no sync kernel 2.6.11

[xxosix]

(posted this in Knoppix area, no replies)
Toshiba Satellite, Celeron 2Ghz

hi,
I am trying to sort out some problems with a laptop. Knx version is 3.3.
I compiled the new kernel as usual, no dpkg stuff.
make menuconfig; make bzImage && make modules
&& make modules_install; make install. Now, I have it dual booting
with grub, plus the old kernel added in menu as backup. The old
kernel (2.4.22-xfs) boots normal, the new kernel hangs with or without an initrd file.
I have compiled 2.6.xx kernels several times, run lspci -v to make
sure the hardware, and the grub pointers are the same for each kernel as the root device, filesystem are concerned. Here are the errors;

with initrd-2.6.11;
RAMDISK: cramfs filesystem found at block 0
RAMDISKl Loading 1228KiB [1 disk] into ram disk.. done.
Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(3,2)

without initrd;
VFS: Cannot open root device "hda2"
Please append a correct "root=" boot option
Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(3,2)

The kernel root= boot option is identical for the old kernel, it loads.
BTW, 2.6.11 hangs for about 20-30 seconds upon IRQ discovery of IDE1 (hdc).

I've read threads containing similar problems, but no
solutions have worked. I need first to know if initrd is
useful specifically to laptops. I have compiled 2.6.xx kernel on
Dell laptop which would only work with an initrd, but every PC
Linux partition I use does without this.
thanks

[greg.dieselpower]

Check to make sure that cramfs is compiled statically into the kernel and not as a module. Turns out that is what my problem was.

http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/pos...12.html#183412

[xxosix]

I'll need to try that. I've fixed it now by removing ROMfs support, still have initrd support. thanks