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I have a virtual machine with Ubuntu 14.04 in it. I recently built and installed linux-3.14.5 kernel on it, and tried to boot into it, but it drops me to BusyBox v1.21.1 built-in shell.

Here's what I did:

    wget https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v3.x/linux-3.14.5.tar.xz 
    mkdir ~/linux 
    mv linux-3.14.5.tar.xz ~/linux 
    tar -xJf linux-3.14.5.tar.xz 
    mkdir linux-3.14.5 
    cd linux-3.14.5_src/ 
    make defconfig O=../linux-3.14.5
    make menuconfig O=../linux-3.14.5  /* i didn't change anything */
    make O=../linux-3.14.5
    cd ../linux-3.14.5
    sudo make install

I could see a file called initrd.img-3.14.5 in /boot alongside the intrd.img-3.13.0-24-generic (which i guess, is the kernel of Ubuntu 14.04).

There were also 2 files called vmlinuz-3.14.5 and vmlinuz-3.13.0-24-generic.

After that, ran

    sudo blkid

and got the following:

    /dev/sda1: UUID="92ec153c-cb92-4300-8d2a-f63b747ddd35" TYPE="ext4" 
    /dev/sda5: UUID="439a6423-28dc-4363-b47e-580f1e65e951" TYPE="swap"

I also ran

    sudo fdisk -l

which gave me

    Disk /dev/sda: 21.5 GB, 21474836480 bytes
    255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2610 cylinders, total 41943040 sectors
    Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
    Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
    I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
    Disk identifier: 0x000268be

       Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
    /dev/sda1   *        2048    39845887    19921920   83  Linux
    /dev/sda2        39847934    41940991     1046529    5  Extended
    /dev/sda5        39847936    41940991     1046528   82  Linux swap / Solaris

I checked the /boot/grub/grub.cfg file which had the following entry:

    menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 3.13.0-24-generic' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-3.13.0-24-generic-advanced-92ec153c-cb92-4300-8d2a-f63b747ddd35' {
            recordfail
            load_video
            gfxmode $linux_gfx_mode
            insmod gzio
            insmod part_msdos
            insmod ext2
            set root='hd0,msdos1'
            if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
              search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,msdos1 --hint-efi=hd0,msdos1 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,msdos1  92ec153c-cb92-4300-8d2a-f63b747ddd35
            else
              search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 92ec153c-cb92-4300-8d2a-f63b747ddd35
            fi
            echo    'Loading Linux 3.13.0-24-generic ...'
            linux   /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-24-generic root=UUID=92ec153c-cb92-4300-8d2a-f63b747ddd35 ro find_preseed=/preseed.cfg auto noprompt priority=critical locale=en_US quiet
            echo    'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
            initrd  /boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-24-generic
    }

So, I went ahead and added the following lines to /etc/grub.d/40_custom ( i just changed lines 1, 14, 15 and 17)

    menuentry 'MyNewKernel' {
        recordfail
        load_video
        insmod gzio
        insmod part_msdos
        insmod ext2
        set root='hd0,msdos1'
        if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
          search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,msdos1 --hint-efi=hd0,msdos1 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,msdos1  92ec153c-cb92-4300-8d2a-f63b747ddd35
        else
          search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 92ec153c-cb92-4300-8d2a-f63b747ddd35
        fi
        echo    'Loading My New Kernel ...'
        linux   /boot/vmlinuz-3.14.5 root=UUID=92ec153c-cb92-4300-8d2a-f63b747ddd35 ro recovery nomodeset find_preseed=/preseed.cfg auto noprompt priority=critical locale=en_US
        echo    'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
        initrd  /boot/initrd.img-3.14.5
}

and ran

    sudo update-grub
    sudo reboot

Did not work! The error message said

    ALERT! /dev/disk/by-uuid/92ec153c-cb92-4300-8d2a-f63b747ddd35 does not exist.
    Dropping to a shell!

So I tried replacing the UUID by /dev/sda1 resulting in the following file.

    menuentry 'MyNewKernel' {
            recordfail
            load_video
            insmod gzio
            insmod part_msdos
            insmod ext2
            set root='hd0,msdos1'
            if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
              search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,msdos1 --hint-efi=hd0,msdos1 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,msdos1  /dev/sda1
            else
              search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root /dev/sda1
            fi
            echo    'Loading Linux 3.13.0-24-generic ...'
            linux   /boot/vmlinuz-3.14.5 root=/dev/sda1 ro recovery nomodeset find_preseed=/preseed.cfg auto noprompt priority=critical locale=en_US
            echo    'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
            initrd  /boot/initrd.img-3.14.5
    }

That did not work either, and gave me a very similar error message.

    ALERT! /dev/sda1 does not exist.
    Dropping to a shell!

I think I am doing some stupid mistake, but I cant figure out what, since this is my first time. I would appreciate any help.

Thanks for reading through the long post. Please let me know if you need any more information.

PS. I cant post pictures due to a lack of reputation.

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