kernel panic while booting custom compiled 2.6.24 kernel on RHEL 4 AS
 

Hi,

I had successfully compiled the kernel 2.6.24 but when I tried to boot with the kernel, the kernel panic - saying the lvm unable to find the VolGroup00 and exited abnormally. I tried with both RAID and device-mapper as built-in and as module but none worked.

Kernel documentation mentioned that udev version must me 089 and mine was 039 earlier. So I downloaded the udev's latest version (118) and installed but the boot problem is still not solved.

The current kernel version is 2.6.9-55ELsmp. Earlier I successfully compiled and booted the 2.6.17.3 kernel and but the latest kernel 2.6.24 is giving me the problem.

Please help me........

Thanks,
SAM

here is the problem when you did the make install you did not go to lilo.cof file and add the kernel the big problem is you did not rename your old kernel from vmlinuz to vmlinuz-2.6xx what ever then change it to let grub or lillo to use it that way so now when you did your make install it changed your old /boot/vmlinuz to vmlinuz.old. and now your system cant boot it.
you should always rename your old kernel before installing the new one and add it to you lilo or groub menu1st. make sure you did a make module_install also. so if your old vmlinuz is like mine 2.6.21.5-smp-huge-smp and and it was symlinked to a vmlinuz when you did your make install it changed it. if you did everything right and it panics then the reason is in grub or lilo you did not till it where the root is /dev/hda1 etc. or if you have a system that needs a initrd.img to boot also with the vmlinuz then you need to make one. but lets hope you did have a couple other kernels already built with modules so you can get the suystem running again to fix it because even with a live distro that is work fixing it. so if you can get it booted go into you grub or lilo and make sure that it is pointin to the right kernels and initrd.imges if needed and and save it the run lilo again or start grub good luck.

the old 2.6.17 kernel scrpits would actualy rewite lilo and add the kernel. but I have notices sence about 2.6.18 it does not do that for you. you will have to do it manually then re run /sbin/lilo

Hi Drakeo,

I am using grub instead of lilo. It doesn't seem like a problem with boot loader. Here are the commands I used to configure, compile and install.
1) make O=build/ gconfig
2) make O=build/
3) make O=build/ modules_install
4) make O=build/ install

The 4th command automatically installed the kernel image, changed the symbolic link of vmlinuz to my kernel image and added the new kernel's boot menu to the grub.conf file.

The problem is with the "LVM". The new kernel is not able to find the volume group of LVM.
The exact error message is as given below:
===================================================================================
Loading ata_piix.ko module
Loading dm-mod.ko module
device-mapper: ioctl: 4.12.0-ioctl (2007-10-02) initialised: dm-devel@redhat.com
Loading jbd.ko module
Loading ext3.ko module
Loading dm-mirror.ko module
Loading dm-zero.ko module
Loading dm-snapshot.ko module
Making device-mapper control node
Scanning logical volumes
Reading all physical volumens. This may take a while...
No volume groups found
lvm used greatest stack depth: 2408 bytes left
Activating logical volumnes
Volume group "VolGroup00" not found
ERROR: /bin/lvm exited abnormally! (pid 464)
Creating root device
Mounting root filesystem
mount: error 6 mounting ext3
mount: error 2 mounting none
Switch to new root
switchroot: mount failed: 22
umount /initrd/dev failed: 2
Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!
===================================================================================

Hope this error message might help you to solve my problem.

I dont use grub alot but I have it on two of my debian system and it looks nothing like that here is on of my grubs. this is the menu.1st file that grub looks at to load the systems. if you do not have a menu.1st file the you have to type by command.
#
# Start GRUB global section
#timeout 30
color light-gray/blue black/light-gray
# End GRUB global section
# Linux bootable partition config begins
title Linux (on /dev/sda1)
root (hd2,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda1 ro vga=normal
# Linux bootable partition config ends
# Linux bootable partition config begins
title Linux (on /dev/hda2)
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 ro vga=normal
# Linux bootable partition config ends
# Linux bootable partition config begins
title Linux (on /dev/hdb1)
root (hd1,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hdb1 ro vga=normal
# Linux bootable partition config ends
title Install GRUB to floppy disk (on /dev/fd0)
pause Insert a formatted floppy disk and press enter.
root (hd0,1)
setup (fd0)
pause Press enter to continue.
title Install GRUB to Linux partition (on /dev/hda2)
root (hd0,1)
setup (hd0,1)
pause Press enter to continue.
title - For help press 'c', then type: 'help'
root (hd0)
title - For usage examples, type: 'cat /boot/grub/usage.txt'
not I built my kernels so I do not need a initrd.img good luck.