Re: Kernel Panic: "initrd" ?
On Mon, Nov 21, 2005 at 12:15:11AM -0800, Alex Goldman wrote:
> On 11/20/05, Daniel Nilsson <daniel@oden.homeip.net> wrote:
> > The problem is that you are using the Debian kernel config without
> > builing an initrd, for that you need to supply --initrd as well as an
> > option to make-kpkg
>
>
> But isn't initrd already in 2.6.14.2 ? (That's what someone told me)
>
> Either way, isn't it risky to apply patches to kernel versions that do
> not match?
> {I tried to mention this in my OP, but was probably unclear}
I think you are confusing a couple of things here. Support for an
initial ramdisk has been in the kernel for a long time. What the
patches are referring to is the type of filesystem using on this
ramdisk. Debian by default uses cramfs for which there is support in
recent kernels such as 2.6.14.2. The patches are for adding support
for this specfic filesystem to the kernel, not for adding initrd
support. So no, you don't need to apply any patches to your 2.6.14.2
kernel at all.
> > fakeroot make-kpkg --revision=custom.1.0 --initrd kernel_image
>
> If I don't build the kernel "the Debian way", do I need to worry
> about these things? My understanding was that the problem was with the
> boot manager.
Yes, you still need to worry about these things unless you figure out
exactly which drivers need to be build statically into the kernel. If
you figure that out, you can live without an initrd. If you don't do
things the debian way you will need to worry about a few more things
as well, such as updating your boot manager after kernel
installation. make-kpkg does an excellent job if you supply the
--initrd flag.
>
> > The Debian configuration relies on being able to mount the initrd and
> > load modules from there in order to mount the root filesystem. It's
> > not enoug to just support the EXT2 filesystem statically in the
> > kernel, the kernel also need to find drivers for you harddrive (IDE,
> > SCSI etc).
>
> I haven't changed anything harddrive-related in the kernel. Perhaps
> 2.6.14.2's menuconfig failed to read in ".config" for version 2.6.8?
Probably not, the IDE drivers are built as modules in the Debian
2.6.8, included in the initrd, and then loaded from the initrd on
boot. Since you copied the config and didn't build the initrd at all
those modules are stored on the harddrive and therefore not accessible
at boot.
/Daniel
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