linux kernel install problems, please help i am gonna go crazy

[hans007]

i have this project for my operating systems class, i need to add a system call to the kernel. anyways that part is easy. but i need the kernel to recompile. they told us to use mandrake 7.2 anyways i install mandrake 7.2 and all is good, i cant get X to work but thats ok since i dont need it.

this is all on an HP n3190 laptop (i also tried this on an n3410 and it didnt make any difference).

anyways i tried to download the source for kernel 2.2.17 and just recompile it and put it on a floppy to boot off of so i wouldnt screw it up. so i go

make oldconfig
make clean
make dep
make
make bzdisk


its crashes every time on make bzdisk , and says something about error2, right after it is making the system.map file.


anyways they will also let us use kernel 2.4.3 if we cant get 2.2.17 to work, so i tried that did all the same things with make, and it compiled onto the floppy. so i put the floppy in and it boots, and it looks like its starting.

then its all looking at all the devices, and it gets to
agpgart: detected intel 440bx chipset and just freezes there.


this laptop has a 440mx chipset btw, and well that is very similar to a 440bx but its not the same. anyways can someone help, i would like to finish this stupid project, but linux happens to be about 80000 x 10 to the 400th power harder to use the windows XP and since it keeps stalling i am going to kill it. if linux torvalds was here, i'd have killed him already by smashing his face in with this laptop... anyways please help.

 

[Carceri]

I haven't checked recently but I believe that support for the 440mx should be added by now (they were working on it in year 2000). I think that the chipset being detected as a bx is your problem.

Also, if anything is compiled as modules you forget to do a

make modules
make modules_install

after the make bzdisk. Since I have no idea what your .config file looks like I don't know what you have choosen to compile and what not.

I have compiled several different linux kernels for a lot of different hardware, and so far no problems once you identify all the correct hardware before you compile.

 

[Peter]

This isn't the question to ask in _this_ forum, but anyway. Compiling a Linux kernel is about the hardest test on a computer's
stability. If it fails, then something is wrong with your hardware (unless you screwed the build process up with your own
additions ).

regards, Peter

 

[Armitage]

<< This isn't the question to ask in _this_ forum, but anyway. Compiling a Linux kernel is about the hardest test on a computer's
stability. If it fails, then something is wrong with your hardware (unless you screwed the build process up with your own
additions ).

regards, Peter >>



Yea, I'll second this. Failure during a kernel build oftens means hardware stability issues.

Also, why are you messing around with putting the kernel on a floppy? Take a look at the documentation for the bootloader your using (lilo or grub, probably lilo for Mandrake 7.2) and figure out how to add a second kernel to your boot options.

 

[hans007]

i have tried all those things. i got lilo to put the other image as "linux-dev" i tried both kernels, and well, it dies every time. i am gonna give up an use the school computer labs now