[gentoo-user] kernel build - back in the soup.

[Harry Putnam]

I'll say right from the start, that building a new kernel, has always
been a problem for me.  I don't remember ever not having a problem, in
10+ yrs..

Many people here seem to find it completely easy... not me.

So I'm back in the soup.
[I hope what I try to layout below is not overly confusing]

(After install of gentoo-sources-2.6.31-r4)

I started with `make oldconfig'
Moved from that to `make menuconfig'

Trying to mimic all the needed drivers in current running kernel.
But, On the first build and reboot, I got  `kernel panic'

So by now I've rebuilt the kernel 4 times, each time trying to get the
new one to have all the needed drivers that are present in the old
one, but still getting `kernel panic'.

I tried closely comparing the current working kernel with newly built
one. I mean side by side with `make menuconfig' running in both sources.
I cannot tell what it is I'm overlooking.

I copied the latest output painfully off the boot screen, and best I
can make of it, a driver required to let the kernel recognize the
filesystem that / is on, is not getting loaded.  I think its one of
PIIX items.

The thing is, I cannot find the culprit.  For example, examining the
PIIX items in the working kernel and inserting here:

zgrep PIIX /proc/config.gz

 CONFIG_BLK_DEV_PIIX=y
 CONFIG_ATA_PIIX=m
 CONFIG_PATA_MPIIX=y
 # CONFIG_PATA_OLDPIIX is not set
 CONFIG_I2C_PIIX4=m

Try the same thing on the newbuild:

grep  PIIX /usr/src/linux/.config

 CONFIG_BLK_DEV_PIIX=y
 CONFIG_ATA_PIIX=m
 CONFIG_PATA_MPIIX=y
 # CONFIG_PATA_OLDPIIX is not set
 CONFIG_I2C_PIIX4=m

So maybe it is not even related to PIIX....
But let me insert the kernel messages from a failed boot here:
(I've numbered the lines from the bad boot output so as not confuse
them with the good boot messages from kernel 2.6.30-r1
-------        ---------       ---=---       ---------      --------
From Kernel 2.6.31-r4
 
1  hda: ST3160021A, ATA DISK drive
2  hdb: WDC SE3000JB-00KFA0, ATA DISK drive
3  hda: UDMA/100 mode selected
4  hdb: UDMA/100 mode selected
5  hdc: LITE-ON CD-ROM LTN-5291s, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
6  hdd: WDC WD16000JB-00EVA0, ATA DISK drive
7  hdc: UDMA/33 mode selected
8  hdd: UDMA/100 mode selected
9  IDE0 at 0x1f0-0X1f7,0X3f6 on irg 14
10 IDE0 at 0x170-0X177,0X376 on irg 15
-------        ---------       ---=---       ---------      -------- 

NOTE: Comparing a similar section of dmesg from  working kernel
                                                 2.6.30-r1

Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver
piix 0000:00:1f.1: IDE controller (0x8086:0x24db rev 0x02)
PIIX_IDE 0000:00:1f.1: enabling device (0005 -> 0007)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKC] enabled at IRQ 10
PCI: setting IRQ 10 as level-triggered
PIIX_IDE 0000:00:1f.1: PCI INT A -> Link[LNKC] -> GSI 10 (level, low) -> IRQ 10
piix 0000:00:1f.1: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
    ide0: BM-DMA at 0xfc00-0xfc07
    ide1: BM-DMA at 0xfc08-0xfc0f

  ** The part above, I think is where a piix driver is loaded or 
     something (these messages from working kernel 2.6.30-r1)

Probing IDE interface ide0...
Switched to high resolution mode on CPU 0
hda: ST3160021A, ATA DISK drive
hdb: WDC WD3000JB-00KFA0, ATA DISK drive
hda: host max PIO4 wanted PIO255(auto-tune) selected PIO4
hda: UDMA/100 mode selected
hdb: host max PIO4 wanted PIO255(auto-tune) selected PIO4
hdb: UDMA/100 mode selected
Probing IDE interface ide1...
hdc: LITE-ON CD-ROM LTN-5291S, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
hdd: WDC WD1600JB-00EVA0, ATA DISK drive
hdc: host max PIO4 wanted PIO255(auto-tune) selected PIO4
hdc: UDMA/33 mode selected
hdd: host max PIO4 wanted PIO255(auto-tune) selected PIO4
hdd: UDMA/100 mode selected

[...] snipped the rest of dmesg ouput from running kernel
                                      2.6.30.1

-------        ---------       ---=---       ---------      -------- 
   (continuation of messages from failed boot of kernel-2.6.31-r4

11 ide_generic: please use "probe_mask=0x3f" module parameters for probing all legacy IS IDE ports
12 ide-cd driver 5.00
13 ide cd:hdc: ATAPI 52X CD-ROM drive 96kB Cache
14 Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.10
15 Intel(R) PRO/1000 Network Driver version - 7.3.21-k3-NAPI
16 Copyright (c) 1999-2006 Intel Corporation
17 e1000e: Intel(R) Pro/1000 Network Driver, 1.0.2-k2
18: e1000e: Copyright(c) 1999-2008 Intel Corporation
19: e100: Intel (R) PRO/100 Network Driver 3.5.24-k-NAPI
20: e100: Copyright blah blah
21: sky2 driver version 1.23
22: r8169 Gigabit Ethernet driver 2.3LK-NAPI loaded
23: r8169 0000:02:03:0: PCI INT A -> GSI 19 (level,low) -> IRQ 19
24: r8169 0000:02:03:0: no PCI Experss capability
25: eth0  RTL8110s at 0xf8026f00, 00:40:f4:b5:29:41, XID 04000000 IRQ 20
26: r8169 Gigabit Ethernet driver 2.3LK-NAPI loaded
27: r8169 0000:02:06:0: PCI INT A -> GSI 20 (level,low) -> IRQ 20
28: r8169 0000:02:06:0: no PCI Experss capability
29: eth1  RTL8110s at 0xf802ae00, 00:11:09:ee:6c:04, XID 04000000 IRQ 20
30: PnP: PS/2 Controller [PNP0303:PS2K] at 0x60,0x64 IRQ 1
31: PnP: PS/2 appears to have AUX port disabled, if this bla bla
32: serio: i8042 KBD port at 0x60,0x64 IRQ 1
33: mice: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice
34: cupidle: using governors ladder
35: cpuidle: using governor menu
36: TCP cubic registered
37: NET: Registered protocol family 17
38: RPC: Registered udp transport module
39: RPC: Registered udp transport module
40: Using IPI No-Shortcut mode
41: input: AT Translated Set 2 keyboard as /devices/platform/i8042/serio0/input/input2
42: ROOT-NFS: No NFS server available, giving up.
43: VFS: Unable to mount root fs via NFS, trying floppy
44: VFS: Cannot open root device "hda5" or unknown-block(2.0)
45: Please append a correct "root=" boot option - here are the available partitions:
46: 1600       419302 hdc driver: ide-cdrom
47: kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(2.0)
48: Pid: 1: comm: swappers Not tainted 2.6.31-gentoo-r4_rdr-2 #3
49: Call Trace:
50: [<c130cd18>] ? printk+0xf/0x17
51: [<c130cc6e>] panic+0x39/0xd4
 [There were several more lines here]