I've started a new thread on my kernel troubles. I thought the thread subject should be more indicative of the semi OT nature of the query.
Also thought it might make the information that accrues here more findable for any future searchers. Here is the general setup and the general problem: vmware appliance made from gentoo-2008.0 I downloaded this appliance from a friendly sight that has all kinds. The appliance was built in July and so needed some updating. I www.bagvapp.com So cutting to the chase here. All software updated nicely but when I started fooling with the kernel I hit a brick wall. The original is 2.6.24-r8. Apparently built with genkernel as it has just about everthing possilbe enabled. The original setup was rigged to boot with an initrd (from grub) title=linux-2.6.24-gentoo-r8 root (hd0,0) kernel /kernel-genkernel-x86-2.6.24-gentoo-r8 root=/dev/ram0 init=/linuxrc ramdisk=8192 real_root=/dev/sdb3 initrd /initramfs-genkernel-x86-2.6.24-gentoo-r8 vga=0x317 And originally used /dev/sda3 for root. It worked just fine. But none of my attempts to bring the kernel up to date have worked. All failing with a error message something like: `/dev/sdb3 is not a valid device'. But of course it is because reverting to the original kernel allows a successful boot. You'll notice I've since moved root from /sda3 to sdb3... expanding everthing. That is not the cause of the problem though since the original kernel boots just fine with the edit to /dev/sdb3 as root. I will post exact error messages in a bit but I'd gotten rid of the extra sources.. and was about to give up messing with this. I'm redownloading the latest gentoo-source and will post what ever errors occur with it. I'll build using the old kernel config as basis. And ditch the initrd. (hours later) Looks like I fogot to mail the message above so even better... Now I have a screen shot of the messages. I've compiled 2.6.27-r5 using the config that works with 2.6.24-r8 as the basis. I did prune out a few things... all wireless some hid and most usb. This kernel fails as I expected and here is small screen shot of the error. It appears something is lacking that lets the kernel know that /dev/sda1 (boot) and /dev/sdb3 are valid /boot and / Here are the grub lines: title=/dev/sda1 hp 2.6.27-r5 NO INTITRD root (hd0,0) kernel /kernel-2.6.27-r5 root=/dev/sdb3 video=vesafb:mtrr3,ywrap vga=0x317 Screen shot of boot messages:
<<attachment: bootshot-01.png>>
