taking my first crack at kernel compilation

[ndelo]

Well, I've taken my first crack at compiling a kernel only to fail. The error message I get is "unable to mount root filesystem". I'm pretty familiar with my harware setup and read all the help sections for each module in make menuconfig, but am sure I must have missed something. My root fs is on reiserfs not ext2 if that helps. Do I need to compile support of reiserfs? Also, is it safe to just choose the defaults of make menuconfig; are they specific enough to your pc setup, or do you need go through and pick and choose each module for the new kernel to work properly? I did the general newbie-esq thing and skipped those options with I was not familiar with (those that told you to choose n if you are unsure) and chose thos that said choseing y will not hurt.


[This message has been edited by ndelo (edited 05 January 2001).]

[Strike]

Originally posted by ndelo:
My root fs is on reiserfs not ext2 if that helps. Do I need to compile support of reiserfs?
Yes, and you have to compile it INTO the kernel. Otherwise you will get the error you've been getting.

[ndelo]

Where or how do I add support for reiserfs? I looked under filesystems, but saw only VFAT, MSDOS, MINIX, etc. but no reiserfs. Am I looking in the wrong place, or am I looking in the right place but just failing to see the answer?

[twist]

afaik (as far as i know), reiser hasn't been merged into the kernel (yet). It's a patch that you need to apply to your kernel source.. you'll then see it.

go to www.freshmeat.net (http://www.freshmeat.net) and search for reiserfs. follow the README/INSTALL and you should be good to go.

[A_Lawn_GNOME]

Once you do patch it, you also have to turn on code maturity because reiser is still beta.

[ndogg]

Suggestion: make your root filesystem something like a 50-100 MB ext2 partition so that you can mount it with any 2.x kernel. It will make creating a rescue disk a little easier.

------------------
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http://ndogg.n3.net

[PLBlaze]

Point your favorite ftp client to ftp.namesys.com and go to 2.4 directory (i assume you compiling 2.4.0 kernel) and get the latest reiserfs patch for your kernel version...next you wnat to move to /usr/src and apply the patch by doing gzip -cd '/path-to-patch/name-of-the-patch' | patch -p1.Once you get it patched proceed to compile the kernel usual way,as Kadesh suggested turn the devel option...Hope this helps

[ndelo]

Worked like a charm! Thanks one and all. http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/smile.gif