[vox-tech] Re: (Redhat) Grub initrd Use?

[Ken Bloom]

On 9/3/05, Wayne Watson <sierra_mtnview at earthlink.net> wrote:
> This is a redhat related problem. Redhat installed
> and works fine. The install process set up grub.
> Now I have built a new kernel from the tar ball and
> need to boot it. I put a new stanza in /boot/grub/menu.lst
> with the new kernel name and a new name for the stanza.
> The redhat installed line has
> kernel vmlinuz-2.4.20-6 ro root=LABEL=/1
> so I used
> kernel vmlinuz-2.4.20-rtl3.2-pre2 ro root=LABEL=/1
> 
> the boot fails unable to open root
> I've tried using root=(hd1,0) which is my understanding
> of device numbering for grub but it still fails. Same error.
> 
> I can't find any explanation of "LABEL" in menu.lst
> or for the /1 notation.
> Note I did make an initrd iamge with the command
> mkinitrd initrd-2.4.20.rtl3.2-pre2.img 2.4.20-rtl3.2-pre2
> 
> 2.4.20-rtl3.2-pre2 is the version as it appears in /lib/modules
> and the size of the image file is close to that of the oringinal
> redhat initrd image.
> 
> Can anybody clue me as to what I need in grub/menu.lst??

Here is an example stanza from my kubuntu /boot/grub/menu.lst

title  Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.10-5-386 (recovery mode)
root  (hd0,0)
kernel  /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.10-5-386 root=/dev/hda1 ro noapic
acpi_sleep=s3_bios single
initrd  /boot/initrd.img-2.6.10-5-386
savedefault
boot

Explanation: the first line is the title in the grub menu. The second
line tells GRUB (but not the kernel) where it can find the partition
with your kernel on it. If you don't have a separate /boot partition,
then your configuration should look like mine. /dev/hda1 corresponds
to (hd0,0) If you do have a separate /boot partition, then you should
have the root line correspond to that, and your kernel and initrd
lines should not contain the /boot.

on the third line (the one starting "kernel") the root= option tells
your kernel where it can find the / partition. the root=LABEL=/1 is
just another way of specifying this without having to specify it
physically, if you take advantage of partition labelling (it seems
that fedora does by default)

the initrd line seems to be the magic line that you'e missing from
your stanza for this kernel.

--Ken Bloom