I'm using debian woody. Been compiling kernels since quite many years on Slack, RH and Mandrake. It's very few times I have completely been successful booting with the compiled kernel in debian (Have used sarge too).
Past few days I have been sitting just compiling and re-compiling various kernels, all except 2.4.18 have failed to boot. Some don't compile and give errors, others mostly have a problem with initrd image anf get stuck saying VFS: Cannot open root device "" or 03:06 Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 03:06
Looks like the HA driver module the boot drive is attached to is missing in initrd. A misconfigured LILO may also be the cause.
I've compiled morre than four 2.4.x kernels, one 2.6.0 and three 2.2.x kernels, some with and without patches too, these last few days I've been compiling. I'm not concluding anything but really wondering how people really compile.
I would recommend trying a pristine 2.4.25 Kernel from kernel.org first. Patches can always be applied later. Then rebuild. Center on booting an unmodified Kernel, then reconfigure, then patch. Better to start with the least complex option, I guess. Always keep working Kernel packages as a backup.
For the same reason I'd start with a static Kernel. Apart from being more secure, it is easier to build. And disable everything you don't absolutely need to get the machine up and running. Bells and whistles can always be added later. Switch to modules when the static Kernel runs stable.
I do not know C or C++. I'm no programmer.
You don't need to have to. Compiling a Kernel requires no programming skills. Albeit they may be helpful, though.
There's only one time I was successful in making initrd work in 2.4.18, in others I just could not. What am I doing wrong? I'm nearly tired of compiling but I can't do without linux and I have read the howtos and other docs many times. Wierd for me.
Have a look at the packages build-essential and kernel-package. The following works for me on a Debian stable:
cd /usr/src/linux/ make menuconfig make-kpkg clean make-kpkg --revision <revision> --append_to_version -<appendix> \ kernel-image cd ..
After that, the image is installed with "dpkg -i <kernel-image>".
Good luck!
-- Bye, Kai
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