Building a custom Redhat kernel

[Collins Richey]

On 12/11/05, David Bandel <david.bandel at gmail.com> 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).
>
> 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 == /.
>

1. The problem is not grub vs. lio, but disk labels. Just use 'tune2fs
-L xxxxxxx to set the disk label for each partition to the names in
the /etc/fstab lines. For example, on our systems at work 'tune2fs -L
/boot  /dev/sda1', 'tune2fs -L /  /dev/sda1', etc.

2. Is your system actual scsi or SATA based? We discovered when
generating a custom kernel at work, that it does not work to build in
the SATA modules. We had to generate these as modules and then
'mkinitrd ,<ick-a-name-for-the-output> <kernelname>.

HTH,

--
Collins Richey
      Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code ... If you write
      the code as cleverly as possible, you are, by definition, not
      smart enough to debug it.
             -Brian Kernighan