problems with new kernel and modules

Forum: USB booting
Topic: problems with new kernel and modules
started by: mark_one

Posted by mark_one on Jan. 06 2006,12:42

hi there.
i need your help please!!!
i'll try to make it as short as possible:
i remastered dsl-2.0RC3b.iso, changed the windowmanager... and so on. i also compiled a new kernel. i used the sources from kernel.org (kernel 2.4.31) and a dsl-2.0-config. i stripped down the config because i don't need all the flags and modules. after that, i copied the minirt24.gz, gunzipped it, mounted it and replaced the necessary modules... cloop, usb-ohci.o and so on, which means that i copied the modules that i've compiled for the new kernel. in the end i created the new image, used the pendrive script (which i have modified to fit my needs) to write the image to an usb-stick and tried to boot it. now here's the problem:
when i try to boot the standard dsl-kernel everything works, but when i want to boot my own kernel, i get an error message and then i'm dropped to the grub-shell. the messages i get (after commenting out the ">/dev/null"s in the linuxrc) are like "/modules/scsi/usb**: init_module: ... insmod errors can be caused by incorrect modules parameters, including invalid IO or IRQ parameters"
so the reason that the system doesn't boot is: some modules aren't loaded correctly, especially the usb-ohci.o module. i wasn't able to figure out yet, why the hell it doesn't work. i downloaded the kernel, applied the knoppix-patch, copied over the dsl-config, made "oldconfig", made "menuconfig", and then made "dep" "bzImage" "modules" and "modules_install", so everything should be alright. and yes, i made sure that there are all modules that i need. and of course i enabled loop-support, zlib-compression (for cloop support), initrd-support (and so on) in the config file. and i changed the isolinux.cfg in the boot folder. but it's always the same: the modules aren't loaded correctly and i get messages about unresolved symbols.
can anyone give me a hint, why the modules aren't loaded correctly although they are compiled for the kernel i use?
(i made a symlink for gcc --> gcc-2.95 and g++ --> g++-2.95 so that i can be sure that always the right compiler is used)

for your information:
the kernel, modules and the new dsl-iso are created under debian3.1 and then written to a kingston usb-stick. the machine i want to boot has a VIA Epia ME6000 board (no hdd, no cdrom, no pci cards, just the plain board)

any ideas?

greetings

mark

Posted by mark_one on Jan. 08 2006,11:53

hi again.

no one? no tipps, hints or anything else that could lead me into the right direction?
the strange thing is that sometimes (after compiling a new kernel+modules) the modules work and sometimes they don't work and i get symbol errors. the only module that doesn't want to load at all is usb-ohci.o.
i even tried to use the new kernel and the old inirtd. since it's the same kernelversion i thought, maybe the usb-ohci.o module would work. but it doesn't.

greetings

mark

Posted by ~thc on Jan. 08 2006,14:34

your really remastered dsl 2.0RC3?. dsl 2.0 has a typo in the linuxrc script which prevents usb-ohci from getting loaded at all.

Posted by mark_one on Jan. 08 2006,18:04

hello.

yes, i remastered dsl-2.0RC3. there's a typo in the linuxrc???
where? the only lines concerning the usb-ohci.o module are this ones:

[...]
240 if test -f /modules/scsi/usbcore.o; then
241 $INSMOD /modules/scsi/usbcore.o
242 FOUNDUSB=""
243 for i in usb-uhci.o usb-ohci.o ehci-hcd.o ; do
244 test -f /modules/scsi/$i && $INSMOD /modules/scsi/$i &&
FOUNDUSB="yes"
245 done
[...]

what i know is that the usbcore module has to be loaded before trying to load usb-uhci.o, usb-ohci.o or ehci-hcd.o.
and: if there is a typo, why are there no problems with the standard-kernel and its modules, because when booting the standard-kernel, the usb-ohci.o module loads without problems.
now i'm really confused.

any other tipps, concerning the symbol errors?

greetings

mark

Posted by ~thc on Jan. 08 2006,18:32

oops - i did make a mistake here: the typo concerned ehci-hcd.o only (and your version doesn't contain that typo - must be in the 2.0 release version only).

have you remastered KNOPPIX (/lib/modules) also?

it seems that your kernel somehow 'doesn't like' the minirt ramdisk bootup phase. does any of your kernel changes touch the ramdisk subsystem?

Posted by roberts on Jan. 08 2006,19:06

Guys, this has nothing to do with DSL but instead a custom remastering project and is therefore being moved.