Building a custom Redhat kernel

[Bruce Marshall]

On Sunday 11 December 2005 08:43 am, David Bandel wrote:
> Folks,
>
> OK, I'm frustrated.
>
> I need to build a custom RH kernel (actually it's a Whitebox Linux 3.0
> distro).  Client insists on using this distro, but needs virtual
> servers (hence a patch).
>
> Problem:
> Original kernel is 2.6.9-smp-EL.  Patch only supports 2.6.12.4.
> Building 2.6.12.4 w/ or w/o patch results in kernel panic (I've tried
> initrd and compiling in required modules with the same results).
>

Just my two cents......

When the kernel went from 2.6.11 to 2.6.12   a lot changed somewhere....  and 
I had to throw a *lot* of stuff into initrd that wasn't there before.

Such as:

ohci-hcd uhci-hcd usbcore natsemi e1000 sd_mod scsi_mod ahci piix aic7xxx jbd 
ext3 usb_storage sd_mod

If the usb stuff wasn't in there then there would be no usb when the system 
got running.  Same for nic stuff.  If the nic modules weren't in initrd, 
there would be no networking.  Was really weird.

So you might investigate what might be missing out of initrd.  Compiling stuff 
into the kernel didn't seem to make much difference.







> Problem is use of GRUB (no LILO! not even as an option), and
> /etc/fstab and GRUB use of root=LABEL=/ nonsense.  I can't see how the
> system knows /dev/sda3 == /.
>
> Either there's a patch to the kernel to support this LABEL nonsense or
> a way to reconfigure to boot without it (although altering both the
> GRUB boot line and /etc/fstab only change where the system stops).
> But apparently, this is not as easy as would seem (and I can't seem to
> find a kernel patch for the LABEL stuff).
>
> Pointers appreciated.
>
> David A. Bandel
> --
> Focus on the dream, not the competition.
>             - Nemesis Air Racing Team motto
>
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