compiling a 2.6.x kernel

[Kurt Wall]

In a 1.8K blaze of typing glory, Net Llama! wrote:
> On Mon, 16 Aug 2004, Kurt Wall wrote:
> > In a 1.2K blaze of typing glory, Net Llama! wrote:
> > > On 08/16/2004 08:04 PM, Kurt Wall wrote:
> > > >In a 0.6K blaze of typing glory, M.W. Chang wrote:
> > > >
> > > >>># make by itself or make all compiles everything, modules included
> > > >>>if make -j3 all modules_install
> > > >>
> > > >>thanks.
> > > >>
> > > >>I noticed that under Novell SuSe 9.1, I must run mkinitrd after building
> > > >>the kernel or the system would have a kernel panic during boot-up. Is it
> > > >>reallky mandatory for 2.6 kernel?
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >Yes, if you have modules on the file system that the kernel needs to
> > > >boot, like file system or SCSI support. It's rather difficult to boot
> > > >from, say, an XFS file system if your kernel does not have XFS file
> > > >system support built-in *and* the initrd does not have an XFS module. ;-)
> > >
> > > That's not true.  I never use an initrd, and boot XFS filesystems all
> > > the time.
> >
> > That's a heckuva trick, booting from a file system your kernel doesn't
> > support. How does the kernel know how to read the file system to mount
> > root, then? Sure, you can boot the kernel, but it will panic because
> > it can't mount the RFS. So, you either have to have XFS support compiled
> > into the kernel (what I do here) or it has to live in an initrd.
> 
> 
> Re-read what you wrote originally.  You claimed that the kernel needed to
> have XFS support compiled in  *AND* the initrd had to have an xfs module.
> I stated that both are not required, only one.

What I wrote is accurate; it doesn't imply that one needs both. Rather,
I noted that if both the stated conditions are true, that is,

1) if the kernel does not have XFS compiled in and 
2) if the initrd does not have XFS support, 
then you can't boot from XFS. 

We're not disagreeing about the fact: you need static or initrd support
for the root FS. We're simply disagreeing about the plain meaning of what
I wrote. :-)

Kurt
-- 
... at least I thought I was dancing, 'til somebody stepped on my hand.
	-- J. B. White