kernel upgrade never works!!!!Need Intelligent help

[antitrustworthy]

I have tried several times to upgrade my Mandrake 8.0 kernel from 2.4.3 to 2.4.4. I have followed two different NHF's and the kernel's README. Nothing helps my problem. The kernel upgrade goes fine except after I reboot, nothing works anymore. My eth0, usb, and other things just do not work. I have tried modprobe, and it says that the modules cant be found. None of the documentation says anything about what to do after you reboot. Is everything supposed to just work automatically or am I supposed to do something they aren't telling me. I just want to know every detailed step of how to make my system work after I have upgraded the kernel. I want it to be just like it was before, except having the options I configured in the new kernel. Can anybody help with this?

[Dark Ninja]

L0L Ahhh...so someone is experiencing the same thing I did while trying to upgrade my kernel under Slackware. I have the EXACT same problem when trying to go to 2.4.x from any other kernel that is less than x. Hell, my keyboard doesn't even work. Anybody else have any answers?


Dark Ninja

[Craig McPherson]

I have tried modprobe, and it says that the modules cant be found.

Did you compile the modules? Did you remember to select them during kernel configuration, and did you remember to compile and install the modules as well as the kernel itself?

Check under /var/lib/<version> to make sure all the modules you compiled are there.

If you compiled something directly into the kernel that was previously a module, then you won't have to modprobe it anymore.

> My eth0

Did you compile the module for it? What module was it?

> usb

Can't help you there. Never even bothered trying to use any USB stuff in Linux.

> and other things

Specifically?

With so many things not working, it looks like you may have just forgotten to build and install the modules. You're also supposed to run "depmod -a" after booting a fresh kernel, but it looks like your modules aren't there at all. Check out /lib/modules and see what's there.

[antitrustworthy]

I followed this NHF to the "T": http://www.linuxnewbie.org/nhf/intel/compiling/kernel2.4upgrade.html
You can see exactly what I did by looking at it. I didnt add or skip any step. If you see something I need to do, tell me please.

[Craig McPherson]

What module are you trying to modprobe?

Have you looked under /lib/modules/<version> to make sure it's actually there?

[antitrustworthy]

I checked and all of the modules are there. However, I tried something else, too. I tried to completely reconfigure the kernel all over again and make everything a module. Instead of checking some of them as 'yes', I made everything a module. Everything went fine until reboot, now I have a kernel panic because it cant find the module to read the filesystem. Im getting more and more frustrated with this. Now I have to reinstall Mandrake. The whole reason I want to upgrade the kernel is to get my gamepads and iFeel mouse to work. this is more trouble than it's worth.

[Craig McPherson]

There's one thing you should ALWAYS do when testing out a new kernel:

Always configure your boot loader so that you can choose to boot into your OLD kernel as well as your new one.

If whatever document on kernel compiling you read didn't advise you to do that, send a nastygram to the author of said document. Tell him/her I told ya to. That's just basic safety: if the new kernel won't boot, you should have your bootloader set up so you can easily boot from your old kernel and try again.

You don't have to reinstall: boot your system from a boot disk/disc, or with loadlin.

Here's the easist way to get back into your system:

1. Boot from your installation CD.

2. There should be a prompt saying "if you don't know what to do here, just press enter" or something like that.

3. At that prompt, type "linux root=/dev/hdXX", specifying your correct root filesystem.

This will boot you into your Linux system using the kernel on the installation disc! Every Linux installation disc or boot floppy has a kernel on it, and you can use any kernel to boot any Linux system, even if the kernel isn't on the hard drive.

As was going to recommend you compile everything directly into the kernel instead of as modules. Give that a try, and it'll simplify things a bit.

[antitrustworthy]

Actually, I tried loading everything directly into the kernel the very first time I tried it. I didnt know what the modules did, so I chose that. It actually does the exact same thing. I dont know what to do. I have downloaded all of the utils I need to for the kernel. I have tried the tarball and a Mandrake 2.4.4 rpm package. It all does the same thing, no USB, no eth0, and no VFAT fs, among others. But those are the important ones I need. Thanks for the help, Craig.

[antitrustworthy]

Is there a way i can manually load the modules? All of them are there, but the system cant seem to find them. I tried the depmod -a thing you mentioned above. I didnt notice that doing anything. Modprobe \* doesnt really do anything either. Any help there?

[fow99]

Did you turn off those modules when configuring the new kernel?

[antitrustworthy]

Actually, I made sure that I had those on, because I am trying to make a USB mouse work that wont now. So I make sure I turn on the options for USB, HID, and I make sure I turn on other stuff I need like ethernet, joystick, and so on. It doesn't matter whether I make them modules or just say 'yes' to include them in the kernel itself. After I reboot, there is complete chaos.

[ahoyt]

Have you got the proper modutils version? The modules directory uses a different structure now, and an old version might not be able to find them.

Ardith

[ahoyt]

Oops, guess you do. Sorry, I didn't look real carefully at the kernel versions you were referring to. <g>

Ardith

[ahoyt]

Oops, guess you do. Sorry, I didn't look real carefully at the kernel versions you were referring to. <g>

Ardith

[Malakin]

maybe if you posted your whole /usr/src/linux/.config file we might be able to find some problems with it?

That NHF you linked to was specifically for Redhat 7.0, there are a bunch of steps in there you wouldn't want to do like downloading an older version of modutils then what comes with mandrake 8.0 for example.

What Craig McPherson said about adding a new boot loader option for your new kernel making sure you can still boot into your old one is very important.