Fedora Core 4, new kernel endeavor. Bug? How to work-around?

[Barry L. Bond]

Greetings!

     I want to do things properly, even though I am rushed, so I am asking
for other people's opinions and assistance to assure that I do the right
thing.

     Here's the highlights...

     I just installed Fedora Core 4.  I am booting off a SCSI disk, and
the Fedora Core (2.6.11) kernel *is* booting and working (after about a
week) perfectly, so far as I know at the moment.

     However, I need a new kernel.  I have a Cyclades 16-port serial card,
and I have many devices throughout the house (terminals, a weather station,
X-10 power controller, a UPS that communicates to two computers through
one of the serial connections, etc.) that I need to get working again as
quickly as possible.

     I wasn't extremely surprised that I was unable to compile the FC4
kernel sources -- even without making a single change!  But, as I've done
in the past, I got the 2.6.13 kernel off www.kernel.org, and I made my
kernel and it compiled on the first try.

     However, I was used to LILO, and now I have GRUB.  GRUB does seem to
be an improvement over LILO, so I don't mind learning it.

     I have been unable to boot off my new kernel.  (But, I just have the
FC4 kernel still there, and I am able to boot off it, and be just fine
again, if [whew!] the new one panics.)

     I'm having trouble with mkinitrd.  The FC4 kernel has aic7xxx as a
module.  My new kernel, I am including the new aic7xxx driver, included in
the kernel.  (It is a check mark, instead of a dot.)

     I am unable to just run mkinitrd -f /boot/initrd-2.6.13.img 2.6.13,
but I am able to run it with certain additional options (--builtin=aic7xxx
works, --omit-scsi-modules works, etc.).  However, my new kernel always
panics, after what looks like a very promising start (a penguin in the
upper-left-hand corner of the monitor, and the normal boot kernel and
initrd messages, etc.).

     The two messages I've seen (at the kernel panic) so far are:

mkrootdev:  label /1 not found

     ...and...

mount: error 6 mounting ext3

     I have been googling and I have tried various things, and I'm not
there yet.  (You can see it's quite, well, now EARLY on Saturday morning,
and I do need to get to bed!)

     I see it *may* be a bug or a "glitch" but not I'm not positive.  (For
example, the Digital Hermit - Kernel-Build-HOWTO says on page 13 "At this
writing there are some issues with the modules.conf when moving from 2.4
to 2.6 kernels.  Some module names have changed which seem to cause
glitches with initrd."  My modules.conf file does have "alias
scsi_hostadapter aic7xxx" in it...)

     Yes, I need this quickly.  But, I also want to assure that I do
things correctly.

     If someone can give me a suggestion on what, specifically, to run, I
will GLADLY do that, and I'll do my best to get you the output of the
command, and tell you what goes on as I try them.

     Whatever questions you have, ask them, and I'll do my best to answer!
(I am so beyond tired, I'm just not thinking very clearly.  I've been up
almost 24 hours.)

     Thank you!

     Barry

-- 
Barry L. Bond                     | http://home.cfl.rr.com/os9barry/
Software Engineer, ITT Industries | (My personal home web page, last
                                  | updated February 17, 2005)
                                  |
bbond at cfl.rr.com <- personal      |  Re-Vita Products:
Barry.Bond at ITT.com <- Work ONLY   |  http://www.re-vita.net/barrybond
                                  |  Re-Vita Distributor Information
Home office:  407-382-2815        |  http://www.re-vita.net/barrybond-2
Work:         321-494-5627        |  Toll free order:  1-888-820-5531