Bug#355580: initramfs-tools: fails to load required modules, boot fails

[maximilian attems <maks@sternwelten.at>]

severity 355580 normal
tags 355580 moreinfo
stop

On Mon, 06 Mar 2006, Moshe Yudkowsky wrote:

> Three problems: no installation of module; no loading of "linear" module
> in md; using mdrun in scripts/local-top/md give incorrect md modules.

ok.
 
> The hook function "manual_add_modules" uses modprobe to find the actual
> module to load. Unfortunately, possibly due to an error in modprobe,
> this leads to modules not being loaded.
> 
> My RAID1 and LINEAR-based system had the following line in /etc/modprobe.d/md:
> 
> install md_mod /sbin/modprobe sata_promise; /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install md_mod

how did that line get added?
none of my raids uses that nor does it seem to come from a default
install. why did you add it?

> 
> When I run
> 
> # modprobe  --set-version=2.6.15-1-k7 --show-depends md_mod
> 
> I get the result
> 
> install /sbin/modprobe sata_promise; /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install md_mod
> 
> but *no* insmod. Therefore, when this is run during mkinitramfs, the
> module md_mod is not installed. I realize that although modprobe
> documentation leads one to believe that there will be an insmod line
> printed, in fact there is not such line printed.
> 
> The patch: add "--ignore-install" to the modprobe line in manual_add_modules:
> 
> modprobe --ignore-install --set-version="${version}" --show-depends "${1}"
> 
> this produces a line with "inmod".

nack since the problem appears to be a non standard modification.
please explain why that modification would be needed.
 
> The next problem wtih initramfs-tools is for md specifically. First of
> all, some mischevious person has renamed the "md" module to "md-mod".
> This means the distribution hook hooks/md is out of date, because it
> attempts to load md. Secondly, that script also failes to load "linear". 
> 
> Current fragment:
> 
> for x in md raid0 raid1 raid5 raid6; do
>         manual_add_modules ${x}
> done
> 
> New fragment:
> 
> for x in md_mod linear raid0 raid1 raid5 raid6; do
>         manual_add_modules ${x}
> done

md and md-mod are the same, i'm for the shorter one.
i didn't knew that linear had some exposure out there,
but as it seems needed that is an easy fix.
 
> Now, as for scripts/local-top/md, I have found that "mdrun" attempts to
> start /dev/md/0, even though there is no such device on my system. I
> have /1, /2, and /3, but not /0. I have not been able to debug mdrun.
> 
> Instead of using mdrun, I use the following:
> 
> In scripts/local-top/md:
> 
> mkdir /dev/md	# --auto requires this directory pre-exist
> /sbin/mdadm --assemble --scan --auto=md --config=/etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf 
> 
> And in hooks/md I add the line:
> 
> cp /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf ${DESTDIR}/etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf
> 
> This has the added advantage that *only* the devices that are actually
> needed are created in /dev/md, instead of dozens of devices  that aren't
> used. udev automatically creates the link between /dev/mdN and
> /dev/md/N.
> 
> Please feel free to write for clarifications or further tests.

nack we don't want the mdadm.conf inside of the initramfs,
it opens races in consideration with hardware aka configuration changes.

for this issue we need more information why mdrun failed.
can you please post the output of 
cat /etc/fstab
mount
fdisk -l /dev/hd[a-d]
or 
fdisk -l /dev/sd[a-d]

 
-- 
maks