I cant figure it out

[bignester]

here is what the computer tells me

VFS: Cannot open root device "802" or unknown-block(8,2)

I thought I had a bad kernel compile so I recompiled and still I get this message. Second off Ive compiled this particular kernel for this machine and it worked great all the same comfig and everything. Only reason I am doing this is because I messed up the machine by foolin around too much. Anyway does this mean that I just need to reinstall slack.

I have two Sata drives. //Like I said before I used the same configuration and it worked like a charm the first time.

thanx for any help
bignester.

[Dapper Dan]

I ran into this exact same problem compiling the 2.6.10 kernel only to find I was leaving a step or two out. I wrote down a "How to" just for my own personal use but maybe it will help you. I was upgrading from 2.4.26 to 2.6.10.

cd /usr/src

Remove old “linux” symlink from old kernel:

rm linux

Make new symlink to new kernel:

ln -s linux-2.6.10 linux

Now to “get inside” the new kernel:

cd /usr/src/linux

make mrproper

Then copy your existing .config to your new kernel source tree...

cp /usr/src/linux-2.4.26/.config /usr/src/linux/.config

To use your old config and choose to add/not add the new options:

make menuconfig

At this point, customize kernel if necessary. After making changes, save and quit.

make dep && make clean bzImage modules modules_install

Go watch some TV or get a beer... After you come back do...

cp /usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.10

ln -s /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.10 /boot/vmlinuz

make modules

make modules_install

cp System.map /boot/System.map-2.6.10

cp .config /boot/config-2.6.10

ln -s /boot/System.map-2.6.10 /boot/System.map

ln -s /boot/config-2.6.10 /boot/config

In console, cd to /boot directory and:

mkinitrd -c -m reiserfs

(but you might be using ext3...)

I guess you are using lilo. I'm using grub so I'll post my menu.lst in case you can get some help out of it...

title Slackware at hda10, kernel 2.4.26      
kernel (hd0,9)/boot/vmlinuz-ide-2.4.26 root=/dev/hda10 ro 
initrd (hd0,9)/boot/diag1.img
savedefault

title Slackware at hda10, kernel 2.6.10      
kernel (hd0,9)/boot/vmlinuz ro 
initrd (hd0,9)/boot/initrd.gz
savedefault

I'm not sure how it's done in lilo. After following these steps I no longer had the problem you are describing. I hope this helps some...

[valan]

Changing the /usr/src/linux symlink is a bad idea. /usr/src/linux should always point to the kernel which libc was compiled against. If you recompile your libc then this is probably fine, but often things will symlink into the kernel tree at /usr/src/linux, and changing this could break these things. I can't remember if glibc has broke the habit of symlinking to the kernel tree, but if it does, or you're not sure, do not touch the symlink.

Here is what Linus says about /usr/src/linux symlinks
http://www.linuxmafia.com/faq/Kernel...x-symlink.html

[Dapper Dan]

Hi valan. I was just going partially by what I thought was a pretty good "How To" I found here. Look under, "Time for a new kernel."

So if it is not a good idea to delete the present /usr/src/linux, and create a new symlink to the new kernel, should you then start from within the new kernel itself?

[valan]

So if it is not a good idea to delete the present /usr/src/linux, and create a new symlink to the new kernel, should you then start from within the new kernel itself?

Sorry, I don't think I understand your question. When I get a new kernel, I copy it to /usr/src and untar it there, it makes it's own directory. From there, just cd to it and start doing the make things.

[Dapper Dan]

You essentially answered it. After untarring and cd'ing to it is the same as what I was suggesting. I don't really understand why everything I see and read seems to point to creating the new symlink in the first place. When I was using Gentoo, I read somewhere about doing the same thing, making a new symlink and all. Anyway, creating a new symlink had no adverse effects on my system. Everything seems to be working as expected.

[bignester]

Ok I think this is wierd but I know there is an answer for this. The reason why my comp wouldnt boot is because the new kernel was mounting the sata harddrives under hde and hdg not sda and sdb. The kernel Im talking about is 2.6.7 that comes with slack 10.1. anyone know why, what modules where compiled into the kernel to get this result.

[Dapper Dan]

I thought 2.6.7 was the "testing" kernel in 10.0. I believe the testing kernel in 10.1 is 2.6.10. Could you have possibly gotten your 10.0 and 10.1 cd's mixed up while trying to install? That might create the problem you are having...

[bignester]

no i dont have a 10.0 cd unless the 10.1 iso's I burned are 10.0 but I got the iso's throught a 4 day download of bittorrent using the latest torrent download link. So I dont anyway it works but I just want to know why its mounting the drives as hde and hdg instead of sda and sdb. The Iso's are labeled 10.1 that I downloaded so I dont know also somthing weird with the ISO is my apache wasnt up to date could I have downloaded a 10.0 masqerading as a 10.1

thanx bignester

[Dapper Dan]

Put the first cd in your cdrom drive, then from the command line as root go:

mount /mnt/cdrom [enter]

cd /mnt/cdrom [enter]

ls [enter]

You should see something like this:

ANNOUNCE.10_0      COPYING            FAQ.TXT       README.TXT         Slackware-HOWTO  kernels
BOOTING.TXT        COPYRIGHT.TXT      FILELIST.TXT  RELEASE_NOTES      UPGRADE.TXT      rootdisks
CHECKSUMS.md5      CRYPTO_NOTICE.TXT  GPG-KEY       SPEAKUP_DOCS.TXT   bootdisks        slackware
CHECKSUMS.md5.asc  ChangeLog.txt      PACKAGES.TXT  SPEAK_INSTALL.TXT  isolinux

That's the contents of your Slackware cd 1. If you have 10.1, you will see "ANNOUNCE.10_1" as the first line instead of "ANNOUNCE.10_0 "

To unmount your cd 1, go:

umount /mnt/cdrom [enter]

That's umount, not unmount