Hi there. I'm a Gentoo newbie. I just followed the instructions here

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml

to download, compile and install Gentoo from a stage3 tarball (from minimal InstallCD).

Everything went swimmingly, I compiled my own 2.6.31-gentoo-r10 kernel and several modules required for my toshiba m100 portege laptop (pentium-m x86). I listed the modules I wanted loaded in the file:

/etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6

exactly as specified by the handbook.

However, on reboot I see the following messages that '0' modules are autloaded. After some digging I discover something to with migrating baselayout2 means the modules have to be listed in /etc/conf.d/modules.

As far as I can work out, according to this page:

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/openrc-migration.xml

I should be migrating to openrc. It mentions (rather vaguely) installing sys-apps/openrc and or >=sys-apps/baselayout-2. However trying to emerge these packages results in error.
eg. emerge sys-apps/openrc
!!! All ebuilds that could satisfy "sys-apps/openrc" have been masked.

I'm sorry, but I can't understand what is supposed to be happening. I could relist the modules in /etc/conf.d/modules manually using the format described on that URL, but what else needs to be done?

As openrc is masked I would not use it. (masked is something like testing/unstable)
Did you got your modules listed when your system boot up and you type lsmod?
I have module nvidia in /etc/modules.autoload.d/nvidia.

Or you can try adding your module in /etc/modules.conf.
This file is normally generated by update-modules.

Did you enabled loadable modules support in the kernel?
Can you modprobe the modules manually?
Can you do modinfo on a module and does the module exist?
Did you compiled the features into the kernel or as modules?

I hope you will enjoy Gentoo!

Hey, thanx for your reply and upbeat tone. I hope to enjoy Gentoo too.

I tried to enter my modules in /etc/modules.conf and then run update-modules, but it came back a message saying (sort of): "if you are not using kernel 2.4 then you should delete /etc/modules.conf" (?!) Sorry, I did not write down the exact message.

Yes I enabled loadable module support in kernel configuration

Strangely, I do see 3 of my modules when I run lsmod, namely:
ipw2100, lipipw, lib80211, these are for my wireless card.

The other modules do not appear with lsmod. But yes I can see them using modinfo or load them manually using modprobe. I definitely compiled my wireless card as a module and not into the kernel, since the kernel config 'help' told me that was best. One or two others, eg. michael_mic.ko, scsi_wait_scan.ko also ended up as modules.

Attached is a photo of my screen (paused) showing the modules failing to load:

Attached Thumbnails

 

What is your partitioning like? Are the modules accessible at this point in the boot process?

Also, I think the kernel logs module related messages. Perhaps there might be more info in /proc/kmsg or some other log file. Does the "dmesg" command give any useful output?

Other that I'm not sure... most likely possibility is you messed up something during kernel/module installation. Maybe you would consider trying kernel/module installation again, but this time using genkernel? (Then just add your own modules in after installation...)

Where (which directory) are these modules ?. I wonder if you did "make modules" rather than "make modules_install".
Doesn't explain why some work and others don't though ...

I would think he did as he said he can do modinfo of modules. Also he has some of his modules loaded.

I executed:
make && make modules_install
after finishing configuring my kernel. As for my partitioning I have
/dev/sda1 window partition
/dev/sda2 boot partition 32MB
/dev/sda3 swap partition 2048MB
/dev/sda4 root partition 17GB

The boot and root partition seem to be mounted just fine. Dmesg reports @ 1.423s that my ext3filesystem, root, is mounted just fine. My boot partition is also mounted. I couldn't seem to read /proc/kmsg, attempting to read this file stops that console responding. Maybe Im doing it wrong.
my modules are located within:
/lib/modules/2.6.31-gentoo-r10/kernel/arch
/lib/modules/2.6.31-gentoo-r10/kernel/crypto
/lib/modules/2.6.31-gentoo-r10/kernel/drivers
/lib/modules/2.6.31-gentoo-r10/kernel/net


I'm beginning to think I must have screwed up something in the kernel config. I'm going to re-do it as suggested but using genkernel.

Seriously thanks for the help. I'm not going to give up. I'll report what happens.

I just recompiled my kernel using genkernel. This generates dozens of modules. I added them all to
etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6

I only uncommented a few of them though as I didn't want a hundred modules loading, just to see what would happen. I added the new genkernel created kernel to grub and rebooted.

They didn't load. Same as before. No change. I removed the new modules from the list and added in my old modules. No autoloading. No change.

Hi, I fixed the problem, you're gonna laugh when you see this ... no, don't hit me.

This is what too many years of windows will do for ya'

While loading modules with modprobe I noticed that if I added the .ko file extension to the module name, the modprobe command would fail. If run with no extension the modprobe command worked, eg.
modprobe michael_mic

Suddenly a brain wave ...

Checking /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6 revealed that all the modules were listed with modulename+extension, eg. michael_mic.ko.

I removed all the extensions from the module names. All modules now autoload. In fact, in my own defence I didn't add the modulenames myself I used a script I found on the internet which automatically dug out the names of the modules for me and then added them to /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6

For whatever reason, this script added the modulenames with their extensions to the /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6 which appears to be fatally touchy on this point. And, as I say, being a linux noob and a windows refugee, meant that despite having looked at this file a hundred times, I simply hadn't noticed the extensions or it hadn't struck me as significant.

Thanks all.

Didn't I tell you


Great you found it out yourself! That is of course something we can't see

Happy gentooing