Kernel Problems

[macdude425]

So, I downloaded the source for 2.6.14.5 and installed it as I was told to on the Debian website. But now, whenever I get to yaboot, and hit "L" for Linux, I get the following message:

/pci@f2000000/pci-bridge@d/mac-io@7/ata-3@20000/disk@1:2,/boot/inirtd.img not found

So, it brings me to an Open Firmware prompt, and if I run boot or mac-boot sometimes it fixes it. Then, as the kernel is booting, I get something like this:

Root filesystem not found or has bad blocks: /dev/hdd2
Put a valid root= line in your boot file.
System will reboot in 180 seconds (0)

But it never reboots: a cpu(0) panic shows up, and keeps repeating itself until I hit the reset button.

What could be wrong?

TIA.

 

[philg]

Sounds like you haven't created an initrd, or named it properly. The initrd contains modules that are needed to mount the filesytem (eg ext3 or reiserfs)

The other alternative is to compile support for everything needed for the kernel to access the file system, ie compile support for your ide controller and file system directly into the kernel, not as modules.

EDIT:

pci@f2000000/pci-bridge@d/mac-io@7/ata-3@20000/disk@1:2,/boot/[b]inirtd.img [/b]not found

In fact I would guess that in your boot managers configuration file you have spelt initrd.img incorrectly

 

[macdude425]

In fact I would guess that in your boot managers configuration file you have spelt initrd.img incorrectly

Sorry, I was doing that off the top of my head and misspelled it. This is THE line from the bootloader:

initrd=/boot/initrd.img

So, how would I go about creating one?

 

[philg]

Consult your debian kernel compilation guide, it would be something like (pulled from the man page)

mkinitrd -c -k 2.6.7 -m jbd:ext3 -f ext3 -r /dev/hdb3

, adjust for what modules you need and the kernel version.

I use the reiserfs file system and compile reiserfs support along with support for my hardware directly in the kernel so I have no need for an initrd, and as such don't have much experience making them. If I had compiled reiserfs support as a module, which is what Pat does (Slackware maintainer) for the 2.6.x series then I would make me an initrd thusly:

mkinitrd -c -k 2.6.14.3 -m reiserfs -o /boot/initrd-2.6.14.3.gz

 

[macdude425]

mkinitrd didn't work--at all. I tried running it with all sorts of arguments and commands, but nothing worked. So, I tried to recompile again, with ext3 support compiled in. Now, it just hangs at the serial driver initialization...

 

[philg]

You're missing support for a particular device.

Are you running on a mac? I am unfamiliar with mac hardware so don't know what to suggest otherwise than go into the debian source repository and get the config file for the most recent 2.6.x kernel and base the configuration for your new kernel off of that.

 

[macdude425]

Yes, it's running on my Mac. I'll try that and see what happens.