[wellylug] OOPS .. > 2.6.14 install via Gentoo Live/SysRescue CD

[Adam Felix Bogacki]

I found I had a kernel problem after trying to install dependencies for 
'scribes' in succession when on reboot
I could not get back into my 2.6.5 linux drive.An early error message was ..

Error inserting genrtc 
(lib/modules.2.6.5-1-686/kernel/drivers/char/genrtc.ko): Device or 
resource busy.
/etc/init.d/syslog start

.. and later

Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0)

.. and a long excerpt starting with

grep: error while loading shared libraries: libpcre.so.3: cannot open 
shared object file: No such file or directory

.. and a lot of '/etc/rc5.d/S20*' messages ending in 'no such file or 
directory'

I found I could log in at tty1 but could not find /home/adam or use vi 
or vim.

I had previously burned a gentoo-based SysRescue CD for resizing 
partitions and tried to access my dir tree through it.
I finally worked out how to do it but could never successfully use 
'net-setup eth0' - I've since discovered I was mistakenly entering
wrong values. Nevertheless, through it - and later the much more 
feature-rich Gentoo LiveCD i could get in and look around
although I was often confusing the CD fs with my own.  Jamie suggested 
that it could be caused by the initrd missing the device nodes, or 
kernel modules, required to boot hdb5 (/) .. I could not find an 
initrd.img file, /var/log/syslog had its last entry on Nov 11,
and /var/log/messages ended on July 6.

I began to wonder what else I may be missing ..

root at cdimage /boot % ls
coffee.bmp debian.bmp debian.lilo.bmp grub lost+found sarge.bmp sid.bmp

No sign of /boot/map ..

I kept trying mkinitrd but kept getting caught with various error messages.

I came to the conclusion that I had to recompile the kernel, but since I 
had already unpacked the latest kernel - 2.6.14 - in
/home/adam I decided to proceed with that with the file system mounted 
on the Gentoo LiveCD.

After menuconfig I successfully did

make bzImage

and

make modules

but had problems with 'make modules_install',

livecd linux-2.6.14 # make modules_install
mkdir: cannot create directory '/lib/modules/2.6.14': Read-only file system
make: *** [ _modinst_ ] Error 1

.. which I attributed to its using the CD fs.

On reading Linus' kernel release notes I thought of the possibility of 
bypassing this via

root at cdimage /home/adam/linux-2.6.14/arch/i386/boot cp bzImage 
/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.14

and re-running LiLo

before doing 'modules make_install' from within my own fs

I asked on #gentoo whether this was possible without breaking anything - 
RiverRat assured me it was.

After a bit of fiddling with /etc/lilo.conf I finally manged to boot 
into my own drive with the following messages
which I reproduce manually in some detail in the hope that they mean 
something to someone ..

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Not running depmod because /lib/modules/2.6.14 is not writable
Loading modules ..
grep: error while loading shared libraries libpcre.so.3: cannot open 
shared object file: No such file or directory
FATAL: Could not load /lib/modules/2.6.14/modules.dep: No such file or 
directory
Creating device-mapper files
[screen moves .........]
/etc/rc5.d/S19autofs: line33: basename: command not found
.......
grep: error while loading shared libraries: libpcre.so.3: cannot open 
shared object file: No such file or directory
/etc/rc5.d/S20linuxconf: line 8: /var/run/runlevel.dir: No such file or 
directory
/etc/rc5.d/S20mon: line 32: basename: command not found
/etc/rc5.d/S20postgresql-7.4: line 3: 
/usr/share/postgresql-common/init.d-functions: No such file or directory
/etc/rc5.d/S20postgresql-7.4: line 9: start command not found
/etc/rc5.d/spampd: line 27: tr: command not found
/etc/rc5.d/S20xprint: ##FATAL ERROR: Unknown XProjectRoot.
Starting NFS common utilities: statdstatd: Could not chdir: No such file 
or directory
grep: error while loading shared libraries: libpcre.so.3: cannot open 
shared object file: No such file or directory
/usr/sbin/apache is not executable, not starting, reloading ... failed !

Debian GNU/Linux testing/unstable Tux tty1

Tux login: adam
Password:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

.. so I was in on tty1 at run-level 1

I quickly found that only my Linux root and WinXP partitions were 
auto-mounted - both specified in /etc/lilo.conf
- and I had to manually mount all other partitions except swap (which I 
could not quite work out how to do).

Finally,

Tux: /home/adam/linux-2.6.14# make modules_install
if [ -r System.map -a -x /sbin/depmod ] ; then /sbin/depmod -ae -F 
System.map 2.6.14; fi

Tux: /lib/modules# ls
0.0.0 2.4.18-bf2.4 2.4.25-1-686 2.6.14 2.6.5-1-686

Tux: /lib/modules/2.6.14# ls
build modules.ccwmap modules.inputmap modules.seriomap source
modules.dep modules.isapnpmap modules.symbols
kernel modules.alias modules.ieee1394map modules.pcimap modules.usbmap

.............

As it now stands, I can boot into WinXP on which this is written and  
2.6.14 at will
but the latter is text mode (init 1),  I have to mount other partitions 
manually,
have no access to the internet preventing a dist-upgrade, and no X-server.

/etc/fstab exists and I don't understand why it does not mount all 
partitions at start-up.

I have correctly AFAIK set up /etc/init.d/network but there is no 
internet connection.

I feel I've achieved something but have not yet arrived at a working system.

I'd be grateful for any constructive advice.

Adam Bogacki,
afb at paradise.net.nz