Hello,
I have twice compiled kernel 2.6.27.8 from source. During make it detects 5 problems but they don't look significant and 'make CONFIG_DEBUG_SECTION_MISMATCH=y' resolves this problem. However after booting from this kernel and its relative initrd.img, the process stops at devfs and kernel panic. The system is unable to read /lib/modules/[kernel]/modules.dep. IMHO this is basically an indicator of the ide drivers not working.
During make menuconfig, I observed that the IDE modules can only be included as modules <M>, not 'in-built' in the kernel like <*>. In one section, the Help contents even mention that this option should not be used if your root system is on the IDE drive. This could mean that while the booting drive is not IDE ( means SATA ), the other drive detected after booting can be IDE.
My system is an Intel 845 with IDE drives. Has anyone on this list successfully booted from 2.6.27.8 using an IDE HDD on an 845 chipset mobo? Do the new kernels mean goodbye to old hardware? Could this be one reason why K/Ubuntu 8.10 does not boot live into an old 845 chipset + IDE system?