i have compiled my kernel-2.4test7 in what was originally a suse 6.4 environment. when compiled, it sets the device as (3,65), but when the system boots, it looks for (3,41) as the root device. this may resulted due to the fact that i have installed several linux-mandrake components into my original suse system. i did this because i wanted a system that was more compliant with industry standards. i have found out the hard way that linux is not a truly cohesive environment. if it was, there wouldn't be multiple distributions each with their own pecularities in their kernels and directories. one of the things that i've found out is that suse uses a different file directory structure than some of the other distributions, and for this reason, i nolonger recommend it to anyone interested in moving to linux from windows. it is basically like moving from an overtly proprietary system, to one that is subvertly proprietary. for this rewason, i am fairly certain that i will migrate to the WALNUTCREEK FreeBSD-4.0 powerpak come september 1rst. anyway, back to the main subject. how do i set the root device correctly, so that when my system boots, it will find everything where it is supposed to be. also, i am using the reiserfs system on all of my partitions except my /boot partition. what exactly does this root device refer to, and where do i find it's description. being that i mentioned the FreeBSD migration; is there anyway to change my existing filesystem over to UFS without having to lose my data. it occurs to me that if you can defragment a hard disk without losing data, you should be able to use the same type of procedure to change your filesystem. if however FreeBSD can use reiserfs, then i don't need to do anything to my system at all! the only other option that i can see, is if there is some way to compile FreeBSD kernel components into a linux kernel; or vice-versa. i mean, is it possible to combine the sources of the two systems into one kernel. adding only those portions which are not supported in linux that are required by FreeBSD? certainly, if BSD and linux are truly open as they claim to be, there is no intellectual basis for the segregation of the two systems; especially since they are both supposed to related. if there is some kind of repository of kernel modules for both linux and BSD, with somekind of an index of what the individual modules do, then someone somewhere should be able to aggregate them into a cohesive library system, so that you could then use a program like make xconifg to select which components you want from this collective library to create your kernel. i mean after all, with linux you can compile all or most of the system as modules; which can then be removed at a later time if you don't want that particular feature. what i don't know, is whether or not you have to notify the kernel (within it's source code) that a particular feature is present, for a module to be useable? or is it simply a matter of adding a module to /lib/modules in order for that feature to become available to the system. does the module initiate notification to the kernel of it's presence, or does the kernel have to know beforehand from it's creation, of the modules function? why can't there be an open socket to the kernel, allowing any module to be added later at anytime, if that feature does not already exist. if modules only have to be added to /lib/modules for the system to able to use it, what would prohibit you from putting BSD modules into linux. after all, that how linux is able to understand the partitions and filesystems of other operating systems; so why stop there? i also want to know if there is a way to use bzip2 to make my kernel image; bzImage > bz2Image. i just installed bzip2-1.0.1, so i am not familiar with compressing an image with bzip2. what is the syntax for doing so? what would i do? is it simply a matter of `make -is dep bzip2 -z bzImage', or do i drop the `bz' before Image? will whatever is responsble for determining that the size of the kernel is under 1024KB's, recognize that that you have compressed the `Image' with bzip2? so what's the deal? what can i say, i don't like the simple life! ;) please advise. thank you.
