freezes at login

From: IsamiloSchool (isamilo_at_mwanza-online.com)
Date: 12/22/03 

Date: 21 Dec 2003 21:35:54 -0800

Dear All,

     I have successfully installed debian on my performa 6400 powerpc.
(surviving the perils of Quik and open firmware). Now I want to use
ext3 journaling on all of my partitions (except the /boot partition
because of a said quik peril). I live in Tanzania and power cuts are
frequent, so quick recovery is essential.

     Now, I loaded on he default vmlinux-2.2.20-pmac kernel initially
with no insurmountable problems. I'd rather not install all the source
and recompile a kernel with ext3 (it's supposed to be a fileserver
only), so i chose the vmlinux-2.4.18-powerpc-xfs kernel that comes
with my distribution. Installed and booted fine. Get to the login
prompt and just sits there. No input from the keyboard is recognised.
I'm not talking about the strange keyboard mapping, that's a
half-anticipated problem. I mean nothing. Zip. It just sits there.

      So. What have I done wrong?
      Are there any other precompiled kernels I can use with ext3?
      Is it possible to load ext3 as a kernel module rather than bake
it into the kernel?
      Can I "patch" a kernel binary without tinkering with the source?
      Any other suggestions?

My thanks in advance,

Ben.