Booting a custom kernel in a new file system

[NewinLinux]

Hi everyone,
I am using OpenSuSE 9 (the kernel is 2.6.25.5-1.1). I had to make a custom kernel.So,I did the following after reading from various places:
1.make gconfig (then i customized the kernel using various options)
2.make (the bzImage was formed)
3.then I transfered this BzImage to /boot directory
4.Then I opened menu.lst file of GRUB and added title and kernel=/boot/bzImage (I did not mention anything about initrd)

After this,I rebooted and loaded the new kernel successfully !

Now the new challenge is to make a separate filesystem for this custom kernel. I tried fdisk, but it told there is no space. Then I thought to make a partition using loopback device.I made an ext3 filesystem and mounted it on /mnt/point1 .But, after I reboot,this filesystem vanished ! I was told that it was due to temporary mount.Then I tried editing /etc/fstab file and after this,I made filesystem again and rebooted. My system crashed due to it.It told it could not find such filesystem !
Please tell me what to do now.I want a new filesys for my custom kernel
Thanks.

[Lakshmipathi]

Welcome to LF and glad to hear your custom kernel is working fine.

I haven't tried using loop device as my root file system... I believe you might be interested in following site.

The Loopback Root Filesystem HOWTO: Introduction

[NewinLinux]

Thanks Lakshmipathi, I will follow that document and tell you the result. But meanwhile , please tell me is there another way to create a separate file system for my custom kernel. It should be noted that I cannot partition my system using fdisk because there is no space !

[Lakshmipathi]

But meanwhile , please tell me is there another way to create a separate file system for my custom kernel. It should be noted that I cannot partition my system using fdisk because there is no space !

As far i'm concerned possible options are
1)if your current File System based on LVM,then you could possible resize your paritions.
(Though there is ext2/3 resize program -- it not recommended i guess)
check out this - It's NOT recommended for new users How To Resize ext3 Partitions Without Losing Data | HowtoForge - Linux Howtos and Tutorials


2)Safe option is to add another secondary harddisk and use it as your root fs.

I'm not sure about anyother options.

[blinky]

Now the new challenge is to make a separate filesystem for this custom kernel. I tried fdisk, but it told there is no space. Then I thought to make a partition using loopback device.I made an ext3 filesystem and mounted it on /mnt/point1 .But, after I reboot,this filesystem vanished ! I was told that it was due to temporary mount.Then I tried editing /etc/fstab file and after this,I made filesystem again and rebooted. My system crashed due to it.It told it could not find such filesystem !
Please tell me what to do now.I want a new filesys for my custom kernel
Thanks.

Why do you want a separate filesystem for a user compiled kernel ????
Very confused

[NewinLinux]

Why do you want a separate filesystem for a user compiled kernel ????
Very confused

This is one of my requirements for my university project

[NewinLinux]

As far i'm concerned possible options are
1)if your current File System based on LVM,then you could possible resize your paritions.
(Though there is ext2/3 resize program -- it not recommended i guess)
check out this - It's NOT recommended for new users How To Resize ext3 Partitions Without Losing Data | HowtoForge - Linux Howtos and Tutorials


2)Safe option is to add another secondary harddisk and use it as your root fs.

I'm not sure about anyother options.

1) This option is too complex for me
2) I cannot add another hard disk. Whatever I do, it has to be in the same hard disk

By the way, I followed the link given by you and some others and created a loopback device and mounted it successfully.When I did df -h it showed the partition with filesystem.
But it vanished when I rebooted.

[blinky]

This is one of my requirements for my university project

Just trying to get my head round what your trying to do. Do you need/want the new kernel to run with a different root filesystem??

[NewinLinux]

Just trying to get my head round what your trying to do. Do you need/want the new kernel to run with a different root filesystem??

Correct...This is what I exactly need. Can you suggest some method?

[NewinLinux]

As far i'm concerned possible options are
1)if your current File System based on LVM,then you could possible resize your paritions.
(Though there is ext2/3 resize program -- it not recommended i guess)
check out this - It's NOT recommended for new users How To Resize ext3 Partitions Without Losing Data | HowtoForge - Linux Howtos and Tutorials

Hi Lakshmipathi,
I decided to follow this link and understood everything written there.But when I tried to unmount my /home directory, it told device is busy and did not unmount

here is an overview of my system:
filesystem size used avail use% mounted on
/dev/sda2 20G 5.1G 14G 28% /
udev 248M 92K 248M 1% /dev
/dev/sda3 52G 285M 49G 1% /home

when I did,
umount /dev/sda3

then I got following result :
umount : /home: device is busy
umount : /home: device is busy

I am giving all instructions from /root directory in su mode.There are no other applications running.
Please tell me how to unmount it...