Arch Linux

lehm

Member

Registered: 2008-08-04

Posts: 10

[SOLVED]Blinking Caps lock LED

Hello,
I'm a linux noobie and I've only been using Archlinux for less than a week, I'm quite liking it.
The other day I was able to compile a xenomai patched and an unpatched 2.6.25 kernel that boots up.
I restarted from scratch again,(to get familiar with the process) reinstalled Archlinux, and then tried to compile my own kernel again, but this time I only get a flashing capslock LED and a blank screen. I tried numerous reconfiguration and recomplie but I still get the same. What does the blinking LED indicates?
I also get this with mkinitcpio:
tho I think it's not needed since I configure the drivers to be in the kernel.

:: Begin build
ERROR: module 'pata[-_]sis' not found
ERROR: module 'ata[-_]generic' not found
ERROR: module 'scsi[-_]mod' not found
ERROR: module 'ide[-_]disk' not found

I added the ide_disk, the last time I was able to compile It couldn't see the disk.
tia.

EDIT:
compilation is on P4 asus mobo.

Last edited by lehm (2008-08-05 04:58:50)

fwojciec

Member

Registered: 2007-05-20

Posts: 1,411

Re: [SOLVED]Blinking Caps lock LED

The blinking leds indicate kernel panic.  Something is wrong with your kernel configuration.  Try using the default Arch kernel configuration and just add/change what it is that you need.  Afterwards you can play with removing what is not necessary, but most stuff in the default kernel is compiled as modules and is only loaded when needed so the benefits of a highly customized kernel are negligible.

lehm

Member

Registered: 2008-08-04

Posts: 10

Re: [SOLVED]Blinking Caps lock LED

thanks It's recompiling as I type this, I copied Kconfig to .config, and just changed one item in menuconfig and we'll see what happened in a few minutes

lehm

Member

Registered: 2008-08-04

Posts: 10

Re: [SOLVED]Blinking Caps lock LED

Still no luck, same result, I think I may have forgotten to enable ext3fs support, during configuration( my disk is ext3 on sdb1, I have 2 physical diskdrives). I'm doing another try.

fwojciec

Member

Registered: 2007-05-20

Posts: 1,411

Re: [SOLVED]Blinking Caps lock LED

If you're compiling sata/ata and filesystem stuff as modules then you have to use mkinitcpio to generate boot image, like the default Arch kernel does, I think.  Otherwise you could compile them directly into the kernel (i.e. not as modules).

lehm

Member

Registered: 2008-08-04

Posts: 10

Re: [SOLVED]Blinking Caps lock LED

I did make use of mkinitcpio, I eliminated a couple of errors, but still got these:

ERROR: module 'pata[-_]sis' not found
ERROR: module 'ata[-_]generic' not found
:: Parsing hook [base]
:: Parsing hook [udev]
:: Parsing hook [autodetect]
:: Parsing hook [pata]
ERROR: module 'sd[-_]mod' not found
:: Parsing hook [scsi]
ERROR: module 'sd[-_]mod' not found
:: Parsing hook [keymap]
:: Parsing hook [filesystems]
:: Generating module dependencies
:: Dry run complete, use -g IMAGE to generate a real image

I generated the image anyway, and edited grub to add initrd.
Is there a way to extrac the original Kconfig file from the CD, I think I may have corrupted the original, I mean it's not original anymore

tia

EDIT:
btw, my disks are IDE's (pata?)

Last edited by lehm (2008-08-04 19:51:42)

fwojciec

Member

Registered: 2007-05-20

Posts: 1,411

Re: [SOLVED]Blinking Caps lock LED

You can always get the configuration of the running kernel by doing:

zcat /proc/config.gz > .config

Or just copy the .config file from here.

hippojazz

Member

Registered: 2008-08-04

Posts: 3

Re: [SOLVED]Blinking Caps lock LED

how do you use mkinitcpio?

I had the same errors yesterday when using mkinitcpio

I had been using
mkinitcpio -k kernel_file
instead of
mkinitcpio -k kernel_version

where kernel_version is the appropriate directory name in /lib/modules

I don't assume you're as ignorant of mkinitcpio as I am, but it's worth checking that you've installed your modules to the same location as you're telling mkinitcpio

lehm

Member

Registered: 2008-08-04

Posts: 10

Re: [SOLVED]Blinking Caps lock LED

fwojciec:
zcat didn't work for me, telling me  .config is a directory, I did get the config now from repo, and reconfiguring, didn't really touch anything just launched menuconfig and saved. I'm going to try if I could boot an unpatched build.

hippojazz:
Yes I did point it to my own kernel version, I had directories in lib/modules, and I used the one that created by my installation (aka PKGBUILD)
EDIT: I am probably more ignorant than you are about mknitcpio, I'm just trying anything, and watch what happen.
the good thing is I could still boot from the original kernel, and have access to the net.

thanks.

EDIT2:
unpatched version works out ok, I'm posting from within the kernel I just compiled.
next step is the rt patched...

Last edited by lehm (2008-08-04 23:53:50)

lehm

Member

Registered: 2008-08-04

Posts: 10

Re: [SOLVED]Blinking Caps lock LED

Patched version boots up ok now, it took a while to compile, but all seems well.
Now I just have to remove one module at time that I won't be needing.
It's gonna be a good learning process.

Thanks for the help.

meti

Member

Registered: 2009-07-22

Posts: 6

Re: [SOLVED]Blinking Caps lock LED

@lehm

I am new user to archlinux. I wanted to install xenomai on archlinux on kernel 2.6.34.5. I have kernel 2.6.35.8 currently. I wanted to build the 34.5 kernel and make it bootable first. SO i followed the instructions at

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ke … rom_Source

i.e extract package
    make menuconfig
    make
    edit the grub

But i couldn't have it working. Can you tell me the steps u followed.
tnx

Inxsible

Forum Fellow

From: Chicago

Registered: 2008-06-09

Posts: 9,183

Re: [SOLVED]Blinking Caps lock LED

Please don't resurrect 2 year old posts. Start a new one and link to this one.

Closing...

---

Forum Rules

There's no such thing as a stupid question, but there sure are a lot of inquisitive idiots !