Difficulties with putting my new kernel up

[jimstapleton]

I just installed Gentoo, and recompiled my kernel so I could use apps that require kernel source to compile (and I'm on a notebook, so I want some things available).

I modified my grub.conf so it would give me the option of booting my new kernel, but that didn't show up, it still auto-booted to the old kernel (installed from the CD, everthing else I tried failed)

Next, since I had luck with it before on other linuxes, I tried lilo (I just had bad luck with *EVERYTHING* else)
it kept giving me an error about not being able to find device 801

So, I tried fiddling with grub some more, and I set it up to something that looks right, and tried reinstalling it, I booted to the live CD, mounted the root partition, changed to there, and chrooted:
livecd grub # mkdir /mnt/local
livecd grub # mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/local
livecd grub # mount /dev/sda3 /mnt/local/usr
livecd grub # cd /mnt/local
livecd grub # chroot .
livecd grub # grub-install /dev/sda
Could not find device for /boot: Not found or not a block device.
livecd grub # grub-install hd0
Could not find device for /boot: Not found or not a block device.
livecd grub # grub-install (hd0)
bash: syntax error near unexpected token `hd0'

livecd grub # grub --config-file=/boot/grub/grub.conf
grub> setup (hd0)

Error 12: Invalid device requested

grub> setup hd0

Error 11: Unrecognized device string

grub> setup (sda)

Error 23: Error while parsing number

grub> setup (/dev/sda)

Error 23: Error while parsing number

grub> setup /dev/sda

Error 11: Unrecognized device string




: Kernel Version: 2.6.17-gentoo-r4
: Kernel name/path: /boot/custom-kern-2006-08-17
: /boot is in the root partition (I know, a lot of people don't recommend it, but it's easier for me). "/" is /dev/sda1, which grub sees as (hd0)

: /boot contents:
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 27 Aug 17 19:08 System.map -> System.map-2.6.17-gentoo-r4
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 723499 Aug 17 19:08 System.map-2.6.17-gentoo-r4
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 1 Aug 15 15:28 boot -> .
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 512 Aug 17 20:22 boot.0800
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 512 Aug 18 03:34 boot.0801
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 23 Aug 17 19:08 config -> config-2.6.17-gentoo-r4
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 39464 Aug 17 19:08 config-2.6.17-gentoo-r4
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1491439 Aug 17 19:43 custom-kern-2006-08-17
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Aug 18 04:25 grub
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4035800 Feb 22 12:46 initramfs-genkernel-x86-2.6.15-gentoo-r5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1683424 Feb 22 12:43 kernel-genkernel-x86-2.6.15-gentoo-r5
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 24 Aug 17 19:08 vmlinuz -> vmlinuz-2.6.17-gentoo-r4
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1491439 Aug 17 19:08 vmlinuz-2.6.17-gentoo-r4

: /boot/grub contents:
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 30 Aug 18 04:09 device.map
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7956 Aug 18 04:18 e2fs_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7684 Aug 18 04:18 fat_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6996 Aug 18 04:18 ffs_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 15 Aug 15 15:54 glidevice.map
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 354 Aug 18 04:25 grub.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1624 Aug 18 04:18 grub.conf.sample
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 330 Aug 18 04:23 grub.conf~
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7028 Aug 18 04:18 iso9660_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8448 Aug 18 04:18 jfs_stage1_5
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Aug 15 15:54 menu.lst -> grub.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7188 Aug 18 04:18 minix_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 9396 Aug 18 04:18 reiserfs_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 33856 Aug 18 04:18 splash.xpm.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 512 Aug 18 04:18 stage1
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 104008 Aug 18 04:18 stage2
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 104008 Aug 15 15:54 stage2.old
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 104008 Aug 18 04:18 stage2_eltorito
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7272 Aug 18 04:18 ufs2_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6612 Aug 18 04:18 vstafs_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 9308 Aug 18 04:18 xfs_stage1_5

: grub.conf:
default 0
timeout 30
splashimage=(hd0,0)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz

title=Custom Kernel
root (hd0,0)
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/custom-kern-2006-08-17K

title=Original Kernel
root (hd0,0)
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/kernel-genkernel-x86-2.6.15-gentoo-r5 root=/dev/ram0 init=/linuxrc ramdisk=8192 real_root=/dev/sda1
initrd /boot/initramfs-genkernel-x86-2.6.15-gentoo-r5



Any suggestions? I'm in need of help here pretty badly.
Thanks,
-Jim

[sageman]

[jimstapleton]

so it should look like this:

[sageman]

You don't need to do grub-install after changing grub.conf, you know. Plus, it should be "grub-install /dev/sda1", I believe, since sda isn't a parition -- sda1 is.

Code is close, but you want to add a "root=/dev/sda1" onto the kernel line for your custom kernel, so it knows where the root directory is (that isn't the same as "root (hd0,0)").
_________________
Carlton Stedman
Gentoo Metalheads on Last.fm: http://www.last.fm/group/Gentoo+Metalheads

[cyrillic]

[jimstapleton]

Actually, I did need to reinstall grub because I had installed lilo.

I gave up on grub-install or the method of going through grub, and did the manul method of catting the grub loader that lilo backed up into /dev/sda (btw, booting from the MBR and not the first partition)

Anyway. I found out a lot of my problems stemmed from having a 1.5MB kernel. I tried to make a ramdisk image and use that, but it kept giving me a "VFS: cannot read device (100)" error, and then panic during boot. After having tried for several hours with no luck, I figured I really screwed something up (although I could boot from the original kernel again, got it to work in both lilo and grub, whichever I decided to use). But, since nothing I could do would get the new kernel running, I just went back and did a clean install, since that was recommended, and this time I have a /boot partition, 64MB.