Kernel won't boot

[Evil Jeff]

Hey all, compiled my first kernel today, the new 2.4 test 10, and I can't get it to boot. Used the nhf to do it, didn't get any error messages during the compile, edited my lilo.conf, ran lilo with no error messages, did everything.

However, can't seem to boot it up. Lilo says it's uncompressing the kernel, booting the kernel, then it just hangs. Can't even control alt delete out of it. Just freezes. Anyone know what I might be doing wrong?

Evil Jeff
www.hellincorporated.com (http://www.hellincorporated.com)

[Gweedo]

Here is a way to see if it is a problem with lilo or with the kernel compilation.

do a

make bzdisk

Have a floppy in the floppy drive

Boot of the floppy and see if it still locks. If it does not lock, then something wrong in lilo. If it does then try to recompile the kernel.

Simple compile version: (what I do)

cd /usr/src/linux (assume 2.4 kernel installed)
make mrpoper
make xconfig
make dep
make bzImage
make modules
make modules_install

or type

make dep && bzImage && modules && modules_install

then move your bzImage (rename to something like linus-2.4) to boot area. move system.map to boot area

finally make reference to bzImage (linus-2.4) in lilo

------------------
Dubbie..Dubbie..Do..
Watch out.. or the Penguin will get You ;)

[irlandes]

Originally posted by Evil Jeff:
Hey all, compiled my first kernel today, the new 2.4 test 10, and I can't get it to boot. Used the nhf to do it, didn't get any error messages during the compile, edited my lilo.conf, ran lilo with no error messages, did everything.

However, can't seem to boot it up. Lilo says it's uncompressing the kernel, booting the kernel, then it just hangs. Can't even control alt delete out of it. Just freezes. Anyone know what I might be doing wrong?

Evil Jeff
www.hellincorporated.com (http://www.hellincorporated.com)

I certainly have no desire to offend someone who may be more knowledgeable about Linux than I am. But, in my work as a Senior Technician, I always tried to review the simplest things before getting into the hard stuff.

So, I would like to ask, did you give the kernel anything to run? A kernel alone, with no root filesystem, will normally do exactly what you described.

My work has been with mini-linux on floppies, and if you boot on a kernel and do not have the root system properly loading, it does EXACTLY just what you described. It took me several months of cussin' and fussin' to get beyond this stage. http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/biggrin.gif

Sorry if this is not appropriate to your circumstances. My e-mail is irlandes@attglobal.net if you wish, since my odds of finding this thread again are slim, and on Monday will be traveling for several days.