[NBLUG/talk] hard gentoo problem

[Lincoln Peters]

On Sat, 2004-08-21 at 12:54, ShadowEyez wrote:
> Trying to install x86 Gentoo 2004.2 with stage3, and a custom manual
> 2.4.26 kernel.  Used the command emerge vanilla-sources' to install
> the kernel source code through emerge, set up the .config file through
> make menuconfig finished setting up the install, and rebooted to get
> the message no kernel init=".  I know from past experience this means
> there is no initrd image, but gentoo did not create one, and there is
> no mkinitrd command in gentoo, like in other distros of linux.

The initrd is usually not required for a working Linux system.  As long
as your kernel has the built-in features necessary to mount your root
filesystem and run init, you can compile everything else as modules. 
Only when you need so many kernel features just to run init that the
kernel becomes too big to boot properly do you really need an initrd.

You might need to make sure your system loads certain kernel modules
immediately after starting init (e.g. you might have an add-on IDE
controller that requires support for its specific chipset before you can
mount the filesystem(s) on any device attached to it).  In Debian, I do
this with /etc/modules, but it might be different in Gentoo.

---
Lincoln Peters
<sampln at sbcglobal.net>

There is no such thing as an ugly woman -- there are only the ones who do
not know how to make themselves attractive.
		-- Christian Dior