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This is a continuation of the post "debian 3.0r2 smbfs fails and module not
present." I lost that post for some reason so I have to start a new one.

What I have: Installing 3.0r2 Woody as fresh install for testing on both a
Duron 1K box and an old Pentium 233 box (now I'm focusing on the P233 box).
I have performed fresh installs with both the bf2.4 kernel and the 2.2.20
kernel. Both of those install and work fine. At Andreas Janssen's
recommendation I re-installed the bf2.4 kernel so dselect could see that it
was installed.

Then I decide I want to install the kernel 2.4.18-12.1tsc from dselect. I
select this because it looks like the newest build kernel to me and I figure
it will have lots of built-in support for different modules I may want (is
this right?). This is an initrd image so I modify the lilo.conf file to add
a initrd=/initrd.img as requested by the installer. On a previous reinstall
I hard-coded the image name (e.g. initrd=/boot/initrd.img-2.4.18-k7 for the
Duron box) but this time I let the symbolic link the installer creates
handle the job, meaning I used initrd=/initrd.img and the installer says it
creates a symbolic link to the actual kernel file.

The system(s) boot up and let me log in but I have a few problems. I'd copy
the syslog but I can't get at it to copy it to a Windows box to post.
Anyway, the one is that the network apparently doesn't work. My fstab file
is completely gone (deleted?) and I get an error in the syslog that
"warning: can't open etc/mtab - no such file or directory."

I also get a weird message RAMDISK loading 2640 blocks [1 disk] into RAM
disk... and then 6 lines of ^H\^H\ characters with |done at the end. It
looks like no modules load because smbfs doesn't work which is no surprise
because it looks like the network doesn't work either. I see no special
errors in syslog but then I don't know what I'm looking at and it appears
the problems are things not loading at all, not that they try to load and
generate an error.

I read in a post somewhere that suggested that people upgrading the modules
(?) before installing this kernel (can't find page now). Does this help?

Also, Andreas' suggestion with the vga16ff in lilo.conf did not change the
large video text issue.

What am I missing??

Fix: I ran modconf and added (re-added) smbfs and (more importantly) my
Realtek network adapter. This fixed the network problem.

This leads me to believe you MUST run modconf after installing an initrc
kernel image over the non-initrc bf2.4 or the 2.2.20. It's as if none of my
original bf2.4 setup settings were mapped over to the new kernel.

Obviously running modconf fixed some of my problems with the kernel upgrade.
With that in mind, is there something else I need to run that is missing or
are the modules the only thing that would change? Is there a way to force a
menu-driven setup similar to the initial setup run from the CDs or does
running modconf pretty much take care of anything that would have died?

If re-running modconf is a required procedure following the upgrade to a
initrc kernel, I wonder why a warning isn't posted at the same time as the
"you need to add a initrc=initrc.img" warning during the initial setup.

This still doesn't explain why my fstab file disappeared and why my video
mode changed. This goes back to the 'do I need to re-run some sort of setup
program?' question above. I'm guessing the new kernel doesn't know what
kind of video card I have because it never went through some setup
procedure. I wonder if fstab is created during setup as a result of some
other procedure that needs to be run now that the new kernel is installed.

Again, I'm just running stock installs using WoodyR2 CDs and ftp package
updates and security updates on a couple of plain-jane Pentium boxes with
old non-nVidia PCI video cards. Changes are all made from dselect using
stable package listings. No custom kernels or custom non-apt packages or
anything fancy.

I hope this info helps! Thanks in advance for any help.


"Film" <film@eleven.org> wrote in message
news:4a1e2$40338aac$d841acd5$14346@allthenewsgroup s.com...
> This is a continuation of the post "debian 3.0r2 smbfs fails and module
not
> present." I lost that post for some reason so I have to start a new one.
>
> What I have: Installing 3.0r2 Woody as fresh install for testing on both
a
> Duron 1K box and an old Pentium 233 box (now I'm focusing on the P233
box).
> I have performed fresh installs with both the bf2.4 kernel and the 2.2.20
> kernel. Both of those install and work fine. At Andreas Janssen's
> recommendation I re-installed the bf2.4 kernel so dselect could see that
it
> was installed.
>
> Then I decide I want to install the kernel 2.4.18-12.1tsc from dselect. I
> select this because it looks like the newest build kernel to me and I
figure
> it will have lots of built-in support for different modules I may want (is
> this right?). This is an initrd image so I modify the lilo.conf file to
add
> a initrd=/initrd.img as requested by the installer. On a previous
reinstall
> I hard-coded the image name (e.g. initrd=/boot/initrd.img-2.4.18-k7 for
the
> Duron box) but this time I let the symbolic link the installer creates
> handle the job, meaning I used initrd=/initrd.img and the installer says
it
> creates a symbolic link to the actual kernel file.
>
> The system(s) boot up and let me log in but I have a few problems. I'd
copy
> the syslog but I can't get at it to copy it to a Windows box to post.
> Anyway, the one is that the network apparently doesn't work. My fstab
file
> is completely gone (deleted?) and I get an error in the syslog that
> "warning: can't open etc/mtab - no such file or directory."
>
> I also get a weird message RAMDISK loading 2640 blocks [1 disk] into RAM
> disk... and then 6 lines of ^H\^H\ characters with |done at the end. It
> looks like no modules load because smbfs doesn't work which is no surprise
> because it looks like the network doesn't work either. I see no special
> errors in syslog but then I don't know what I'm looking at and it appears
> the problems are things not loading at all, not that they try to load and
> generate an error.
>
> I read in a post somewhere that suggested that people upgrading the
modules
> (?) before installing this kernel (can't find page now). Does this help?
>
> Also, Andreas' suggestion with the vga16ff in lilo.conf did not change
the
> large video text issue.
>
> What am I missing??
>
>

Hello

Film (<film@eleven.org>) wrote:

> Fix: I ran modconf and added (re-added) smbfs and (more importantly)
> my Realtek network adapter. This fixed the network problem.
>
> This leads me to believe you MUST run modconf after installing an
> initrc kernel image over the non-initrc bf2.4 or the 2.2.20. It's as
> if none of my original bf2.4 setup settings were mapped over to the
> new kernel.
>
> Obviously running modconf fixed some of my problems with the kernel
> upgrade. With that in mind, is there something else I need to run that
> is missing or are the modules the only thing that would change? Is
> there a way to force a menu-driven setup similar to the initial setup
> run from the CDs or does running modconf pretty much take care of
> anything that would have died?

The reason probably is that the installation kernels like bf24 have a
lot of drivers compiled into the kernel, while the normal 2.4.18
kernels have nearly everything compiled as modules (this is also the
reason why they use an initrd: without it you could not access the
hardware your root file system is on, as well as the root file system
itself).

> If re-running modconf is a required procedure following the upgrade to
> a initrc kernel, I wonder why a warning isn't posted at the same time
> as the "you need to add a initrc=initrc.img" warning during the
> initial setup.
>
> This still doesn't explain why my fstab file disappeared and why my
> video mode changed. This goes back to the 'do I need to re-run some
> sort of setup program?' question above. I'm guessing the new kernel
> doesn't know what kind of video card I have because it never went
> through some setup procedure. I wonder if fstab is created during
> setup as a result of some other procedure that needs to be run now
> that the new kernel is installed.

Maybe the old kernel was using the vesafb driver, which has to be
compiled into the kernel to work. It is not compiled into the 2.4.18-1
images, so maybe this is the reason the video mode changed. Maybe the
new kernel does not a framebuffer driver, so you could try to load one
and set some high-resolution mode. The vga16 driver should work on most
systems, but there are also other drivers for special cards, like the
rivafb driver for nvidia cards.

best regards
Andreas Janssen

--
Andreas Janssen <andreas.janssen@bigfoot.com>
PGP-Key-ID: 0xDC801674
Registered Linux User #267976
http://www.andreas-janssen.de/debian-tipps.html

"Andreas Janssen" <andreas.janssen@bigfoot.com> wrote in message
news:c136fu$sha$06$1@news.t-online.com...
> Hello
>
> Film (<film@eleven.org>) wrote:
>
> > Fix: I ran modconf and added (re-added) smbfs and (more importantly)
> > my Realtek network adapter. This fixed the network problem.
> >
> > This leads me to believe you MUST run modconf after installing an
> > initrc kernel image over the non-initrc bf2.4 or the 2.2.20. It's as
> > if none of my original bf2.4 setup settings were mapped over to the
> > new kernel.
> >
> > Obviously running modconf fixed some of my problems with the kernel
> > upgrade. With that in mind, is there something else I need to run that
> > is missing or are the modules the only thing that would change? Is
> > there a way to force a menu-driven setup similar to the initial setup
> > run from the CDs or does running modconf pretty much take care of
> > anything that would have died?
>
> The reason probably is that the installation kernels like bf24 have a
> lot of drivers compiled into the kernel, while the normal 2.4.18
> kernels have nearly everything compiled as modules (this is also the
> reason why they use an initrd: without it you could not access the
> hardware your root file system is on, as well as the root file system
> itself).
>
> > If re-running modconf is a required procedure following the upgrade to
> > a initrc kernel, I wonder why a warning isn't posted at the same time
> > as the "you need to add a initrc=initrc.img" warning during the
> > initial setup.
> >
> > This still doesn't explain why my fstab file disappeared and why my
> > video mode changed. This goes back to the 'do I need to re-run some
> > sort of setup program?' question above. I'm guessing the new kernel
> > doesn't know what kind of video card I have because it never went
> > through some setup procedure. I wonder if fstab is created during
> > setup as a result of some other procedure that needs to be run now
> > that the new kernel is installed.
>
> Maybe the old kernel was using the vesafb driver, which has to be
> compiled into the kernel to work. It is not compiled into the 2.4.18-1
> images, so maybe this is the reason the video mode changed. Maybe the
> new kernel does not a framebuffer driver, so you could try to load one
> and set some high-resolution mode. The vga16 driver should work on most
> systems, but there are also other drivers for special cards, like the
> rivafb driver for nvidia cards.

By loading the driver, do you mean select one in modconf?

(Thanks for earlier reply.)

>
> best regards
> Andreas Janssen
>
> --
> Andreas Janssen <andreas.janssen@bigfoot.com>
> PGP-Key-ID: 0xDC801674
> Registered Linux User #267976
> http://www.andreas-janssen.de/debian-tipps.html

Hello

Film (<film@eleven.org>) wrote:

> "Andreas Janssen" <andreas.janssen@bigfoot.com> wrote
>
>> Maybe the old kernel was using the vesafb driver, which has to be
>> compiled into the kernel to work. It is not compiled into the
>> 2.4.18-1 images, so maybe this is the reason the video mode changed.
>> Maybe the new kernel does not a framebuffer driver, so you could try
>> to load one and set some high-resolution mode. The vga16 driver
>> should work on most systems, but there are also other drivers for
>> special cards, like the rivafb driver for nvidia cards.
>
> By loading the driver, do you mean select one in modconf?

Yes, or by loading it with modprobe and adding it to /etc/modules (which
is what modconf does). However, if you want to have the driver
available from the beginning, you may have to add it to the initrd.
Also call dmesg and see if it tells you anything about the mode and
driver that is used for your consoles.

best regards
Andreas Janssen

--
Andreas Janssen <andreas.janssen@bigfoot.com>
PGP-Key-ID: 0xDC801674
Registered Linux User #267976
http://www.andreas-janssen.de/debian-tipps.html

Yes, adding (or re-adding) the vga16fb module under the Video section put
the screen back the way it was.

So...upgrading to an initrd type of kernel wipes out many previous device
settings autodetected during the initial kernel install (2.2.20 or bf24)
from the CD. The new kernel will boot but you must add these devices
manually in the initrd kernel.

I had to load the following modules using modconf to get the same device
support I had in the initial install bf24 kernel: video (vga16fb), network
(Intel Pro100), and I also added smbfs for Samba. Recall that I upgraded to
the newer kernel to get smbfs support.

Interesting note: Once all the modules are readded the fstab file
reappears. Not sure why that happens.

Thanks for your help.

"Andreas Janssen" <andreas.janssen@bigfoot.com> wrote in message
news:c139l0$1qg$06$1@news.t-online.com...
> Hello
>
> Film (<film@eleven.org>) wrote:
>
> > "Andreas Janssen" <andreas.janssen@bigfoot.com> wrote
> >
> >> Maybe the old kernel was using the vesafb driver, which has to be
> >> compiled into the kernel to work. It is not compiled into the
> >> 2.4.18-1 images, so maybe this is the reason the video mode changed.
> >> Maybe the new kernel does not a framebuffer driver, so you could try
> >> to load one and set some high-resolution mode. The vga16 driver
> >> should work on most systems, but there are also other drivers for
> >> special cards, like the rivafb driver for nvidia cards.
> >
> > By loading the driver, do you mean select one in modconf?
>
> Yes, or by loading it with modprobe and adding it to /etc/modules (which
> is what modconf does). However, if you want to have the driver
> available from the beginning, you may have to add it to the initrd.
> Also call dmesg and see if it tells you anything about the mode and
> driver that is used for your consoles.
>
> best regards
> Andreas Janssen
>
> --
> Andreas Janssen <andreas.janssen@bigfoot.com>
> PGP-Key-ID: 0xDC801674
> Registered Linux User #267976
> http://www.andreas-janssen.de/debian-tipps.html