Kernel problems

I have Debian on my computer. It's currently running rather ancient kernel, version 2.2.20. I wanted a newer one so that it would recognize my USB mouse, I could use my sound card and put the nVidia video driver so I could play Enemy Territory from Linux.

I used apt-get to install the kernel 2.4.18-686 (the newest available through apt-get.) Then I created a grub boot diskette. Grub refuses to find my HD which contains the linux root partition /dev/hdd5.

Then I thought I'd create a syslinux diskette and put the new kernel on the boot disk and boot that way. Well, it found the kernel, but after loading the kernel it saind Kernel panic: no root partition found. The new kernel couldn't find my hard disk at /dev/hdd!!!

The older kernel is able to find it. Any suggestions? I've already tried to change the HD to /dev/hdb but it didn't work. Even Windows couldn't find it anymore.

Have you considered compiling the kernel from source?

I did this recently on my Mandrake laptop so I could use some power management features. I was able to download the distribution specific kernel source... I learned that distributions tend to heavily patch their kernels and I'm not experienced enough to get a "clean kernel" compile working yet.

The kernel configuration file for you current kernel is probably in /boot/config (remember to back the file up, just in case). When you do "make xconfig" you'll be able to load a previous configuration file... load /boot/config and change only what's necessary for you USB support. Sometimes you'll change a few things and it wont work, and you won't really know what specifically it was that broke everything.

There are plenty of kernel compile tutorials avaialable on the internet. But my 2-cents is just to try and find a distribution specific source and make small changes to the config at a time.

Best of luck.

Thank you Timothy. Yes, I have considered compiling the kernel from source, but because I am a Linux newbie, I don't have the courage yet. First I'd like to see if there are other options. I wrote up the exact error messages.

VFS: Cannot open root device "hdd5" or 16:45
Kernel panic: VFS: unable to mount root fs on 16:45

This is a bit confusing message.On the first line it says 'or' and on the second line it says 'on'. What does 16:45 mean? It is not the time coz the the clock didn't say 16:45 that time.

From your second post I gather your problem isn't with the kernel, but it rather finding the disk partition to mount the root file system.

I believe hdd5 and 16:45 are the same, you know it as hdd5 and the kernel knows it as 16:45. Think of it as "Cannot opn root device on hdd5 or 16:45" is like saying, "Hey, what's the way to New York City, or NYC?"

I don't have much experience with GRUB my server boot using GRUB but my laptop (which is where I spend most of my time) uses LILO. Hopefully this'll be a learning experience for me as well!

What does your grub.conf say? It's usually in /boot/grub/grub.conf, but if not then perhaps check /boot/grub/menu.lst.

The following is mine:

timeout 10
color black/cyan yellow/cyan
i18n (hd0,0)/boot/grub/messages
keytable (hd0,0)/boot/us.klt
altconfigfile (hd0,0)/boot/grub/menu.once
default 0

title linux
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda1 devfs=mount hdc=ide-scsi
initrd (hd0,0)/boot/initrd.img

title failsafe
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda1 devfs=nomount hdc=ide-scsi failsafe
initrd (hd0,0)/boot/initrd.img

title floppy
root (fd0)
chainloader +1

What we're looking for specifically is how the entry appears for your older (functional) kernel. In this case, for me it is:

title linux
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda1 devfs=mount hdc=ide-scsi
initrd (hd0,0)/boot/initrd.img

That should at least get us pointed in the right direction.

-Tim