aic7xx system hangs

[Timothy Murphy]

Jeremy Conlin wrote:

>> If you upgraded from FC-1 as you said
>> then the kernel you were using in FC-1 should still be in /boot
>> and should still work.
>> In my case the old kernel was listed by grub,
>> together with the new kernel (which did not work).
>> Doesn't grub give you a choice of kernels?
> 
> I upgraded from RH 9 and I did not see the old kernel listed in grub.

During the upgrade you would have been asked
if you wanted to "upgrade the bootloader"
with the recommendation that you should do that.
There were also a couple of other options.
Maybe you chose one of the other options.

>> As I said, in my opinion the best solution in the long run
>> is to compile the kernel with the aic7xxx driver in the kernel
>> rather than in a module.
> 
> Is that the default way the kernel is compiled?  If not, how can I
> ensure that it is in the kernel and not in a module?

No, in distribution kernels any SCSI driver would normally be in a module.
This is because the kernel is intended for use
on a huge range of machines,
and if all possible drivers were in the kernel
it would become excessively large.

If and when you do compile a kernel,
you start by saying "make xconfig" or "make menuconfig"
and you are then offered a bewildering list of drivers.
For each one you can either omit it, or include it in the kernel,
or compile it as a module.

In my view compiling a kernel is not as difficult as it sounds.
However, it may not be essential in your case.

But you should have the old kernel that works, in /boot :
"cd /boot; ls".
In that case you could add the old kernel to /etc/grub.conf ,
imitating the entry for the new kernel.
Grub should then list it when you boot,
and you should have a working system.

-- 
Timothy Murphy  
e-mail (<80k only): tim /at/ birdsnest.maths.tcd.ie
tel: +353-86-2336090, +353-1-2842366
s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland