Can't boot Slackware 11 - sda/hda confusion?
in [Slackware]
|
Prev: 2nd hard drive
Next: gtk-gnutella
From: Robert Glueck on 18 Sep 2006 21:49 Douglas Mayne wrote: [snip] > I may have initially given you bad advice, due to recent changes in how > the Slackware kernel is being configured by default. For older 2.6.x > kernels, I think your laptop needs the ahci and ata_piix modules to work. > For newer kernels, such as > http://www.slackware.at/data/slackware-current/extra/linux-2.6.17.13/ > > The kernel might work "out of the box" (based on looking at the config > file.) > > Sorry for my earlier mistake. > Hi Doug. Am I to conclude from your comment that you agree that the current Slackware 11 default kernel ("sata.i" kernel, v.2.4.33.3) is probably not the proper kernel for my very recent vintage laptop, and that I should rather install v.2.6.17.13? According to the file /kernels/huge26.s/config on the first install CD, that would be the kernel called "huge26.s". If so, then I'd like to put the same questions to you that I did to poster dfisek in this thread: Would that require installing Slackware all over again? Or is there a way of merely replacing the present kernel v.2.4.33.3 with the new kernel v.2.6.17.13, keeping in mind that I'm unable to boot the install with kernel v.2.4.33.3? Furthermore, would that new kernel support a dual-core processor (SMP), or do I need yet another kernel for that, and where would I find it? Robert
From: Douglas Mayne on 18 Sep 2006 22:12 On Mon, 18 Sep 2006 21:49:56 -0400, Robert Glueck wrote: > Douglas Mayne wrote: > [snip] >> I may have initially given you bad advice, due to recent changes in how >> the Slackware kernel is being configured by default. For older 2.6.x >> kernels, I think your laptop needs the ahci and ata_piix modules to work. >> For newer kernels, such as >> http://www.slackware.at/data/slackware-current/extra/linux-2.6.17.13/ >> >> The kernel might work "out of the box" (based on looking at the config >> file.) >> >> Sorry for my earlier mistake. >> > Hi Doug. > > Am I to conclude from your comment that you agree that the > current Slackware 11 default kernel ("sata.i" kernel, > v.2.4.33.3) is probably not the proper kernel for my very > recent vintage laptop, and that I should rather install > v.2.6.17.13? The 2.6.x kernel has worked better for me with the newer hardware. I don't know specifically about the 2.4.x series. I didn't do a lot of testing with 2.4.x, because I wanted other features to work which were better supported under 2.6.x. > According to the file /kernels/huge26.s/config > on the first install CD, that would be the kernel called > "huge26.s". > > If so, then I'd like to put the same questions to you that I > did to poster dfisek in this thread: Would that require > installing Slackware all over again? Or is there a way of > merely replacing the present kernel v.2.4.33.3 with the new > kernel v.2.6.17.13, keeping in mind that I'm unable to boot > the install with kernel v.2.4.33.3? Furthermore, would that > new kernel support a dual-core processor (SMP), Perhaps, this kernel for SMP: http://slackware.at/data/slackware-current/extra/linux-smp-2.6.17.13/ > or do I need yet another kernel for that, and where would I find it? > > Robert > Note: Comment inline. You could boot with the media you used to initially start Slackware setup. The is a message which starts "in a pinch...", as I wrote here: http://groups.google.com/group/alt.os.linux.slackware/msg/e1e6d647bef9510e Or, you could boot Xandros, since your partitions are accessible. Mount the disk which holds your new slackware partition, copy the kernel and modules to the partition. You might need to tweak the path to installpkg, and substitute the correct value for /mnt/sdxy, (appropriate to your mount): installpkg -root /mnt/sdxy kernel-generic-smp-2.6.17.13-i686-1.tgz installpkg -root /mnt/sdxy kernel-modules-smp-2.6.17.13-i686-1.tgz Finally, fix lilo (if that is your loader), per the usual drill. -- Douglas Mayne
From: Robert Glueck on 19 Sep 2006 09:34 Douglas Mayne wrote: > On Mon, 18 Sep 2006 21:49:56 -0400, Robert Glueck wrote: > >> Douglas Mayne wrote: >> [snip] >>> I may have initially given you bad advice, due to recent changes in how >>> the Slackware kernel is being configured by default. For older 2.6.x >>> kernels, I think your laptop needs the ahci and ata_piix modules to work. >>> For newer kernels, such as >>> http://www.slackware.at/data/slackware-current/extra/linux-2.6.17.13/ >>> >>> The kernel might work "out of the box" (based on looking at the config >>> file.) >>> >>> Sorry for my earlier mistake. >>> >> Hi Doug. >> >> Am I to conclude from your comment that you agree that the >> current Slackware 11 default kernel ("sata.i" kernel, >> v.2.4.33.3) is probably not the proper kernel for my very >> recent vintage laptop, and that I should rather install >> v.2.6.17.13? > > The 2.6.x kernel has worked better for me with the newer hardware. I don't > know specifically about the 2.4.x series. I didn't do a lot of > testing with 2.4.x, because I wanted other features to work which were > better supported under 2.6.x. > >> According to the file /kernels/huge26.s/config >> on the first install CD, that would be the kernel called >> "huge26.s". >> >> If so, then I'd like to put the same questions to you that I >> did to poster dfisek in this thread: Would that require >> installing Slackware all over again? Or is there a way of >> merely replacing the present kernel v.2.4.33.3 with the new >> kernel v.2.6.17.13, keeping in mind that I'm unable to boot >> the install with kernel v.2.4.33.3? Furthermore, would that >> new kernel support a dual-core processor (SMP), > > Perhaps, this kernel for SMP: > http://slackware.at/data/slackware-current/extra/linux-smp-2.6.17.13/ > >> or do I need yet another kernel for that, and where would I find it? >> >> Robert >> > Note: Comment inline. > > You could boot with the media you used to initially start Slackware setup. > The is a message which starts "in a pinch...", as I wrote here: > http://groups.google.com/group/alt.os.linux.slackware/msg/e1e6d647bef9510e > > Or, you could boot Xandros, since your partitions are accessible. Mount > the disk which holds your new slackware partition, copy the kernel and > modules to the partition. You might need to tweak the path to installpkg, > and substitute the correct value for /mnt/sdxy, (appropriate to your mount): > > installpkg -root /mnt/sdxy kernel-generic-smp-2.6.17.13-i686-1.tgz > installpkg -root /mnt/sdxy kernel-modules-smp-2.6.17.13-i686-1.tgz > > Finally, fix lilo (if that is your loader), per the usual drill. > Thanks, Doug, for your advice, and also thanks to dfisek and Robby Workman. I followed it, and with some additional fiddling managed to boot this Slackware install. Here's what I did: 1. From within Xandros downloaded the following packages from http://www.slackware.at/data/slackware-current/extra/linux-2.6.17.13/ kernel-generic-smp-2.6.17.13-i686-1.tgz kernel-modules-smp-2.6.17.13-i686-1.tgz and moved them to the /root directory of the partition in which I had installed Slackware 11. 2. Booted the Slackware install CD #1 with the boot parameters "huge26.s root=/dev/sda8 noinitrd ". That got me to a shell prompt from which I could access the Slackware filesystem. The pwd was /root. Next, I ran # installpkg kernel-generic-smp-2.6.17.13-i686-1.tgz # installpkg kernel-modules-smp-2.6.17.13-i686-1.tgz 3. Rebooted into Xandros to edit the Slackware stanza in lilo.conf and run lilo: image=/disks/welcome_2/boot/vmlinuz-generic-smp-2.6.17.13 label=Slackware_11_on_sda8 root=/dev/sda8 vga=791 read-only 4. Rebooted again and picked the Slackware entry from the LILO boot menu. Kernel panic again. The last two messages were: No filesystem could mount root, tried: ext2 Kernel panic - not syncing ..... No great surprise here: In the description of the generic SMP kernel v.2.6.17.13, PV says that this kernel has no built-in reiserfs support. Hence, I will have to build an initrd to insert the extra reiserfs module. 5. Using the huge26.s kernel, booted to the Slackware shell prompt, cd /boot, and ran # mkinitrd -c -k 2.6.17.13-smp -m reiserfs That created /boot/initrd-tree and /boot/initrd.gz. In /boot/initrd-tree, inserted the entries /dev/sda8 and reiserfs into the files rootdev and rootfs, respectively, then ran mkinitrd (without any options) to update initrd.gz. 6. In Xandros, edited the Slackware stanza in lilo.conf to add an initrd=... line and ran lilo: image=/disks/welcome_2/boot/vmlinuz-generic-smp-2.6.17.13 label=Slackware_11_on_sda8 root=/dev/sda8 initrd=/disks/welcome_2/boot/initrd.gz vga=791 read-only 7. With these changes, rebooted Slackware. The initial ramdisk ran fine, found sda8, exited and passed control to init but then errors (paraphrasing): The system can't find the swap partition hda7 ..... Failed to open the device '/dev/hda8': No such device ..... .... Error has occurred ... needs to be fixed ..... I'm being offered the choice of entering a single user shell or rebooting. Picked the former, tried startx and some other things, couldn't get anywhere, nothing but errors. The system still seems to stumble over the mislabelled "hdaX" partitions that were set up by the initial install with the default sata.i kernel v.2.4.33.3. 8. In /etc/fstab changed all the device names from /dev/hdaX to /dev/sdaX. That corrected the problem. Reboot to darkstar login prompt, logged in as root, ran kdm, up comes the KDE desktop. At the very beginning of the boot process two tuxes are displayed, and at the login it says "linux 2.6.17.13-smp", hence it looks as though both processor cores are being used and I am running the proper 2.6.x kernel. Robert
From: Grant on 19 Sep 2006 16:29 Hi there, On Tue, 19 Sep 2006 09:34:45 -0400, Robert Glueck <rglk(a)web.de> wrote: > At the very beginning of the boot process >two tuxes are displayed, and at the login it says "linux >2.6.17.13-smp", hence it looks as though both processor >cores are being used and I am running the proper 2.6.x kernel. You got there, the hard way --> yes two tuxes == two CPUs ;) Wonder if Pat V. will take a suggestion to change reiserfs from <M> to <*> in 2.6 kernels to match 2.4 kernel setup? This way one gets the default reiserfs filesystem without needing an initrd. Grant. -- http://bugsplatter.mine.nu/
From: Damjan on 20 Sep 2006 01:48
> The system still seems to stumble over the mislabelled > "hdaX" partitions that were set up by the initial install > with the default sata.i kernel v.2.4.33.3. > > 8. In /etc/fstab changed all the device names from /dev/hdaX > to /dev/sdaX. That corrected the problem. Reboot to > darkstar login prompt, logged in as root, ran kdm, up comes > the KDE desktop. At the very beginning of the boot process > two tuxes are displayed, and at the login it says "linux > 2.6.17.13-smp", hence it looks as though both processor > cores are being used and I am running the proper 2.6.x kernel. You can have labels in /etc/fstab, for example I have this: LABEL=ROOT / ext3 noatime 0 0 LABEL=HOME /home ext3 noatime 0 0 The filesystems were labeled when I created them (mke2fs -j -L... ) but they can be labeled afterwards too with e2label. For reiserfs you should use /sbin/reiserfstune (or some such) -- damjan |