Re: missing initrd image

[Shyamal Prasad <shyamal.prasad@sbcglobal.net>]

    "Matthew" == Matthew Bennett <bennettm@hotpop.com> writes:

    Matthew> Shyamal Prasad wrote:

    >> What are the contents of /etc/modules on your system. I suspect
    >> most of the errors you are seeing have to do with the contents
    >> of /etc/modules.conf

    Matthew> I gather /etc/modules is a list of modules to be loaded;

Hi Matthew,

Yes, it is a list of modules loaded during the boot process. If you
can read scripts look at the script /etc/init.d/modutils (and if you
understand the boot process, this is run as /etc/rcS.d/S20modutils).

    Matthew> is the problem that in trying to load these modules,
    Matthew> modprobe is following 'bad' entries in /etc/modules.conf?
    Matthew> I've pasted modules.conf at the bottom (stripped of most
    Matthew> comments)

I'm guessing here, but I suspect that is what is happening (since I
started using the Debian 2.4.x kernels I've hardly ever built a custom
kernel). I'd suggest you make a list of every module reported as
missing during the boot process and see if it matches a line in the
/etc/modules.conf file.

    >> How are you assigning IP addresses to your network
    >> interface. Is it via a DHCP server? If so, check to see it the
    >> DHCP query brought up the interface.

    Matthew> It's using DHCP. I'm not sure what you're saying I should
    Matthew> do, but I know the DHCP server is working for the name
    Matthew> I've assigned to the machine since it works when I boot
    Matthew> into Windows with the same name, and before I switched to
    Matthew> the new kernel, the network was fine.

I suspect you are missing something simple with the new kernel. Do you
know that the new kernel is finding the ethernet card? Check the
output of dmesg to see, for example, on my box:

~$ dmesg | grep eth0
eth0: VIA VT6102 Rhine-II at 0xe400, 00:50:2c:03:26:a8, IRQ 11.
eth0: MII PHY found at address 1, status 0x7829 advertising 01e1 Link 45e1.
eth0: Setting full-duplex based on MII #1 link partner capability of 45e1.

Or, just use ifconfig (as root, or you need to explicitly type
/sbin/ifconfig) and see if an ethernet card is listed.

If not, perhaps you need to add a module name to /etc/modules on start
up based on the hardware you have. The best way to find the name of
the module is to boot with the old kernel and look in dmesg for
identifying information. Using the new kernel try 'modprobe <module>'
to see if the ethernet card comes up (use /sbin/ifconfig to check,
look at dmesg output etc.).

If your ethernet card is up the most likely mistake you made while
configuring your kernel is leaving out the packet filter stuff that
dhclient needs. A quick Google search should find a lot of
references. Try running 'dhclient eth0' by hand to see what is going
on when DHCP runs. 

I've never used names to bind DHCP addresses to a specific machine,
but I suspect you should get a DHCP address in any case. See 'man
interfaces' and I believe you are looking for the "client"
specification for the name if you want to use the same machine name as
the Windows set up when getting your DHCP address.

All the stuff I'm saying are hints. Combined with man pages and
searching archives you should be able to get this working again. Good
luck. 

Cheers!
Shyamal