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Problems with new Linux kernel

Chaotic42

Chaotic42

Lifer
Yo.

I'm getting back into Linux (Debian) and I'm having problems.

I compiled a 2.6.15.1 kernel, but when I boot with it, I get devfs errors. I get "unknown filesystem type: devfs". I'm running Debian stable.

The 2.6.8 kernel has devfs in it but no PCIe. 2.6.15.1 has PCIe, but not devfs.

Any ideas?
 
why are you compiling your own kernel?

I've never had a stock kernel that didn't have what I needed. Is this Stable or Testing?
 
ack..they already took out devfs?

that's rather premature!

If devfs no longer is there, you might need to hack around and get it back in there.
 
DevFS was taken out in the 2.6.14 series I believe, maybe even the 2.6.13, but it has been taken out completely. Just use udev.
 
Originally posted by: gruven
DevFS was taken out in the 2.6.14 series I believe, maybe even the 2.6.13, but it has been taken out completely. Just use udev.
Click to expand...

Damned kernel people.

Do you know if 2.6.12 has PCIe support?
 
DevFS was there in 2.6.13 gentoo for sure, but sense 14 the option is gone, 13 should have PCIe support. What do you need devFS for?
 
As long as the system boots ignore the error, it's just one of the scripts trying to mount or umount devfs on /dev, I can't remember which. Also you should probably upgrade to etch for sid, there are kernel packages for 2.6.15 in sid already.

And devfs still exists in the kernel, it's just been disabled in the Kconfig files so that you can't select it without some hackery. But it will be removed in in the near future.

ack..they already took out devfs?

that's rather premature!

If devfs no longer is there, you might need to hack around and get it back in there.
Click to expand...

premature? It's been unmaintained for years and was originally marked for removal in July 2005, it's been pushed back for almost a full year now. The config option has been removed for 3 (I think) of the last kernel releases and no one has complained.

 
Originally posted by: Nothinman
As long as the system boots ignore the error, it's just one of the scripts trying to mount or umount devfs on /dev, I can't remember which. Also you should probably upgrade to etch for sid, there are kernel packages for 2.6.15 in sid already.
Click to expand...
Well, that's the problem. It won't boot. It kernel panics at that error. With a kernel sync problem.

 
I haven't used devfs in like... ages. It's showed up as a deprecated option in most of the kernels I've compiled in the past year IIRC. Go udev.
 
Nothing in the kernel uses the string 'unknown filesystem' so you simply have a build problem. You most likely forgot a driver or filesystem or built it as a module but didn't create a correct initrd/initramfs image to load the module.
 
Originally posted by: Nothinman
As long as the system boots ignore the error, it's just one of the scripts trying to mount or umount devfs on /dev, I can't remember which. Also you should probably upgrade to etch for sid, there are kernel packages for 2.6.15 in sid already.

And devfs still exists in the kernel, it's just been disabled in the Kconfig files so that you can't select it without some hackery. But it will be removed in in the near future.

ack..they already took out devfs?

that's rather premature!

If devfs no longer is there, you might need to hack around and get it back in there.
Click to expand...

premature? It's been unmaintained for years and was originally marked for removal in July 2005, it's been pushed back for almost a full year now. The config option has been removed for 3 (I think) of the last kernel releases and no one has complained.
Click to expand...

it might of been unmaintained for years, but I do recall on my main server that it would NOT run without devfs being selected.

Now I run freebsd on there, but i might get the urge to reinstall linux somewhere. Knowning devfs is now offically going to be gone, doesn't really make me anxcious to put linux back on
 
devfs was crap, it was removed because it had unfixable races in the code and no one to maintain it. But even though the implementation of devfs was crap the idea is sound, which is why udev was born. Even Debian has moved away from devfs, AFAIK sarge will be the last release with any mentions of it.

If your server wouldn't run without devfs something else was wrong, because as I said I've never had a Debian box with devfs and they all run fine.
 
This is the error I get:

vfs: unable to mount root fs on unknown block (8,18)


Apparently you can fix it by using GRUB, but GRUB doesn't work properly on my computer. To install it, I have to use my boot CD which puts my SCSI drive as HD(3). When the computer boots by itself, it moves the SCSI drive to HD(0). No matter what I do, I can't convince GRUB to use HD(0).

I wish it just supported dev file naming.
 
8:18 is sdb2 is that where your root fs really is?

I wish it just supported dev file naming.
Click to expand...

Even if it did, the names wouldn't be the same as Linux because they can change really easily. Module load order is the main way to change them, but with the way the new udev stuff works there's the potential for them to change without you doing anything other than rebooting. It's kinda sh!tty, but it's a good reason to use filesystem labels instead of device names.
 
Originally posted by: Nothinman
8:18 is sdb2 is that where your root fs really is?
Click to expand...

Yep.

I just compiled a 2.4 kernel since ldconfig is broken with 2.2 (which comes with my CD). It works fine with the same lilo options and the same kinds of things compiled in to it.
 
Originally posted by: Nothinman
Are you using woody CDs? I thought Sarge only shipped with 2.4 and 2.6 kernels?
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm using woody testing CDs from 2001. I've tried three times to download newer CDs, DVDs, and netinstalls.

They all die the same way, saying they can't mount on (8,18), and most of them don't support my USB keyboard. I've only ever been able to get my woody CD to work properly in every regard.
 
Originally posted by: Nothinman
Did you enable legacy support for your USB keyboard, or whatever your BIOS calls it?
Click to expand...

Yep.

Apparently other people are having the keyboard problem too. I'm going to clear some space up on hda and see if that doesn't make stuff work a little better.
 
No idea what to tell you then, USB has always been one of those things that 'just works' for me on all of my machines.
 
Originally posted by: Nothinman
No idea what to tell you then, USB has always been one of those things that 'just works' for me on all of my machines.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I know. I've had USB stuff for years and I never had any of these problems before. Heck, I've had the same SCSI HBA for years and I've set up Debian lots of times with no problems at all.

Maybe this motherboard just sucks. 😛
 
ya... The problem is that devfs is required for the debian mkinitrd scripts.

The solution is to compile all the things nessicary to access the file system directly into the kernel and edit the bootloader to not use the initrd image. The other solution is to import yaird and some other things from Deiban testing, which don't require devfs.

Devfs sucks balls. Hate hate hate.

Woody is way to freaking ancient to be usefull.

There is a alternative way to install Debian if your adventerious. It's Debootstrap and you can use any Linux system or live cd to do it. Most commonly it's going to be knoppix.

Basicly you go:
1. setup the partitions.
2. mount the partitions
3. use debootstrap to download and install basic packages to the system
4. edit and setup various system configuration files like $YOURMOUNT/etc/fstab
5. chroot to the enviroment
6. mount /proc
7. run base-config
8. edit a couple files, install the initrd-tools, install the kernel
9. install lilo or grub, make sure everything is right,
10. reboot into your new system.

This is how I do it sometimes. It's not to difficult, but I always miss a couple things and have to reboot into knoppix and fix them.
The nice thing is that you can do it remotely from any box with a ssh client. Just install and start sshd (/etc/init.d/ssh start or whatnot) in knoppix.
http://www.underhanded.org/papers/debian-conversion/remotedeb.html
http://www.inittab.de/manuals/debootstrap.html
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Debian+install+debootstrap&spell=1


maybe it would be easiest to locate a PS2 style keyboard and use that during the install.
 
Originally posted by: Chaotic42
Originally posted by: Nothinman
No idea what to tell you then, USB has always been one of those things that 'just works' for me on all of my machines.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I know. I've had USB stuff for years and I never had any of these problems before. Heck, I've had the same SCSI HBA for years and I've set up Debian lots of times with no problems at all.

Maybe this motherboard just sucks. 😛
Click to expand...

The only time I've had problems with USB, was messing with the HID options on a kernel re-compile.
 
ya... The problem is that devfs is required for the debian mkinitrd scripts.
Click to expand...

Not anymore, infact with sid you're supposed to either be using yaird or mkinitramfs now since initramfs is the replacement for initrd images.

Have you ever used the AMD-64 version of Debian?
Click to expand...

It's pure 64 so if you want to use 32-bit things like non-free flashplugin, w32codecs, etc you'll need to setup a 32-bit chroot.
 
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