Fri, 27 May 2005 11:59:50 +0200 - Damjan <gdamjan@gmail.com> :
> > 1) I use mainly ReiserFS, except for my /boot partition which is
> > ext2. Can I safely omit the initrd if I compile ReiserFS directly
> > into the kernel, or is there something else I'd need?
>
> Well, maybe you'll need some IDE drivers. I've always compiled my
> own kernels so I don't know exactly how the 2.6.10 package is done.
> But if you alread boot-ed with it. See what modules were loaded
> (whit lsmod), and from that list you should be able to deduce which
> drivers should be compiled in the kernel.

The default 2.6.x Linux kernel configuration in testing/ already
contains the IDE driver (it is built-in). Note that when switching
from 2.4.x to 2.6.x, swap space should be converted from v0 to v1 with
mkswap : without it, the swap swap won't be mounted at boot time.

> > 2) What exactly does System.map do?
>
> System.map is mostly not used, but sometimes it helps with debuging.
> Also klogd may use it when loging stuff (but its not necesseary).

The System.map file is only used to resolve kernel-space addresses to
symbol names. This operation only happens when there is a general
protection fault is the Linux kernel. For other logging source, it is
quite useless.

> > 3) I have several kernels in /boot, and several according
> > System.map files. Question: when my /boot/grub/menu.lst stanza
> > says "kernel=/vmlinuz-ide-2.4.29", does this mean that
> > automatically the according System.map-ide-2.4.29 will be used
> > (since it bears the same appendice)?
>
> Yes, klogd is the only program that automatically tries to use
> System.map-xx, and it will try to open System.map-`uname -r`. The
> other program that might use System.map is /etc/rc.d/rc.modules...
> and it will also try System.map-`uname -r`.

The Klogd daemon do no try to automatically use System.map-* files. It
only try /boot/System.map (and /System.map, /usr/src/linux/System.map)
which is a symlink to the proper System.map-* file on Linux Slackware.

--
LiNuCe