/var/log/kern.log is almost empty

[David Wright <d.wright@open.ac.uk>]

I've been trying to get pcmcia going in a Gateway solo 2500 laptop (and
have now succeeded merely by compiling 3.0.5) so I wanted to read things
out of /var/log/kern.log. I noticed, however, that it's almost empty, and
has been since I compiled the laptop's kernel. I do get the PCMCIA Card
Services information, but almost nothing else.

Yet my desktop machines all give me a comprehensive log right from the
moment they boot (i.e. starting with
    Loaded 3629 symbols from /boot/System.map-2.0.34
and containing most of the boot messages that people are always trying
to scroll back on VC1).

Any ideas what's causing this? The configurations are all so similar
that I can't think where to start looking. For example, they all run
    kernel-source-2.0.34 2.0.34-4
    sysklogd 1.3-26
    /etc/sysklogd as per the deb file
    kernel-package 4.11
    booting from a dos partition via loadlin using a copy of
        /boot/vmlinuz-2.0.34

Differences include
    / is one partition on the laptop, /var is in another partition
        with /tmp and /home on my desktops.
    minor kernel config differences (-desktop, +laptop):

+CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEFLOPPY=y

-CONFIG_SCSI=y
-CONFIG_BLK_DEV_SD=y
+CONFIG_SCSI=m
+CONFIG_BLK_DEV_SD=m

-CONFIG_CHR_DEV_SG=y
+CONFIG_CHR_DEV_SG=m

-CONFIG_SCSI_NCR53C8XX=y
-CONFIG_SCSI_NCR53C8XX_NVRAM_DETECT=y
-CONFIG_SCSI_NCR53C8XX_MAX_TAGS=4
-CONFIG_SCSI_NCR53C8XX_SYNC=5

-CONFIG_NET_VENDOR_3COM=y
-CONFIG_EL3=m

+CONFIG_HPFS_FS=m
+CONFIG_APM_POWER_OFF=y

Cheers,

-- 
Email:  d.wright@open.ac.uk   Tel: +44 1908 653 739  Fax: +44 1908 655 151
Snail:  David Wright, Earth Science Dept., Milton Keynes, England, MK7 6AA
Disclaimer:   These addresses are only for reaching me, and do not signify
official stationery. Views expressed here are either my own or plagiarised.