compiling linux kernel 2.4.17

[Koinonia]

ive never reconfigured the kernel before, so i wanted to give it a shot, however im having some problems here.

it seems that everything works fine, except all of the images that i want to make (ie: make zdisk, make zImage, make bzImage) seem to be too large for the system, or something like that. it doesnt seem like im limited on space either as i have half a gig free...

but nevertheless, i edit the /etc/lilo.conf file to boot from /boot/bzImage (the final line gives me a warning, and not an error like zImage or zdisk), and set the old kernel to boot from the old vmlinuz.

after i try to load up the new kernel, the screen says "Loading............." and then returns to BIOS, and reboots again.

WEIRD!

im just futzing around with linux on a machine that was generously donated to me by my friend (they retired a k6-2 350MHz!), so i installed red hat 7.2 on that box (it comes with kernel v2.4.7-10). it's using an old 2GB quantum drive, and my purpose is for it to be a firewall in my apt.

the main reason im reconfiguring the kernel is that the network card i have doesnt seem to work without the machine being powered on... get this: i boot in red hat, and the nic doesnt light up at all... i shutdown and swap the drive with a win98 drive that has used the nic. the nic lights up. i shutdown, keeping the power on (the case is an old AT case) and swap the ide cable back to the red hat drive... and VOILA!!! the nic stays lit, and networking works!

so i figure maybe recomipiling will fix whatever error they had... (fat chance, but you learn stuff doing this type of stuffs anyways).

anyone have any problems with configuring the kernel like i had? and if so, what did you guys do to solve it? any info would help... thanks

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

hm the nic problem is wierd. dont know what to say about that.

with your kernel...as far as i know the "standard" way to do it is copy System.map to /boot//System.map-2.4.17 and copy arch/i386/boot/bzImage to /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.17

and then point lilo to /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.17 and run lilo (i run lilo -v -v so its extra verbose)

to tell you the truth i dont even know what system.map is....oh well i'm still a newbie, although i should go read on that. anyways, i've recompiled about 5-8 times and did it that way everytime and it worked.

 

[Nothinman]

Please post the exact error that lilo gives you.

But usually spontaneous reboots that early mean you compiled the kernel for the wrong processor type.

 

[Nothinman]

to tell you the truth i dont even know what system.map is.

System.map is a mapping of all the kernel's functions to their addresses, it's only used for things like top to be able to display reschedule_timeout instead of c01f0800, not having it around won't break anything.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

<< to tell you the truth i dont even know what system.map is.

System.map is a mapping of all the kernel's functions to their addresses, it's only used for things like top to be able to display reschedule_timeout instead of c01f0800, not having it around won't break anything. >>


cool thanks. so its like the memory equivelant of dns?

 

[Koinonia]

<< Please post the exact error that lilo gives you.

But usually spontaneous reboots that early mean you compiled the kernel for the wrong processor type. >>



lilo doesnt give me any error. even on boot up, there is no error.

the whole process didnt give me any errors. just a warning about bzImage being too large for the system (?). and the zdisk and zImage are both too large for the floppy.

how did i compile for the wrong processor? when i do xconfig, i believe i chose the correct one... hum, let me check tho

thanks.

 

[Nothinman]

cool thanks. so its like the memory equivelant of dns?

I guess so, but it's not required by the system at all, it's just for your convenience.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

<< cool thanks. so its like the memory equivelant of dns?

I guess so, but it's not required by the system at all, it's just for your convenience. >>


well hey, dns isnt really required, we could just type ip's, thats not so bad

 

[Koinonia]

<< usually spontaneous reboots that early mean you compiled the kernel for the wrong processor type. >>



GOOD CALL.

i overlooked an option for k6-II in the processor type. i chose i586 previously...

so that was simple enough!!!

but im still having trouble with the nic card. stupid homePNA card.

thanks all... any suggestions about the nic could be helpful.