Building a kernel from source on RH9

[Barry Gamblin]

|> 
|> On Fri, 2005-01-07 at 11:29 -0700, Barry Gamblin wrote:
|> > I am trying to build the 2.4.28 kernel from source downloaded from 
|> > kernel.org on a RH9 system. I need to do this because fedora-legacy
|> > has not released a kernel that fixes the latest ELF load 
|> > vulnerability.
|> >  
|> > I've run the make commands
|> > 
|> > make xconfig
|> > make clean
|> > make bzImage
|> > make modules
|> > make modules_install
|> > 
|> > I copied the bzImage file to /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.28 and the 
|> > vmlinux file 
|> > to /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.28. I ran /sbin/new-kernel-pkg --mkinitrd 
|> > 2.4.28.
|> > I added a stanza into /etc/grub.conf to load the new kernel.
|> 
|> Is the above a typo? You copied bzImage and vmlinux to the same file?

Yes I made a typo. I copied bzImage to /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.28smp and 
vmlinux to /boot/vmlinux-2.4.28smp.


|> 
|> > But the system won't boot the new kernel. It gets to the point 
|> > where
|> > it is trying to mount the / filesystem and panics.
|> 
|> You could try posting your grub.conf and the specific error message 
|> you
|> are getting and see if anyone here can help...
|> 
|> -- 
|> C. Linus Hicks <lhicks at nc dot rr dot com>
|> 


Here is /etc/grub.conf:

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this 
file
# NOTICE:  You have a /boot partition.  This means that
#          all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
#          root (hd0,2)
#          kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hda5
#          initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hda3
default=3
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,2)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.20-37.9.legacysmp)
        root (hd0,2)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.20-37.9.legacysmp ro root=LABEL=/ 
hdc=ide-scsi apic
        initrd /initrd-2.4.20-37.9.legacysmp.img
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.20-37.9.legacy)
        root (hd0,2)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.20-37.9.legacy ro root=LABEL=/ hdc=ide-scsi 
apic
        initrd /initrd-2.4.20-37.9.legacy.img
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.20-31.9)
        root (hd0,2)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.20-31.9 ro root=LABEL=/ hdc=ide-scsi apic
        initrd /initrd-2.4.20-31.9.img
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.20-31.9smp)
        root (hd0,2)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.20-31.9smp ro root=LABEL=/ hdc=ide-scsi apic
        initrd /initrd-2.4.20-31.9smp.img
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.28smp)
        root (hd0,2)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.28smp ro root=LABEL=/ hdc=ide-scsi apic
        initrd /initrd-2.4.28smp.img


The last couple of lines I get during boot are:

VFS: Cannot open root device :LABEL=/" or 00:00
Please append a correct "root=" boot option
Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 00:00

I can boot the 2.4.20-37.9.legacysmp kernel just fine.

Barry