Grub and/or kernel problem...

[William O'Higgins Witteman]

I have recently created a problem for myself, and I'm hoping someone can
help me sort it out.

I recently compiled a custom kernel (2.6.12) the Debian way, and I think
it probably worked - the compile finished cleanly, and the kernel
installed and grub got automagically updated.  However, grub got updated
wrong, and even when it is fixed, the new kernel doesn't boot.

Here's what grub did by default:

title       Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.12.dragonfly
root        (hd1,0)
kernel      /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.12.dragonfly root=/dev/hdb1 ro
savedefault
boot

title       Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.8-2-386
root        (hd1,0)
kernel      /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.8-2-386 root=/dev/hdb1 ro
initrd      /boot/initrd.img-2.6.8-2-386
savedefault
boot

Now, there's only one drive on this machine - /dev/hdb doesn't exist,
nor does hd1,0.  So I had to fix those errors, but I don't know where
they are coming from.

Once I have corrected the drive address problem I can once again boot
into the second (stock) kernel, but I get a kernel panic if I try to
boot the first, with the following errors:

VFS: Cannot open root device "hda1" or unknown block (0,0)
Please append a correct "root =" boot option
Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: unable to mount root fs on unknown
block (0,0)

I have considered that the lack of an initrd image could be the problem,
but I don't know how to create such an image - the manpage of mkinitrd
made absolutely no sense to me, and several attempts have not appeared
to help.  Anyone have any ideas?  Thanks.
-- 

yours,

William

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