Weird modprobe problems
Hi
I have a problem with modprobe on one computer. Due to some
unidentified problem with modprobe I'm having a lot of problems
upgrading a computer to linux 2.6.15 smp.
When installing the debian kernel and booting I got loads of messages
complaining about "Unknown symbol journal_xxx". For some reason the
initrd didn't load the jbd module needed by ext3.
After a lot of searching and rebooting (one feels almost like an MSCE by
now :-) I found out that mkinitramfs uses modprobe to figure out what
depends on want.
Mkinitramfs does a
modprobe --set-version=2.6.15-1-686-smp --show-depends jbd
which on my system gives:
install /bin/true
Comparing with other systems (with other versions) I get output like:
insmod /lib/modules/2.6.15-1-686/kernel/fs/jbd/jbd.ko
For ext3 I get:
insmod /lib/modules/2.6.15-1-686-smp/kernel/fs/mbcache.ko
install /bin/true
insmod /lib/modules/2.6.15-1-686-smp/kernel/fs/ext3/ext3.ko
which should be
insmod /lib/modules/2.6.15-1-686-smp/kernel/fs/mbcache.ko
insmod /lib/modules/2.6.15-1-686-smp/kernel/fs/jbd/jbd.ko
insmod /lib/modules/2.6.15-1-686-smp/kernel/fs/ext3/ext3.ko
As a consequence I get an unusable initrd file because a lot of needed
modules are missing. I have only identified jbd, but there are
certainly other missing too. I have compared the contents of different
initrd files and the ones on the problematic system are much too small.
I have tested this on three systems: a Soltek Qbic system with problems
(2.6.15-1-686-smp and 2.6.15-1-686), an Asus M2N laptop (2.6.15-1-686)
and a HP Proliant server (2.6.12-1-686-smp), both without problems.
Modprobe only misbehaves on the Soltec Qbic system.
Besides the different kernel versions they are very much alike. All run
Etch (testing) and have
# dpkg -l module-init-tools
ii module-init-to 3.2.2-1 tools for managing Linux kernel modules
I have uninstalled modutils from all systems.
Its late now and I want to sleep, but until now I have been unable to
find out why modprobe on the Qbic doesn't work.
I have looked in the files in /lib/modules/2.6.15-1-686-smp/modules.*
and they have the same lines for the modules I tested. The correct
dependencies are there on all systems.
I was unable to install 2.6.15-1-686-smp or 2.6.15-1-686 on the Qbic
because mkinitramfs was unable to create a bootable initrd file. In the
end I installed the -smb kernel on my laptop and copied the initrd file
over with scp, and the Qbic could boot. I cannot, however, upgrade the
kernel now without resorting to similar tricks.
I haven't reported any bugs, because I haven't got a clue about whats
wrong, except the symptoms described above. There is probably something
misconfigured on the Qbic since the others don't have problems, but what?
A bit of help would be very much appreciated.
--
René Seindal (rene@seindal.dk) http://linux.seindal.dk/
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