Vanilla kernel installation in x86 machine ?

[premjithav]

Hello,

I'm a newbie in x86 architecture. I have some experiences in arm cross compiling and kernel builds. I want to build a bare minimum kernel (vanilla kernel from kernel.org) that works in x86 architecture. I dont want any GUI or applications, only need the command prompt. Is this setup possible for a vanilla kernel in x86. i'm tried some kernel but it shows boot errors (some driver issues), How we can fix this issues?. Is there any procedure for fresh kernel installation in x86.

thanks in advance

[arespi]

Hi, a kernel will not give you a command prompt, you still need to add a few more applications, a shell, etc. But yes, you can make a very simple and compact linux, this can give you some guidance:

LFS Project Homepage

Good luck

[atreyu]

I want to build a bare minimum kernel (vanilla kernel from kernel.org) that works in x86 architecture. I dont want any GUI or applications, only need the command prompt. Is this setup possible for a vanilla kernel in x86. i'm tried some kernel but it shows boot errors (some driver issues), How we can fix this issues?. Is there any procedure for fresh kernel installation in x86.

As far as procedure, just read the README in the root of the linux kernel source directory. you need to be sure to select all drivers for your hardware, but in particular, you need to make sure your motherboard and disk controller drivers are selected. also you need to be sure to include the proper filesystem and CPU support. there are a multitude of options you can select when configuring the kernel, but those are the main ones.

as to the errors you are experiencing, you should include them as they appear on your screen here, so that we can better help you diagnose them.

[premjithav]

hello,
I'm compiled 2.6.34 kernel with default configuration i386_defconfig and generated a bzImage. Then the image copied to my existing distribution kernels /boot folder and updated the grub.cfg for currently compiled kernel, also copied a simple initramfs structure with a busybox. Then I restarted the computer and selected the new item in grub menu. It displayed some booting logs and then fall in to the initramfs command prompt , my harddisk file system not mounted . Why it happens is there any suggestion to boot a vanilla kernel with any simple initramfs and then load the existing system filesystem. The below log is the init file that i included in my initramfs

#!/bin/sh

#Mount things needed by this script
mount -t proc proc /proc
mount -t sysfs sysfs /sys

#Disable kernel messages from popping onto the screen
echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/printk

#Clear the screen
clear

#Create all the symlinks to /bin/busybox
busybox --install -s

#Create device nodes
mknod /dev/null c 1 3
mknod /dev/tty c 5 0
mdev -s

#Function for parsing command line options with "=" in them
# get_opt("init=/sbin/init") will return "/sbin/init"
get_opt() {
	echo "$@" | cut -d "=" -f 2
}

#Defaults
init="/sbin/init"
root="/dev/hda1"

#Process command line options
for i in $(cat /proc/cmdline); do
	case $i in
		root\=*)
			root=$(get_opt $i)
			;;
		init\=*)
			init=$(get_opt $i)
			;;
	esac
done

#Mount the root device
mount "${root}" /newroot

#Check if $init exists and is executable
if [[ -x "/newroot/${init}" ]] ; then
	#Unmount all other mounts so that the ram used by
	#the initramfs can be cleared after switch_root
	umount /sys /proc
	
	#Switch to the new root and execute init
	exec switch_root /newroot "${init}"
fi

#This will only be run if the exec above failed
echo "Failed to switch_root, dropping to a shell"
exec sh

Please help me

Thanks in advance

[atreyu]

what are your kernel command line args? e.g.:

cat /proc/cmdline

what hard drives are detected? e.g.:

fdisk -l

you can also try this command to show disk drives by model:

grep -H . /sys/block/[sd]a*/device/model

does the kernel block device exist? e.g.:

ls -l /dev/hda /dev/hda1

I assume you have a filesystem on the first (parallel) IDE drive. what is the filesystem? ext3, etc.