Linux booting problems

[Kenny Donahue]

John Abreau wrote:

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>Kenny Donahue <kennyd at mc.com> writes:
>
>  
>
>>Ok.... deeep breath. I'm ready to though
>>Linux out.  I've been fighting with a Linux kernel
>>build for a while now. I'm getting very angry.
>>I can load a Redhat 7.2 distribution and everything
>>works.  I need to patch the kernel for a project at
>>work. so, I do my patch (../fs/proc/base.c if it makes a
>>difference) then....
>>    
>>
>[snip]
>
>I've been running Redhat for ages, and I've found that it's easier to 
>stick with kernel rpms. Fortunately the stock kernel sources include 
>an "rpm" target, so building rpms from the virgin kernel source should 
>be fairly straightforward. The trick is to load the same config that 
>your system is already using, which you'll find in one of the files 
>under /usr/src/linux-2.4/configs, while in "make xconfig". Then apply 
>your changes from that known-good setting. 
>
>Try this:
>
>    make mrproper
>    make xconfig
>        load config from /usr/src/linux-2.4/configs/kernel-2.4.18-i686.conf
>ig
>        add your scsi driver into the kernel
>    make dep
>    make rpm
>    sudo rpm -i /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i686/kernel-2.4.18.i686.rpm
>    edit lilo.conf 
>    ...
>
>When I do this, I like to do the full build without adding my patches, 
>so I can explicitly verify that the pre-patched setup is working. 
>
>Note that you want to "install" (-i) the new kernel, not "upgrade" (-U). 
>That way you don't lose the older kernel that already works correctly, 
>so if the new kernel fails you can still boot the system. 
>  
>
Ok, a quick update.  I have a booting kernel now.  This is where things 
get weird.
I realized that I had a SMP motherboard. I only have one processor in it 
though.
I used the kernel-2.4.7-i586-smp.config added my changes and it all worked.

Right now I rebuilding with the same config file but I shut off SMP just 
to show that
it is a SMP problem.  Unfortunately there are a ton of differences 
between the SMP
version and the non-SMP version of the config files so I can't do a easy 
compare.
wait.... the build just finished...the build using the smp config with 
smp turned off
worked.  Now I'm confused.  I'm going to diff the config files and 
figure out what is
different.
Thanks,
Kenny