Intermittent reboots between kernel versions

["Ogulla, Alphonse" <alphonse.a.ogulla@ksl.shell.com>]

Hi all.
I'm using Woody and kernel versions 2.4.18-686, 2.4.21 & 2.6.0. The system 
boots up and functions well when powering up from either of the 2.4 kernels 
but ocassionally fails to boot when changing from 2.6.0 to 2.4.21. In this 
case, the system fails to mount the root file system, culminating in a kernel 
panic. 

<start of error message>
EXT2-fs: ide0(3,1): couldn't mount because of unsupported optional features
(4).
cramfs: wrong magic
Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 03:01
<end of error message>

I however experience no problem when changing from 2.6.0 to 2.4.18-686 and in 
fact take advantage of restarting with 2.4.18-686 as a makeshift solution.  
In an attempt to find a lasting solution, I compiled kernel 2.6.0 again and 
this time enabled Ext2/3 extended attributes.  Its been just a day since 
putting the new 2.6.0 version into service and have so far not experienced 
the difficulty described above but on the other hand I'm not so sure if 
indeed I've come across the solution for the root cause of the problem. Any 
ideas?

Note that in getting kernel 2.6.0 to work, I had to install a newer version of 
e2fsprogs and replace modutils with module-init-tools. Could e2fsprogs be 
causing the problem?

Thanks & regards

-- 

Alphonse Ogulla
Nairobi, Kenya