[nmglug] Kernel - devfs - initrd

[Jason Davis]

On Tue, 2006-07-18 at 20:50 -0600, Gary Sandine wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> On Mon, 2006-07-17 at 16:20 -0600, Jason Davis wrote:
> > I have a dual cpu Amd64 box. It running Debian stable. However the
> > install did not set up a SMP kernel so only one of my CPUs is showing
> > up. I compiled a kernel and built ext3 and the sata drivers in. (not
> > modules)
> > 
> > If i try to not use a initrd image the root file system cant be mounted.
> > Can some suggest what Im leaving out. If i use an initrd i get a kernel
> > panic saying the dev/console can not be loadded.
> > 
> > I have googled the messages I get. I have tried a few things I found
> > (like install udev/devfsd) Still I get the same error.
> > 
> > Questions:
> > 1. Why is /dev/console not being found at boot?
> 
> The initrd is incomplete in some way...  How do you generate the initrd?
> Does /etc/mkinitrd/mkinitrd.conf have:
> 
> MODULES=most
> 
> in it?  Why not just install a Debian smp kernel, like:
> 
> apt-get install linux-image-2.6-686-smp
> 
> ? Something like that...  "apt-cache search linux-image"  and look for
> smp.
> 
> > 2. How can I use udev and not devfs?
> 
> Can you do:
> 
> apt-get install udev
> 
> ?  Although I don't know if this is readily available for Debian stable.
> IIRC there's a kernel requirement (version at least
> 2.6.some_version_that_might_not_be_in_Debian_stable).
> 
>              
> 
apt-get install udev does not seem to completly cut it
I do see udev running , but its not making any dev files than i can
tell. The smp kernels from apt crash right away , so thats why 
I made my own. I made the initrd img by using make-kpkg
with the initrd switch. I do have the mkinitrd conf
and it has the modules line you mentioned.

So.. , we installed gentoo , I didnt want to :\
But it works now. However I get a crash on reboot
that looks just like the crash i got from debian apt-kernels
on boot. Looks to be a stack trace with some mentions of
apic. Ill look into this soon.

Thanks,
jason