,
which made the boot loading part much easier.  All the needed info was
in /usr/share/doc/grub/README.Debian.

On Wed, May 05, 2004 at 12:55:44AM -0700, Issac Trotts wrote:
> Here's what I remember of what happened:
> 
> $ apt-get kernel-source-2.6.5
> $ tar xjvf /usr/src/kernel-source-2.6.5.tar.bz2
> $ cd kernel-source-2.6.5
> $ cp /boot/config-2.6.3-1-686 .config  # or something similar
> $ make menuconfig
> $ MAKEFLAGS='CC=gcc-3.3' fakeroot make-kpkg --append_to_version -686 \
> kernel_image modules_image
> $ cd ..
> $ sudo dpkg -i kernel-image-2.6.5-686_.01_i386.deb

First, I reinstalled Debian since my floppy drive is hosed (so I can't
use a rescue floppy) and I couldn't figure out how to use the install
CD as a rescue disk.

Then I compiled kernel version 2.4.25 using /boot/config-2.4.22-1-386.
For all questions involving LILO, I told it to do nothing.  Once the
questioning stopped, I ran update-grub to automatically update the boot
menu.  

I was then able to boot the recompiled 2.4.25, but the networking was
intolerably slow.  Running /sbin/ifconfig showed me that there were
lots of network errors, but I couldn't tell how to track them down.

I haven't yet found a way to get a recompiled 2.6.5 kernel to run.
Its latest complaint is 

    VFS: Cannot open root device "hda1" or unknown-block(0,0)
    Please append a correct "root=" boot option 
    Kernel panic: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0)

which also comes up when I choose 2.6.5 in "recovery mode" in GRUB.

-- 
Issac Trotts
http://mallorn.ucdavis.edu/~ijtrotts
(w) 530-757-8789