[pocket-linux] chapter 2: kernel panic if using append=

[David Horton]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mikhail Pronine [mailto:yadba at yahoo.com]
> Sent: Friday, April 30, 2004 03:02 AM
> To: pocket-linux at ufo.chicago.il.us
> Subject: [pocket-linux] chapter 2: kernel panic if using	append="load_ramdisk=1 prompt_ramdisk=1"
> 
> 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.
> 
> 

Mikhail,

Sorry about the confusion on the diskette images.  I am changing some things around on the website and the images have moved.  If you change the hyperlink to use "diskette-images.old" instead of "diskette-images" it should work.

The "append=" line in lilo.conf is a way to pass parameters to the kernel when it boots.  The particular parameters used on the bootdisk tell the kernel to load the root filesystem into a ramdisk.  It seams strange that you got things to work without it.  My best guess is that maybe you forgot to include ramdisk support in your kernel.

Hope that helps.

Dave