Upgrading Kernel Troubles

Quite a long time ago, I installed my Debian system via Knoppix 3.3.

Since then, I've upgraded and what not many many times- my system, for example, is now mainly unstable packages, including KDE 3.2.2, which I love.

The only thing I haven't been able to upgrade is my kernel. I'm wondering if any baggage from Knoppix has to do with it. Or perhaps because it's a 2.6 kernel.

Specifically:

1. I apt-get install an appropriate kernel-image (kernel-image-2.6.6-1-686), it installs fine.
2. I edit Lilo to include the new kernel, pointing vmlinuz and initrd to the right locations. I update lilo.
3. I reboot. Lilo menu shows my new kernel choices.
4. I select the new kernel.
5. Lilo informs me that the kernel loaded successfully.
6. Screen goes blank, never changes.

Any clue what could be happening? I previously tested a different 2.4 kernel, which boats fine (although I never got X working on it).

Thank you for any help steering me in the right direction.

--Paradox

Did you apt-get as well:
kernel-headers-2.6.6-1-686
module-init-tools

You also need this line in /etc/fstab: sysfs /sys sysfs defaults 0 0

If you have a i810 video chipset you may need to compile your own kernel due to a experimental,... hmm, what was it now,.. ummm.. some kernel module that is incompatible with i810.

Tried your advice:

Still no luck. It says "Loading Linux26........................................... . BIOS data check passed" (or something of the sort)

then the screen goes blank and the system becomes unresponsive.

Thanks for the idea, though! Got any more?

--Paradox

It's working!

The blank screen was due to a VGA / framebuffer issue.

I resolved it, saw the simple error LILO was giving, fixed THAT.. booted up, re-installed the NVIDIA driver, and bam--

I'm now running kernel 2.6.6, with KDE 3.2.2

Life is sweet.

So in short-- besides some simple errors, installing a new kernel was completely painless. wow. Go Debian (and Knoppix, for introducing me to Debian).

--Paradox

hi,
I'm also trying to install the kernel-image with apt-get. I installed all the packages mentionned above, changed vga=(a number) to vga=normal and changed my lilo.conf making the new kernel selectable at boot.

But there are problems...when the kernel is loading I get a message like this:

Code:

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Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount fs on unknown-block(3,8)

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It's also saying that I must check the root="" in my lilo.conf, but that seems to be ok. The 3 and the 8 are also the right numbers since I installed Knoppix to hda8.

Quote:

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If you have a i810 video chipset you may need to compile your own kernel due to a experimental,... hmm, what was it now,.. ummm.. some kernel module that is incompatible with i810.

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I have no i810 video chipset but my audio is. Could this be the problem? Or is there just something wrong with my lilo.conf? Can you post your working lilo.conf Paradox...plz?

thx,
F.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Paradox

Tried your advice:

Still no luck. It says "Loading Linux26........................................... . BIOS data check passed" (or something of the sort)

then the screen goes blank and the system becomes unresponsive.

Thanks for the idea, though! Got any more?

--Paradox

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I have the very same problem that Paradox had: I apt-get installed (on a Knoppix 3.4 04-05-17) kernel-image-2.6.5-1-k7 and the corresponding headers and the tools mentioned above. I want to step back to the 2.6.5 kernel because 2.6.6 does not support my Reiser4 pertition.

My fstab is also containing the line mentioned above.

My lilo.conf is pointing to the correct initrd.img and vmlinuz.

I do not have the strange graphics card mentioned above.

On my bootup it also says "Loading Linux26........................................... . BIOS data check passed", then the screen goes black and the system freezes.

Is there any step that I have missed? How exactly did you solve the issue?

Thanks in advance for your support!

Linuxshark

I think Paradox was talking about a line in lilo.conf, namely vga=791, which can cause trouble. Try changing this to vga=0 or vga=normal and run lilo -v.

EDIT: btw, do you actually need to get kernel-headers or do they come with the image?
It's not overly complicated either to compile your own kernel with make oldconfig which takes care of most configurations.

lol, the vga command helped to make me see what happens and now I get the same error that Frost mentioned above:

Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount fs on unknown-block(3,8)

argh. Is there any way to work around this?

Do you have a SATA disk?
In the Lilo splash screen try with: vmlinuz root=/dev/sda8 (if necessary change vmlinuz to what you have).
How did you make the initrd? mkinitrd -o /boot/initrd-2.6.6.img 2.6.6

No SATA disk.

Sorry I do not understand what you mean by "How did you make your initrd". I made my initrd by creating a link from initrd.img-2.6.5-1-k7 to initrd.img via the "ln -s ..." command.

The passage in my lilo.conf is:

Code:

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image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.5-1-k7
        label="Linux(2.6.5)-1"
        initrd=/boot/initrd.img-2.6.5-1-k7
        append="ramdisk_size=100000 lang=us ramdisk_size=129000 dma apm=power-off hda=scsi nomce "
        read-only

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