A difficult kernel question.

[MBMarduk]

I got a BAD issue with half-booting kernels on my laptop.
Funny thing: the kernels always boot fine on my workstation, but not the laptop.

The laptop works fine with the stock 2.2.19 Slackware kernel yet chokes horribly on all my custom 2.4.x kernels.
Sidenote: I compile on my standard box and 'dd' the kernel or copy the kernel by floppy to '/boot' on the laptop.

Here's how I compile:
I do 'make mrproper'
I choose 386 CPU family etc...simple stuff and NO modules; all monolithic.
make the bzImage, etc...

And I 'rdev' the bzImage to mount the right root partition on the 'top.

One time it answers upon boot:

".......a whole screenful of hex address codes, kinda like windows' "EIP, ABX" fatal exception 0E funky stuff.
and......."
Code: 39 7a 04 75 23 8b 02 89 03 85 c0 75 03 89 5e 04 52 a1 e0 eb
Kernel panic: Aiee, killing interrupt handler!
In interrupt handler - not syncing


Another kernel without APM support shows an endless column of:

CPU#0: Machine Check Exception: 0x 10C298 (type 0x 9).


Does anyone have any idea what this could mean or has any experience seeing something like this?

No response is too dumb people!
Tell me anything that comes to mind.
TIA :)
-Mike

[ 21 August 2001: Message edited by: MBMarduk ]

[dvdnut]

ketchup

[MBMarduk]

Originally posted by dvdnut:
<STRONG>ketchup</STRONG>

Yum!

[stiles]

If you kernels are smaller than 640k then try to make zImage. I've read that some laptop's BIOS doesn't like to load the kernel into high mem (bzImage is not a different compression, but is a different loading technique, it actually stands for big zImage). Does slak use zImage? Just a guess though.

[MBMarduk]

Originally posted by stiles:
<STRONG>If you kernels are smaller than 640k then try to make zImage. I've read that some laptop's BIOS doesn't like to load the kernel into high mem (bzImage is not a different compression, but is a different loading technique, it actually stands for big zImage). Does slak use zImage? Just a guess though.</STRONG>

Wow, I didn't know that. (Got a link maybe?)
So you're asking whether the standard Slack kernels are zImages instead of bzImages?
I wouldn't know, although I don't think so because zImages have become obsolete.
I'll try making one tho, and post back if it fails/works.
Thanx!

&lt;EDIT&gt; the kernels are between 741k and 785k. I'll try to aim for &lt;640k.

[ 21 August 2001: Message edited by: MBMarduk ]

[stiles]

just a note zImage will fail to load if &gt; 640k (it won't fit into convential memory).

I was just wondering if slack make their kernel as zImage (slack is known for doing somethings the older way).

[MandK_10]

Originally posted by dvdnut:
<STRONG>ketchup</STRONG>

Catsup!

[stiles]

link (http://www.linuxhq.com/kernel/v2.2/doc/kbuild/commands.txt.html) which comes from an older kernel's docs.

Note: the difference between 'zImage' files and 'bzImage' files is that
'bzImage' uses a different layout and a different loading algorithm,
and thus has a larger capacity. Both files use gzip compression.
The 'bz' in 'bzImage' stands for 'big zImage', not for 'bzip'!

[MBMarduk]

Gracias Stiles,
...update:

Root device is (3, 5)
Boot sector 512 bytes.
Setup is 4520 bytes.
System is 757 kB
System is too big. Try using bzImage or modules.
make[1]: *** [zImage] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/metalhed/usr/src/linux-2.4.9/arch/i386/boot'
make: *** [zImage] Error 2
root@hellreich:/usr/src/linux#

:D :) :( :mad: