jfontana:

one way of telling which kernel you are running is drop to command line (Alt-Ctl-F1, login as root (with password) and type

inxi -F

this will give you info about your kernel and about your system.

To back to x-windows, do alt-ctl-f7

You can install the Debian kernel from synaptic or from smxi script. The script is very handy but it can also be quite daunting (and I hosed up my box a couple of times using it). You can also try the apt-get suggestion by Anti. Once you have the Debian kernel (or any other kernel) installed, you can update it quite nicely with the smxi script.

In my system the Debian kernel boots slow (compared to MEPIS) but maybe it will fix your slow bootup problem. Finally, look into the liquorix kernel (it was discussed a few days ago, maybe couple of weeks). That runs really nice with Antix.

I hope this helps.

Pedro

The latest MEPIS kernel is 2.6.27-18, but you can also install Debian kernels or sidux kernels.

The Debian kernel is linux-image-2.6.26-1-486

The sidux kernels can be installed by using smxi. smxi is already installed in antiX.

If you install a new kernel, it doesn't remove the old one so you will still be able to revert back to that one if need be.

To get kernel info, and in the case of inxi, even more info, type in a terminal
uname -a or
inxi -F

In my system the Debian kernel boots slow (compared to MEPIS) but maybe it will fix your slow bootup problem. Finally, look into the liquorix kernel (it was discussed a few days ago, maybe couple of weeks). That runs really nice with Antix.

Pedro. I was going to install the Debian kernel when I saw your message saying that the Debian kernel boots slow in your machine compared to MEPIS so I decided to give the liquorix kernel a try.


Sorry to be such a nuisance but how do you install the latest liquorix kernel? I searched through synaptic and nothing came up when I searched for 'liquorix' so I assume liquorix is not in the default repositories.

So what should I do to install this kernel in my antiX? Also, does anybody know the size of a kernel, more or less? I'm short on space and I want to know whether I should uninstall a few things before I install the kernel so that I don't run out of space on my hard disk.

Again, thanks a lot for your help.

Josep M.

I finally decided to install the Debian Kernel to see if I got rid of some of the problems I was having with my boot up process. After installing it, I cannot access antiX with the newest Kernel. I get a message that says:

0.864334] Kernel panic -not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0.0)

I can access selecting the previous kernel in grub.

Can this problem be easily solved or should I try to uninstall the Debian-kernel and try with the liquorix kernel (if I manage to figure out how to install that)?

Jfontana:

I think you may have two different issues here. First, about not being able to boot up with the new kernel: I had the same problems installing sidux and liquorix kernels. I could never get them to run. I finally fixed this issue by changing the entries in my /boot/grub/menu.lst from /dev/hda1 (in some cases it can be /dev/sda1) to the UUID number.

To do this, first open a terminal (as root I think), and type blkid. That will give you all the UUID in your system. In my case it looks like this:

root@oldlaptop:~# blkid
/dev/sda1: UUID="82e41959-4c0a-423e-b9ac-9f83007fb466" TYPE="ext3"
/dev/sda2: TYPE="swap" UUID="8d091c67-f990-44e0-a667-0372212cd472"
/dev/sda3: UUID="cc1fe2fc-dada-4a33-a719-e41544e3edb3" SEC_TYPE="ext2" TYPE="ext3"

/dev/sda1 is my root partition and where all the system stuff (including the kernel) is. Grub look for hda1 and I don't understand the technical details (I'm sure others will have a clearer explanation) but rather than using sda or hda you can use a fixed UUID number. Using this number fixed all my kernel boot problems (which I had for several months, particularly with sidux).

Edit your /boot/grub/menu.lst to replace all entries of /dev/hda1 (or wherever your root partition is) with the appropriate number. So the kernel entries end up looking like this:

title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.28-7.lqx.8-liquorix-686
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-7.lqx.8-liquorix-686 root=UUID=82e41959-4c0a-423e-b9ac-9f83007fb466 ro
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-7.lqx.8-liquorix-686

Now the bad news is that anytime you add a kernel and update your grub/menu.lst, you have to do this all over again.

Now, to install the liquorix kernel: I did it with the smxi script. I don't know if it can be done with synaptic (or apt-get). To do it with smxi: first drop to command line by doing ctl-alt-f1, then log in as root and type smxi. Pay attention to the instructions. If it's the first time you run it, it will go through some configuration parameters (e.g. pick apt-get, default location, etc). Eventually, you will get to a menu that reads: 1) continue; 2) continue-no-dist-upgrade. I would pick 2. The next screen will list several options, 6) kernel options will take you to another screen, 3) advanced kernel options. There you will see the options for installing different kernels: 7) install-liquorix-kernel (btw is about 30 MB). If you chose to install liquorix it will run through the download, the build and install, and also with update your grub/menu.lst (see above) and will ask you if you want to reboot.

If you need to fix your grub/menu.lst (and I always do) you could either reboot into MEPIS or whatever works and change the file and then reboot again, or you could try to restart x windows from the command line (after smxi is done) and then edit the file.

I hope this rather long explanation helps. Perhaps others will have a shorter, easier, cleaner way of doing this.

Good luck with this. Let us know how it goes.

Pedro

The debian kernel = 2.6.26
The Mepis kernel = 2.6.27

clear as mud?

Hi Macondo

The debian kernel = 2.6.26
The Mepis kernel = 2.6.27

clear as mud?

Well, exactly. That was what was confusing for me. I assumed that Mepis was based on Debian. So if the version of the Mepis kernel I had installed had a higher number I didn't see any point in installing a lower version of the Debian Kernel.

Hi Pedro. Thanks again for your help.

Unfortunately, substituting the UUID for the sda did not work. I still get the same error message.

What's more, when I substituted the UUID in the other grub entry (the one that says 'previous kernel') I got the same error message I got with the last kernel entry. I changed it back to the sda and then I was able to access.

Here's what my menu.lst looks like. The first entry is the one I added following your instructions. When I choose 'DEBIAN, newest kernel' I get the error I reported ("0.864334] Kernel panic -not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0.0)"). I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

gfxmenu /boot/grub/message

title DEBIAN, newest kernel
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.26-1-486 root=UUID=5fdac55d-feda-4282-a52b-ce91702cbaba nomce quiet vga=791 resume=/dev/sda2
#kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda5 nomce quiet vga=791 resume=/dev/sda2 unsplash (original line)
#initrd /boot/initrd.img (original line removed)
boot


title MEPIS at sda5, newest kernel
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=UUID=5fdac55d-feda-4282-a52b-ce91702cbaba nomce quiet vga=791 resume=/dev/sda2
#kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda5 nomce quiet vga=791 resume=/dev/sda2 unsplash (original line)
#initrd /boot/initrd.img (original line removed)
boot

title MEPIS at sda5, previous kernel (if any)
root (hd0,4)
#kernel /boot/vmlinuz.old root=UUID=5fdac55d-feda-4282-a52b-ce91702cbaba nomce quiet vga=791 resume=/dev/sda2
kernel /boot/vmlinuz.old root=/dev/sda5 nomce quiet vga=791 resume=/dev/sda2 unsplash
boot

...
title Microsoft Windows XP Professional at sda1
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

The UUID I got by issuing the blkid command which gave me the following results:

/dev/sda1: UUID="DC2C9F4D2C9F2196" LABEL="IBM_PRELOAD" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sda2: TYPE="swap" UUID="ee572e11-b977-46c8-89ef-300a3c5e652d"
/dev/sda5: UUID="5fdac55d-feda-4282-a52b-ce91702cbaba" TYPE="ext3"

I copied the UUID for /dev/sda5 because sda5 is what was mentioned in menu.lst rather than sda1.

jfontana:

I'm sorry that it's still not working for you. I'm reaching near the end of (perhaps even gone past) my expertise. I noticed a difference between your grub menu and mine though. Here's what mine looks like for the debian kernel:

title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.26-1-486
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.26-1-486 root=UUID=82e41959-4c0a-423e-b9ac-9f83007fb466 ro
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.26-1-486


I noticed that in yours, you have the kernel and initrd lines commented out. I don't know if that makes a difference or not, but in all my kernels, both lines are NOT commented out. I hope someone else can offer more helpful advice.

One last thing I would try (I guess out of stuborness and not knowing when to quit) would be to re-install the debian kernel using smxi.

Good luck!

Pedro