[pocket-linux] chapter 2: kernel panic if using append="load_ramdisk=1 prompt_ramdisk=1"

[Mikhail Pronine]

Hi,

i have just  started to study the pocket linux guide 
and want to share my experience concerning the very
first kernel 
in chapter two.
I followed the instructions and created the boot disk
and the root
disk (in particular i compiled the bash-2.05a package
with the 
"--host=i386-pc-linux-gnu" option and used the same 
lilo.conf file
as in the guide). I booted with the boot disk with the
"bootdisk
init=/bin/sh"
command at the boot prompt. Further, i was asked to
insert the root
disk.
At that point i had a problem. No shell prompt
appeared, instead 
i received some messages including "unable to handle
kernel NULL
pointer".
I had to restart.

I think i encountered the similar problem as described
in the message
"From Peter.Robinson at t-online.de  Thu Jan  8
14:58:33 2004"

I failed to download the kernel and root disk images
from
http://my.core.com/~dhorton/linux/pocket/ as
recommended by Dave in 
the reply to the message above. (Where are the images
located now?)

So i tried to change something during the creation of
the disk images.
For instance, I compiled the bash without the
"--host=i386-pc-linux-gnu"
option and compiled the kernel for the i586 processor.

It does not help at all.

Then, i tried to figure out what the options in the
lilo.conf file mean.
I do not know whether the option

append="load_ramdisk=1 prompt_ramdisk=1"

in lilo.conf is relevant. I commented it out with

#append="load_ramdisk=1 prompt_ramdisk=1"

keeping the rest of the file unchanged. 
I repeated the steps in the guide again and now it
seems to work
properly!
I get to the shell prompt where the commands "pwd",
"cd", "echo" work as
expected.

Note that i used the kernel for the i586 processor and
the corresponding
bash.
Hopefully the same works also for the i386 version.

Could anydody explain me why i have this problem with
the "append"
option?
Is it an acceptable workaround just to comment out the
feature?

I am using the 2.4.10 kernel.

Mikhail.

P. S. Thanks to David Horton for the pocket linux
guide. I find it very
useful and interesting.


	
		
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