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I installed Gentoo Linux, build the kernel with "genkernel", and copy the image file into the /boot folder, also I installed grub. It all works fine. What confusing me is that now I cannot find the kernel and grub under the /boot folder, the folder is empty. I did some "emerge" jobs after installation, I don't know why those files disappear. Why my linux can still start up without those kernel and grub files?

ps: gentoo as a vmware guest, /boot is a seperate partition with ext2

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You have probably created a separate boot partition but you forgot to set up your /etc/fstab file so that it's mounted at startup. You should be able to mount it manually with mount /boot (perhaps as root.)

You should really take care of that, since you might copy files to /boot while it's not mounted and end up with an inconsistent boot setup.

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  • Thank you for your rely, I checked /etc/fstab, there is a line "/dev/BOOT /boot ext2 noauto,noatime 1 2", which I think means it's mounted. I can mv files in and out from /boot folder, and also create new files.
    – xiaobing
    Commented Dec 10, 2012 at 7:33
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    @xiaobing Of course you can; it's just a directory like any other. But when you don't mount the boot partition there, then the files and up in the /boot directory, not in the /boot mount point. And that's what I meant with "inconsistent boot setup." Also, "/dev/BOOT" looks wrong. That's not a partition. Partitions look like "/dev/sda1" and such. Unless your boot partition is labeled, in which case you would have "LABEL=BOOT /boot" instead. In any event, your setup looks broken. You should read the Gentoo handbook carefully.
    – Nikos C.
    Commented Dec 10, 2012 at 7:41
  • Thank you very much, you're right, I misused the default fstab, I should have change it for my situation.
    – xiaobing
    Commented Dec 10, 2012 at 8:40

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