# What's the trick with the new kernels? [SOLVED]

## A.S. Pushkin

My past two emerge --sync's have left two kernels that freeze at the grub splash screen. These are

2.6.21-gentoo-r4 and 2.6.22-gentoo-r2. So what is the new feature? Searching the forums and the docs gives me no solid 

info.

I'm running EIDE HDD and an old 1GHz Athlon with a Matrox g400.

I'd appreciate if someone would point me to some announcement as to the "BIG change."

I like Gentoo, but this is one reason I have complaint. I'd like some idea of the major changes

I'm walking into.

Thanks.

EDIT:

I'm running the new kernel and have been, but at this point I can no longer access the other two HDD I have from this running kernel or burn a CD or DVD.

----------

## didymos

 *A.S. Pushkin wrote:*   

> 
> 
> I'd appreciate if someone would point me to some announcement as to the "BIG change."
> 
> 

 

Not sure what you're talking about.  Other than the 21 to 22 change, there's no big mysterious kernel alterations going on.  It is possible for problems to arise that have nothing to do with some "BIG change".

----------

## barophobia

 *A.S. Pushkin wrote:*   

> 
> 
> I'd appreciate if someone would point me to some announcement as to the "BIG change."
> 
> 

 

Tickless (dyn. hz?) kernel?  Other than that I don't know.

----------

## JeliJami

 *A.S. Pushkin wrote:*   

> My past two emerge --sync's have left two kernels that freeze at the grub splash screen. These are
> 
> 2.6.21-gentoo-r4 and 2.6.22-gentoo-r2. So what is the new feature? Searching the forums and the docs gives me no solid 
> 
> info.
> ...

 

What's the version of your latest working kernel?

If it's <=2.6.18 (or 19??), there was a BIG change, namely SATA/PATA support.

For whatever (boot) problem with your compiled kernel, check KC: Kernel Compilation

----------

## depontius

 *davjel wrote:*   

>  *A.S. Pushkin wrote:*   My past two emerge --sync's have left two kernels that freeze at the grub splash screen. These are
> 
> 2.6.21-gentoo-r4 and 2.6.22-gentoo-r2. So what is the new feature? Searching the forums and the docs gives me no solid 
> 
> info.
> ...

 

I have one system at home that I've tried several times, and haven't been able to get to work with libata/PATA.  I don't use a splash, preferring instead to have all the scrolling text fly by so I can watch the boot process.  In this way, I know it's a libata problem, because I get the /dev/sg* nodes, but not the /dev/sd* ones.  I haven't had time to track the problem down any further, and the machine is down now anyway, for reinstall on a new hard drive.  I've moved my other systems to libata/PATA without problems.  (The problem system is an nForce2 chipset.  I've migrated systems on nForce4 and Intel ICH4.)

I've never really used bootsplash, but you might try turning it off and watch the kernel messages.

----------

## JeliJami

thanks for the pm, but let's continue this thread for the sake of the community  :Smile: 

please post your grub config file and your /etc/fstab file

----------

## termite

I think this may be the sda/hda issue (although your description is a little vague)

This is a kernel config issue.  Here's how to resolve it:

Go to/usr/src/linux

type 

```
make menuconfig
```

Go to Device Drivers

Disable ATA/ATAPI/MFM/RLL Support

Enable Serial ATA (prod) and Parallel ATA (experimental) drivers

Go into Serial ATA (prod) and Parallel ATA (experimental) drivers and select your controllers (if you don't know them, try tying 

```
lspci
```

 on the command line and looking around.

Exit, save your config and recompile/install your kernel

Should now be sorted.

----------

## depontius

 *davjel wrote:*   

> thanks for the pm, but let's continue this thread for the sake of the community 
> 
> please post your grub config file and your /etc/fstab file

 

Go ahead and post my pm response to you, if you think appropriate.  I don't think there was anything there that couldn't go in a forum.

/boot/grub/grub.conf:

```
default=1

fallback=2

timeout=10

splashimage=(hd1,0)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz

title Gentoo Linux (2.6.22-r2) New

   root (hd1,0)

   kernel /boot/kernel-genkernel-x86-2.6.22-gentoo-r2 root=/dev/ram0 init=/linuxrc real_root=/dev/sdb5

   initrd /boot/initramfs-genkernel-x86-2.6.22-gentoo-r2

title Gentoo Linux (2.6.21-r4)

   root (hd1,0)

   kernel /boot/kernel-genkernel-x86-2.6.21-gentoo-r4 root=/dev/ram0 init=/linuxrc real_root=/dev/sdb5

   initrd /boot/initramfs-genkernel-x86-2.6.21-gentoo-r4

title Gentoo Linux (2.6.20-r7) Old

   root (hd1,0)

   kernel /boot/kernel-genkernel-x86-2.6.20-gentoo-r7 root=/dev/ram0 init=/linuxrc real_root=/dev/sdb5

   initrd /boot/initramfs-genkernel-x86-2.6.20-gentoo-r7

# For installing GRUB into the hard disk

title Install GRUB into the hard disk

root    (hd1,0)

setup   (hd0)
```

/etc/fstab:

```
LABEL=BOOT      /boot      ext2      noauto,noatime      1 2

LABEL=ROOT      /      ext3      noatime         1 1

LABEL=HOME      /home      ext3      defaults      1 2

LABEL=AFSCACHE      /usr/vice/cache   ext2      noatime         1 2

LABEL=SWAP5      none      swap      sw         0 0

LABEL=SWAP6      none      swap      sw         0 0

LABEL=SWAP7      none      swap      sw         0 0

LABEL=SWAP8      none      swap      sw         0 0

LABEL=OPT      /opt      ext3      noatime         1 2

/dev/cdrom         /mnt/cdrom   iso9660      noauto,ro,user      0 0

#/dev/fd0      /mnt/floppy   auto      noauto         0 0

/dev/sdc1      /mnt/flash   auto      noauto,user      0 0

none         /tmp      tmpfs      size=6g         0 0

none         /var/tmp   tmpfs      size=6g         0 0

none         /data      tmpfs      size=6g         0 0

# NOTE: The next line is critical for boot!

none         /proc      proc      nosuid         0 0

# glibc 2.2 and above expects tmpfs to be mounted at /dev/shm for

# POSIX shared memory (shm_open, shm_unlink).

# (tmpfs is a dynamically expandable/shrinkable ramdisk, and will

#  use almost no memory if not populated with files)

# Adding the following line to /etc/fstab should take care of this:

none         /dev/shm   tmpfs      defaults      0 0
```

This system is actually hardware scsi, but it's set up with the device labels, so it would be irrelevant had it been ide.  The only hardware ide difference would be "real_root=/dev/hdb5" in grub.conf.  The irritation spacing in fstab is due to a mix of blanks and tabs.

----------

## A.S. Pushkin

Sorry for the delay in responding to your request.

I took your advice and used e2label to label the partitions on the drive I am unable to boot using 2.6.22-gentoo-r2 so the fstab entries list those partitions accordingly. Originally the listings were of a nature typical of fstab where all partitions were on the hdd drive and ranged from hdd5 (swap), hdd6 (/), hdd7 (var), hdd8 (tmp), hdd9 (home), hdd10 (usr), hdd11 (opt) and hdd12 (distfiles)

Frankly, I have never quite managed to modify my fstab to a format that I believe is technically correct, but it has functioned quite well most of the time. Any suggestions to correct it will certainly be taken seriously.

# This file is edited by fstab-sync - see 'man fstab-sync' for details

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.

# $Header: /home/cvsroot/gentoo-src/rc-scripts/etc/fstab,v 1.14 2003/10/13 20:03:38 azarah Exp $

#

# noatime turns off atimes for increased performance (atimes normally aren't

# needed; notail increases performance of ReiserFS (at the expense of storage

# efficiency).  It's safe to drop the noatime options if you want and to

# switch between notail and tail freely.

# <fs>                  <mountpoint>    <type>          <opts>                  <dump/pass>

# NOTE: If your BOOT partition is ReiserFS, add the notail option to opts.

#/dev/BOOT              /boot           ext2            noauto,noatime  1 1

#/dev/ROOT              /               xfs             defaults        0 0

#/dev/hdd6              /               ext3            noatime         0 1

LABEL=root              /               ext3            noatime         0 1

#/dev/hdd7              /var            ext3            noatime,nodev   1 2

LABEL=var             /var            ext3            noatime,nodev   1 2

#/dev/hdd10             /usr            ext3            noatime,nodev   1 2

LABEL=usr             /usr            ext3            noatime,nodev   1 2

#/dev/hdd11             /opt            ext3            noatime,nodev   1 2

LABEL=opt             /opt            ext3            noatime,nodev   1 2

#/dev/hdd8              /tmp            ext3            noatime,nodev,nosuid    1 2

LABEL=tmp              /tmp            ext3            noatime,nodev,nosuid    1 2

#/dev/hdd9              /home           ext3            noatime,nodev,nosuid    1 2

LABEL=home             /home           ext3            noatime,nodev,nosuid    1 2

#/dev/hdd13              /video          ext3            noatime,nodev,nosuid    1 2

#/dev/hdd12              /distfiles      auto            noatime,nodev    1 2

LABEL=distfiles              /distfiles      auto            noatime,nodev    1 2

/dev/hdb5               swap            swap            sw              0 0

#/dev/cdroms/cdrom0     /mnt/cdrom      iso9660         noauto,ro       0 0

#/dev/cdroms/cdrom0     /media/dvdrw    auto            noauto,user     0 0

#The below became standard with kernel 2.6.13; likewise for cdrom1

/dev/hdc                /media/dvd      auto            user,noauto     0 0

#/dev/cdroms/cdrom1     /media/dvd      auto            noauto,user     0 0

/dev/hdd                /media/dvd1     auto            user,noauto    0 0

#/dev/fd0               /mnt/floppy     auto            noauto,rw       0 0

#/dev/floppy/0          /media/floppy   auto            noauto,user     0 0

#The below line became standard with kernel 2.6.13

#/dev/floppy/0          /media/floppy/0 auto            noauto,user     0 0

/dev/floppy/0           /media/floppy_0 vfat            user,noauto     0 0

#/dev/usb/cruzer                /media/cruzer   vfat            noauto,user,exec,noatime        0 0

#/dev/usb/Cruzer /media/usb_Cruzer      vfat            user,noauto,sync 0 0

/dev/sda1               /media/MiniCruzer     vfat              noauto,users,noatime    0 0

# NOTE: The next line is critical for boot!

none                    /proc           proc            defaults        0 0

My menu.lst is a hold over from my SuSE days, though YaST has not been used to modify it since I moved to Gentoo.

# Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Tue May  3 00:07:16 2005

color white/blue black/light-gray

default 1

timeout 15

gfxmenu (hd0,16)/boot/message

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###

title Linux - SuSE 9.0

    kernel (hd0,16)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda17 vga=0x314 splash=silent desktop hdc=ide-scsi hdclun=0 showopts

    initrd (hd0,16)/boot/initrd

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: Gentoo 2.6.18-gentoo-r3 Kernel###

title Gentoo 2.6.18-gentoo-r3

    kernel (hd1,5)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-gentoo-r3 root=/dev/hdb6 ide0=dma ide1=dma ide0=ata66 ide1=ata66 noapic

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: Gentoo 2.6.18-gentoo-r6 Kernel###

title Gentoo 2.6.18-gentoo-r6

    kernel (hd1,5)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-gentoo-r6 root=/dev/hdb6 ide0=dma ide1=dma ide0=ata66 ide1=ata66 noapic

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: Gentoo 2.6.17-gentoo[gcc-4.1.1]-r7

title Gentoo 2.6.17-gentoo[gcc-4.1.1]-r7

kernel (hd1,5)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.17-gentoo[gcc-4.1.1]-r7 root=/dev/hdb6 "ide0=dma" "ide1=dma" "ide0=ata66" "ide1=a$

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: Gentoo 2.6.17-gentoo[gcc-4.1.1]-r7

title Gentoo 2.6.17-gentoo-r8

kernel (hd1,5)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.17-gentoo-r8 root=/dev/hdb6 "ide0=dma" "ide1=dma" "ide0=ata66" "ide1=ata66" noapic

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: Gentoo 2.6.18-gentoo-r2

title Gentoo 2.6.18-gentoo-r2

kernel (hd1,5)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-gentoo-r2 root=/dev/hdb6 "ide0=dma" "ide1=dma" "ide0=ata66" "ide1=ata66" "noap$

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: Gentoo 2.6-16-gentoo-r13

title Gentoo 2.6.16-gentoo-r13

kernel (hd1,5)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.16-gentoo-r13 root=/dev/hdb6 ide0=dma ide1=dma ide1=ata66

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: Gentoo 2.6.17-gentoo-r7

title Gentoo 2.6.17-gentoo-r7

kernel (hd1,5)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.17-gentoo-r7 root=/dev/hdb6 "ide0=dma" "ide1=dma" "ide0=ata66" "ide1=ata66"

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: Gentoo 2.6.18-gentoo-r3 Kernel###

title Gentoo 2.6.18-gentoo-r3 Temporary Disk under construction

    kernel (hd2,5)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-gentoo-r3 root=/dev/hdd6 ide0=dma ide1=dma ide0=ata66 ide1=ata66 noapic

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: windows###

title Windows

    root (hd0,0)

    chainloader +1

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: floppy###

title Floppy

    root (fd0)

    chainloader +1

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###

title Failsafe

    kernel (hd0,16)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda17 showopts ide=nodma apm=off acpi=off vga=normal nosmp noapic maxc$

    initrd (hd0,16)/boot/initrd

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: Gentoo 2.4.26-r6###

title Gentoo 2.4.28-gentoo-r8

    kernel (hd0,22)/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.28-gentoo-r8 hdc=ide-scsi hdd=ide-scsi root=/dev/hda23

###Don't change this coment - YaSt2 identifier: Original name: Gentoo 2.4.28-r9###

title Gentoo 2.4.28-gentoo-r9

    kernel (hd0,22)/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.28-gentoo-r9 hdc=ide-scsi hdd=ide-scsi root=/dev/hda23

I should make remark on the changes to the fstab as above. Just a few minutes ago I tried to boot the 2.6.22-r4 kernel, which I had modified to use the SATA/PATA features per suggestion. I was encouraged that the boot message did show the kernel looking at all the partitions on my two drives, both Seagates (one 60Gb and one 80Gb) output that the partitions were 

scsi disks, i.e. one column showed a code while the next column showed sdx respective of the partition. It did give a kernel panic per my original post when it reached the HDD drive. My controller is a IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06) per lspci.

I have to say I am encouraged thanks to the input of the Gentoo Community.

----------

## bombcar

I have a weird but probably unrelated issue - if I use 2.6.22-gentoo-r5 my network card locks up after a few minutes. Everything else seems to be working fine, but the network disappears. Nothing is logged, and everything looks correct, but no network activity can happen.

2.6.18-gentoo-r6 works fine.

```
01:0d.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8029(AS)
```

I think I'm going to try vanilla-sources, but as this is my main server I can't be rebooting it all the time.

----------

## annda

thanks a lot termite. disabling ATA (vs. SATA) in the new kernel (22) saved my install. the sda/hda confusion made me stupidly try a lot of options (which wrecked my earlier kernel as well) - but then i am a semi-ignorant mandriva/ubuntu user.

----------

## HyperQuantum

 *A.S. Pushkin wrote:*   

> My past two emerge --sync's have left two kernels that freeze at the grub splash screen. These are
> 
> 2.6.21-gentoo-r4 and 2.6.22-gentoo-r2. So what is the new feature? Searching the forums and the docs gives me no solid 
> 
> info.

 

I have a similar problem. Since I moved from kernel 2.6.20 to 2.6.21 (all gentoo-sources) it takes a very long time for kdm to start. I am staring at a black screen for about 25 seconds (with no HD activity) before kdm seems to start and the login screen appears. Moving to kernel 2.6.22 did not resolve the problem. When the screen is blank it is also not possible to switch to a terminal with ctrl-(alt)-Fx. The kernel upgrade path I took was nothing more than a simple "make oldconfig" and accepting the default answers to those questions.

----------

## Cyker

Slight tangent:

A fantastic website that another forum person here pointed me at:

http://kernelnewbies.org/LinuxChanges

Lists all additions and changes in a much easier to read format!  :Smile: 

----------

## bLUEbYTE84

 *barophobia wrote:*   

>  *A.S. Pushkin wrote:*   
> 
> I'd appreciate if someone would point me to some announcement as to the "BIG change."
> 
>  
> ...

 

It was introduced in .21

----------

## A.S. Pushkin

Well, more follow up on this. I took the suggestions and recompiled my kernel accordingly. Using e2label, thanks to a suggestion from depontius I edited my fstab accordingly. After editing grub's menu.lst to reflect that the root partition was /dev/sdc6 not /dev/hdd6 and adding as an argument irqpoll (suggested elas where in the Gentoo forums) the system booted. And that brings up something I was not expecting.

Currently the drive I'm working from is set up as a slave on the secondary controller. I note that with libata each EIDE drive or cdrom/dvdrom is no longer seen as it is under the old scheme. Other may have noted this, but it is good to make clear, unless my observation is in error. I say that as currently I have three HDDs and one DVD burner:

60 Gb Primary master

80Gb primary slave

DVD burner secondary master

80Gb secondary slave/

Eventually I'll pull one drive and save it is an emergency bakup

and return to this format

80Gb  - primary master

60Gb - primary slave

DVD burner - secondary master

CD burner - secondary slave

and not taking into account the above will lead to grief for me.

One problem I'm having is that I can not mount the other two HDDs. fdisk -l outputs all partition information, but running the mount command only says the device does not exist. That's a slight problem as I use partimage to backup my running partitions so I can burn them to DVD. And though HAL seems not to be working as it did, I can still manually mount disks again as /dev/srx.

BTW, lshw lists my DVD burner as scd0, sr0 among other things.

One final thing is the real_root argument.

EDIT:

This is my new grub entry for 2.6.22-r2 and now -r5, which is similar:

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: Gentoo 2.6.22-gentoo-r2 Kernel###

title Gentoo 2.6.22-gentoo-r2 

    kernel (hd2,5)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-gentoo-r2 root=/dev/sdc6 irqpoll

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: Gentoo 2.6.22-gentoo-r5 Kernel###

title Gentoo 2.6.22-gentoo-r5 

    kernel (hd2,5)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-gentoo-r5 root=/dev/sdc6 irqpoll

I've retained one of the older pre-libata kernels so that I can access other drives should I need to do so.

----------

## HyperQuantum

 *HyperQuantum wrote:*   

>  *A.S. Pushkin wrote:*   My past two emerge --sync's have left two kernels that freeze at the grub splash screen. These are
> 
> 2.6.21-gentoo-r4 and 2.6.22-gentoo-r2. So what is the new feature? Searching the forums and the docs gives me no solid 
> 
> info. 
> ...

 

FYI, I have solved my problem by starting over with an empty (i.e. default) kernel config for 2.6.22, enabling the things I need and recompiling the kernel.

----------

