Arch Linux

berit

Member

Registered: 2008-04-18

Posts: 6

[solved, mostly] kernel 2.6.25 no .img?

Hi everyone,

In trying to solve my issues with my computer freezing randomly when the network is being used, I considered it may be the kernel 2.6.24, since others who have complained about freezing have suggested that may be the source of the problem.  So I've followed the Wiki article http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ker … rom_Source to get the package made.

The only change I made to the wiki procedure was to use the directory /arch/x86_64/boot to get bzImage.  Everything compiled and installed fine, and I see the following files in /boot:

System.map26-rigel
kconfig26-rigel
vmlinuz26-rigel

There appears to be no kernel26-rigel.img, and booting with the line initrd /kernel26.img fails.  Booting without the initrd line fails too.  Is there something more I'm supposed to do to install a custom kernel that isn't in the wiki guide?

Last edited by berit (2008-04-19 18:45:45)

brain0

Developer

From: Aachen - Germany

Registered: 2005-01-03

Posts: 1,382

Re: [solved, mostly] kernel 2.6.25 no .img?

mkinitcpio -k 2.6.25-rigel -g /boot/kernel26-rigel.img

or maybe similar.

bender02

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2007-02-04

Posts: 1,328

Re: [solved, mostly] kernel 2.6.25 no .img?

If you don't use any special hooks in initramfs (like resume or encrypt), then you can just compile all the needed drivers into your kernel (ie not as modules), and just boot without any initcpio. This is the approach I prefer - since the only reasons for having initramfs at all are
1) default kernel needs to boot on every system and we don't want to have everything *in* the kernel
2) resume and encrypt (needs to have access to the key so that it can decrypt root partition).

berit

Member

Registered: 2008-04-18

Posts: 6

Re: [solved, mostly] kernel 2.6.25 no .img?

Thanks, I just found that too.  It was buried in the 'Manual method', which I had glossed over since I was using makepkg instead.  Still doesn't help, though-- this is the error it gives me on boot:

Attempting to create root device '/dev/sda6'
ERROR: Failed to parse block device name for '/dev/sda6'
unknown
Error: root fs cannot be detected.  Try using the rootfstype= kernel paramter.

Root device '/dev/sda6' doesn't exist, attempting to create it
ERROR: Failed to parse block device name for '/dev/sda6'
ERROR: Unable to create/detect root device '/dev/sda6'
Dropping to a recover shell... type 'exit' to reboot
NOTE: klibc contains no 'ls' binary, use 'echo *' instead

If the device '/dev/sda6'  gets created while you are here,
try adding 'rootdelay=8' or higher to the kernel command-line
ramfs$

Unfortunately from here, there is no response from the keyboard to the system.  I can only hard-reboot to get out.  The original kernel, still installed of course, still works fine, and everything boots up normally.

Pertinent info from /boot/grub/menu.lst:

# (0) Arch Linux
title  Arch Linux
root   (hd0,4)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda6 ro
initrd /kernel26.img

...

# (3) Arch with Rigel kernel
title  Arch Linux - Rigel Kernel
root   (hd0,4)
kernel /vmlinuz26-rigel root=/dev/sda6 ro
initrd /kernel26-rigel.img

berit

Member

Registered: 2008-04-18

Posts: 6

Re: [solved, mostly] kernel 2.6.25 no .img?

If I remove the initrd line, I get this error:

List of all partitions:
0100      16384 ram0 (driver?)
...
010f      16284 ram15 (driver?)
No filesystem could mount root, tried:
Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0)

berit

Member

Registered: 2008-04-18

Posts: 6

Re: [solved, mostly] kernel 2.6.25 no .img?

Ok, I found the issue, though I don't understand why it's necessary to have the .img to boot:

I had done mkinitcpio -k rigel -g ...
instead of mkinitcpio -k 2.6.25-rigel -g ...

The new kernel now boots fine.  Next I see if it solves the freezing issues.  Thank you very much for the help!

bender02

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2007-02-04

Posts: 1,328

Re: [solved, mostly] kernel 2.6.25 no .img?

I think that both problems are related to not having the right drivers available. In the first case, the modules should be in the initcpio; in the second case (without initrd line) they should be compiled into the kernel. Depending on what kind of hard drive controller you have, you need to include the right modules (sata? pata? ...). Have a look at your default working configuration to determine that.

EDIT: too late... good that you solved the issue!

Last edited by bender02 (2008-04-19 18:47:20)

bender02

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2007-02-04

Posts: 1,328

Re: [solved, mostly] kernel 2.6.25 no .img?

Ok, I found the issue, though I don't understand why it's necessary to have the .img to

I explained it above: You need to have drivers for your hd and root filesystem in kernel before init tries to mount it. Now if those are compiled as modules (ie they're not *in* the kernel), the system needs to load them before it can mount root filesystem and continue booting. The thing used for this is exactly .img file (called initramfs or initcpio).

So: if you compile all necessary drivers *into* the kernel, you don't need initcpio. Since you are recompiling kernel anyway, it's pretty easy to achieve this.