Doofus wrote:
Now I'm bamboozled. If I compile a kernel using the identical .config
file that was used to compile the working and running kernel and it
won't boot properly, then my powers of fault finding dry up. I'd be
mightily grateful if anyone can give me any ideas as to where the
problem may lie, or other things to try.
If you're compiling the kernel The Debian Way(tm), then you're missing
one critical option:
--initrd
This option will create an initrd file which contains a whole lot of
kernel modules which may or may not be used on your system. This file
is loaded when booting the system. If the filesystem is specified as a
kernel module and you don't create a initrd file, then the kernel
modules are _not_ loaded on startup so the system does not know how to
read your filesystem.
In short, you have two options: create an initrd file with your kernel
or compile the options you want directly into the kernel (namely your
filesystem and IDE controller).