partitions not mounting

[peted]

Redhat 7.2 and trying to build a 2.4.9-34 kernel for a hogwash project (just look hogwash up...).

I can get the kernel built "by the book" and installed. When I boot to the new kernel, only the / (root) mounts. No other partitions mount.

here are the steps I used (I had no errors):
make mrproper
make xconfig (did what hogwash settings said to do)
make dep
make
make bzImage
make modules
make install
make modules_install
configured Grub

It works fine but /usr et. al. don't mount. I can use a different "grub" choice (the originally installed rpm kernel for 2.4.9-34) and everything works.

For some reason, the custom kernel for 2.4.9.34 doesn't/can't mount all the partitions.

I did find this error in the /var/log/messages file:
modprobe: Can't locate modules ext3
modprobe: Can't locate modules freeext3

Any help would be appreciated.

[Icarus]

Looks like you forgot to compile it with ext3 support

"Under the filesystems menu, select ext3. Please also select "JBD debugging support", as it will produce useful diagnostics if something goes wrong. You shouldn't normally select "Buffer head tracing" - it uses a lot of memory. However if you do see `assertion failures' from ext3, please see if you can reproduce them with buffer tracing enabled before reporting them - that will provide much useful information.

The filesystem may be compiled into the kernel or built as a module. Building it into the kernel can simplify the gathering of diagnostic information if something fails."

Red Hat has some extra steps for kernel compiling...
Also if you have any SCSI drives youll need to make the initrd image (http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-7.2-Manual/custom-guide/custom-kernel.html)

[flippantfig]

I would try building the file systems support (ext2, ext3 fat32 etc etc) into the kernel rather than as modules, because 'Can't locate modules' suggests to me that the kernel is trying to load the file system modules off a file system that it needs the modules for :confused: .....

rebuild the it but put the system support into the kernel, no harm in trying. I think you can get round this by building in ramdisk support too but I have never tried that bit before. :)

OOPS! Beaten to it!

[peted]

You are both da man (or woman if female)!!

Working great now.

It is weird that ext3 is the default (was in my install) but kernel builds don't have it on by default.

I am coming back to Linux, sort of, from freebsd but I knew I could depend on the Linux gurus to save my *ss.

Thanks a million.