compiled kernel - modules mess (was:kernel doesn't compile?)

[Andre Costa]

On Sun, 25 Jan 2004 14:02:24 +0100
Emiliano Brunetti <emiliano_brunetti at idg.it> wrote:

[...]
> Well, this is weird indeed.
> 
> Here it goes:
> 
> - at job i run a custom kernel, i had to manually mkinitrd (thanks to
> a clean and extremely helpful - to me! - post here on the list) and
> looks to be working fine. Still some mess in loading modules on
> startup, but i guess it has to do with some 'hurry' of mine in
> configuring.

It could be. If you want a fresh start, copy the right file from the
(guess ;)) 'configs' dir, 'make dep bzImage modules modules_install
install', and see if this one works. Then, you can cutomize it to your
needs.

TIP: once you get a kernel working, it might be worthy to keep it
around. Sometimes I rename a specific kernel to 'safe', 'stable' or
something like this, and I update GRUB/LILO accordingly. This way, no
matter how I screw up with kenel configuration, I will always have a
safe failover.

> - LABEL is fully supported with RAM disk as you suggested (hitn: put
> it somewhere on a FAQ! :) )

Agreed. It took me a while to figure it out... =/

> - at home, no way. Still fails to mkinitrd, and can't build a initrd
> image manually. System complains that it can't find aic7xxx module.
> However, modulues seem to be there in /lib/modules, and it is
> definitely a major problem as this is a pure SCSI box.

Now this is really weird. I would go for a 'clean' rebuild as suggested
above to see if probl persists. I can't see no reason for a module
effectively present at /lib/modules/[...] to be loaded -- does 'depmod
-a' fail?

Also, since you didn't seem very sure about the module being there, make
sure you're looking at the right place. The root modules dir for a
kernel is /lib/modules/[uname -r] (when the kernel is running --
otherwise you will get the version number for the wrong kernel!).

> I am trying one last time, compiling aic7xxx support as a module. Then
> i'll try *again* to erase and reinstall kernel source from rpm. After
> this, i'd be kinda lost.

You could try to compile it builtin (i.e. not as a module). Still, there
is no reason for the module not to load cleanly, something's really
wrong.

Let us know if you make any improvements.

Best,

Andre

-- 
Andre Oliveira da Costa