I have read Bootdisk-HOWTO.txt, Documentation/ramdisk.txt, and most of the LinuxFromScratch book. I have looked at the readme.txt on a Debian bootdisk and tried out what other mini Linux dists do. And still I cannot get my boot+root disks to work properly! I have asked on IRC but surprisingly few people actually know about *making* boot+root disks. I am desperate for help. And since the problem is in the kernel-phase (my conclusion for the time being anyway), I dare to ask on this list, though it is not directly *kernel* development related. I want to make a boot and root disk. The root disk is ok so far; it mounts and gives me a login prompt, when I use it together with another boot disk, which I have not made. However, my boot disk (with kernel dd'ed directly to floppy), crashes instantly after pressing Enter when it prompts for root disk. It gives an Oops:0000, a stack dump and a kernel panic. This boot disk I have chosen not to use anymore, since I would like LILO. My bootdisk with LILO works a littel better. It loads and prompts. It still crashes upon prompting, but leave one simple error: Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 02:00 which I don't exactly know what means; is it mounting the wrong device? Unknown file system? Then I took the kernel .config from a 2.3.0 from the tiny linux dist, which boots and loads my root disk fine. I put the .config in my 2.4.10's tree and compile. But this kernel gives me the same error. So: The exact same config from a 2.3.0-kernel, which works doesn't work with a 2.4.10-kernel! This I find weird. And this is where (hopefully) you people can help me out =). I have made a tarball with all my work so far including (real tiny, honestly) shell scripts that compress and write the kernel and image. http://212.10.213.249/~stephan/bootdisk/ http://212.10.213.249/~stephan/bootdisk.tar.gz mkroot.sh compresses root.img and writes it to floppy. mklilo.sh formats, copies kernel and installs lilo on floppy. mkboot.sh writes kernel raw to floppy -- "obsolete". I use Debian potato 2.2.r2 with kernel 2.4.0 and undated versions of (most of) the system packages like modutils, util-linux (rdev), and more. I would be thankful for any help! -- Stephan Henningsen / / tisprut productions[tm] - Kernelnewbies: Help each other learn about the Linux kernel. Archive: http://mail.nl.linux.org/kernelnewbies/ IRC Channel: irc.openprojects.net / #kernelnewbies Web Page: http://www.kernelnewbies.org/
