Kernel Panic, Part 3

Dear Alex Butcher. You wrote

>  I found the error message by grep'ing over the kernel source tree. By 
> reading the source code, I was able to find the commands the kernel looks 
> for on boot.

This is exactly the sort of precision advice I hoped for. I am using the 
command

grep "Kernel panic" -r *.*

on say, /usr/src, to no avail. I think I am too simpleminded with that 
search. I will keep on plugging away. In xconfig I just did a more careful 
look and found that under "File System" it says N for "Ext3 Journalling 
file system support". Gee, is that maybe the source of my problem? (Duhhh!)

You asked,

>If you just want a system to use and do Real Work on, why are you 
>compiling kernels at all?

I currently do "Real Work" with Windows 98, 2000, and XP. With no 
disrespect intended, I don't believe Linux is ready for me yet. On the 
other hand, I have a reasonably intense interest in how operating systems 
work, and nothing is more attractive to me than taking a look at superbly 
refined source-code of a world-class operating system. My immediate goal 
after getting over this silly little kernel panic problem is to put some 
kind of diagnostic printout/display statements into the kernel, then 
re-compile it, and see what happens when, for example, I force context 
switches by turning on some application program. Maybe I will learn about 
using a second machine for debugging. These are the sorts of things I am 
interested in.

Thanks again for your patient and helpful consideration.

Sincerely,
EDC