initrd kernel-image compilation

["Carlo U. Segre" <segre@iit.edu>]

Hello All:

I sent a mail about this to the user list some time ago and I did not get
an answer which helped.

I have been having a problem successfully compiling and booting custom
initrd kernels.

I have compiled many custom kernels in non-initrd mode but since things
are moving toward initrd in 2.4.x, I wanted to be able to make a kernel
which boots in this way.  Here is the procedure that I used:

1. get the 2.4.18 kernel tarball from kernel.org

2. copy the /boot/config-2.4.18 from the stock kernel which is installed
on the machine.

3. apply the openmosix patch

4. run make menuconfig to configure openmosix

5. build the package using make-kpkg with the --initrd option

6. install the new kernel-image package

I check to see that there is an initrd image (there is) in the /boot
directory and just to be sure, I even mount it (-t cramfs) on /mnt to make
sure that it is properly populated (it seems to be just about like the
stock initrd image).  LILO is properly set up and points to the new
initrd.img link but when I reboot, there is a kernel panic when the root
cannot be mounted.  The message refers to device 03:01, which I suppose is
/dev/hda1.

When I test the custom kernel with rdev, it returns /dev/hda1 but when I
test the stock kernel it returns 0x3a05, which I don't really unserstand.
Anyway, I even tried
	rdev -o 508 vmlinuz 58:05
so that rdev now returns 0x3a05 like the stock kernel, but the same kernel
panic occurs.

I am sure that there is some really simple thing that I am not doing
right, any suggestions?

Please cc me since I read the list archive and I would like to try any
suggestions soon.

Cheers,

Carlo

-- 
Carlo U. Segre -- Professor of Physics
Illinois Institute of Technology
Voice: 312.567.3498            Fax: 312.567.3494
Carlo.Segre@iit.edu    http://www.iit.edu/~segre