Very Computer

I am just about at wits end with Slackware 3.3.  I am trying to set up a
box with kernel 2.0.30.  Here's the deal:

    P100
    64m ram
    Adaptec AHA2940 SCSI controller
    Fujitsu 4gig SCSI HD
    Toshiba SCSI CDROM

    It takes over an hour to recompile with:

        make dep; make clean; make; make modules; make modules_install;
make zlilo

I do the make zlilo to get a vmlinuz file to boot with loadlin.

Anyhow ... I just recompiled and get the following:

Partition check:
    sda: sda1 sda2 sda3
VFS:  Cannot open root device 03:42
Kernel panic:  VFS:  Unable to mount root fs on 03:42

I've been running Linux for 4 years and have set up a few boxes in my
day.  I've also recompiled kernels hundreds of times.  What I'm trying
to say is that I WENT THROUGH MAKE MENUCONFIG WITH A FINE-TOOTHED COMB!
I am at a coplete loss as to why I can't boot from my newly compiled
kernel.

Should I switch to RedHat?

Desperately ...

DT

Hi David...

Quote:

> I do the make zlilo to get a vmlinuz file to boot with loadlin.

Quote:

> Anyhow ... I just recompiled and get the following:

> Partition check:
>     sda: sda1 sda2 sda3
> VFS:  Cannot open root device 03:42
> Kernel panic:  VFS:  Unable to mount root fs on 03:42

> I've been running Linux for 4 years and have set up a few boxes in my
> day.  I've also recompiled kernels hundreds of times.  What I'm trying
> to say is that I WENT THROUGH MAKE MENUCONFIG WITH A FINE-TOOTHED COMB!

-It has nothing to do with Slackware !!!!! (They only deliver your basic
setup.)

FYI I am running Slackware on an AMD486DX2/66 with 32MByte RAM.
This thing has compiled all my kernel2 since 2.0.0 (now 2.0.31) in about
40 min.
The earlier kernels (1.2.x) were done in 20 min. or so.

Quote:> I am at a coplete loss as to why I can't boot from my newly compiled
> kernel.

> Should I switch to RedHat?

From Slackware you should take one of the boot/rootdisk sets. From the
setup program you might be able to make yourself a bootable floppy using
the supplied kernel.
From the setup program you might reinstall lilo and reconfigure it. !
Slackware is not that bad....

Why don't you use lilo for booting your old kernel.?

The problem might be misconfigured kernel, bootparameters or filesystem
error.
Doing this repair I would want an extra machine on which to prepair
a floppy with extra programs for diagnosis and cure.

Quote:

> Desperately ...

> DT

I'm not sure how this gets set in the kernel build procedure.  You can
easily check this by using the rdev command.  You cd to the dir. where
the new kernel is and say "rdev vmlinuz" (or whatever else the name of
your final kernel is).  You should get a line like this:

Root device /dev/hda2

or in your case, I think it will say /dev/hdb2.  You can change it by
saying "rdev vmlinux /dev/sda1", or replace the sda1 by whichever
partition you have your root file system on.  You should be able to
check this by running rdev on your currently running kernel.
     Dick Altenbern