[Sussex] Kernel 2.5.47 Problems

[Steve Dobson]

Geoff

On 11/18/2002 Geoff Teale wrote:
<snip>
> Steve wrote:
> > As I recall Linux uses a two stange load processes (FreeBSD uses
> > three).  The boot loader (lilo/grub) is configured with the
> > physical location on disk of the kernel image.  It loads this
> > into memeory and then jumps to it start address.
> > 
> > The first think the kernel does is report it's version and then
> > start de-compressing itself into kernal land.  Do you see the
> >       Linux 2.5.47.........................
> > I've always thought that the dots are the de-compressiong running.
>
> I don't even get this.  It's almost like it can't find the image..
> maybe something more fundemental is wrong.  I'm sure the path in
> my menu.lst is right.. hmmmm

At the risk of embarssing you beyond endurance :-) you did re-run the
grub boot block installer.  I don't use (and know nothing about) grub.

Boot-loaders are normally simple beasts.  They know almost nothing
about the file system on the partion where the kernel image is stored.
The filespec is convert into the location of the inode of the file
and stored in the boot-block for loading.  If this is pointing at an
inode that has been deleted then the kernel will not load.  But I
think you get more than just a blank screen (at least with lilo).
Could it be that grub is is the cause of the problem?  Could you try
installing lilo and trying that.

For those FreeBSD fans out there.

FreeBSD uses a three part boot-loaded.  The boot-block loader loads
the kernel-loader.  The kernel-loader know much more about the file
system and can therefore find the boot image from a config file in
/etc.  More complex to set up and write but simpler for the users
and they don't need to remember to update the boot block everytime
they build a new kernel.

Steve