Slackware 12 initrd issue

nc3b · 04-06-2008, 06:57 AM

Hello. I've always liked slackware and I especially liked the 11 version. So I decided to try out the 12 version in vmware. So far so good.
I have a 1G scsi hdd, so it should be more than enough for my needs. I installed and everything went fine. I rebooted, started my system with the cd and a /dev/sda1 argument and I was in. I README.initrd in /boot and folowed the instructions. So I said

Code:

mkinitrd -c -f reiserfs -k 2.6.21.5-smp -m reiserfs -r /dev/sda1

Good. It said "2002 blocks". So I wen further. I installed grub and edited my menu.lst which now shows

Code:

  title Linux initrd /boot/initrd.gz
  root (hd0,0)
  kernel /boot/vmlinuz-generic-smp-2.6.21.5-smp ro root=/dev/sda1
  initrd /boot/initrd.gz

So I booted it and it says

Code:

initrd.gz: Loading kernel modules from initrd image:
Using  /lib/modules/2.6.21.5-smp/kernel/fs/reiserfs/reiserfs.ko
mount: mounting /dev/sda1 on /mnt failed
ERROR: No /sbin/init found on rootdev (or not mounted). Trouble ahead.

And a kernel panic follows. I am really really sure / is reiserfs. I also applied the patch from this thread http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...estion-569161/
provided by rworkman. Nothing works

Can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong? I don't want to use the huge kernel

.

nc3b · 04-06-2008, 09:41 AM

I believe I am starting to get a clue. It seems I need to also load a scsi driver as a module (I'm almost sure). But I don't know which. Can anyone tell me how to find what I should add? It's fairly easy I guess, since I can boot with the hugesmp.s.. but I never knew how to do just that. Thank you.

titopoquito · 04-06-2008, 01:15 PM

I would try "lspci" and compare to the kernel options.

nc3b · 04-06-2008, 02:58 PM

I got away with

Code:

mkinitrd -c -f reiserfs -k 2.6.21.5-smp -m "reiserfs : mptspi" -r /dev/sda1

Finally!
Thank you very titopoquito.

Alien Bob · 04-06-2008, 03:22 PM

Hi

Can you try if running this shell script (as root) http://www.slackware.com/~alien/tool...d_generator.sh will produce (roughly) the same mkinitrd command that you used?
The script will not change anything to your system. It only reads the state of your running system and it will output a mkinird commandline that should load the required drivers for your computer so that it will boot properly.
Example on my computer:

Code:

# sh mkinitrd_command_generator.sh
The mkinitrd command will be:
mkinitrd -c -k XXXXX -m ata_generic:pata_amd:ata_generic:mbcache:jbd:ext3 -f ext3 -r /dev/hda7

nc3b · 04-06-2008, 10:12 PM

Yes, the script is great. It produced this output

Code:

mkinitrd -c -k XXXXX -m ata_generic:mptbase:mptscsih:mptspi:reiserfs -f reiserfs -r /dev/sda1

Thank you very much

Alien Bob · 04-07-2008, 03:18 AM

Hi,

Thanks for reporting your feedback. I'd like to see this tested on as many systems as possible ;-)

Eric

T3slider · 04-07-2008, 11:05 PM

Alien Bob, worked on my system as well, for the record [though my setup is definitely very ordinary].

brianL · 04-08-2008, 10:43 AM

Just tried the script, got this:

Code:

mkinitrd -c -k XXXXX -m pata_via:ata_generic:mbcache:jbd:ext3 -f ext3 -r /dev/hda3

When I first installed, and changed from huge to generic, I used this to make the initrd:

Code:

mkinitrd -c -k 2.6.21.5-smp -m ext3 -f ext3 -r /dev/hda3

Now I'm curious to know what difference, if any, there would be - performance-wise - using an initrd generated by that script.

Alien Bob · 04-08-2008, 12:28 PM

Wel, the script only shows a recommendation for the mkinitrd parameters to use if you have no idea what parameters you should pass. The script will examine your system and determine what kernel modules are required for the storage hardware and for the root filesystem in your computer, and it will probably show more modules than are required (for instance because some will already be compiled into the kernel).

The additional modules will not do bad things. Perhaps they will generate (harmless) module load errors when the computer boots (because the kernel refuses to load them if the driver is already compiled-in). But they will guarantee that your system will boot with any kernel that you custom-compile.

The performance of your computer will not be affected (negatively or positively).

Eric

brianL · 04-08-2008, 01:03 PM

Thanks, Eric.
I'll use that script if I ever have to reinstall. It's things like this that - for me, anyway - make Slackware more interesting than more "user-friendly" distros.

onebuck · 04-08-2008, 10:34 PM

Hi,

Just ran the script and got;

Code:

mkinitrd -c -k XXXXX -m ata_generic:mbcache:jbd:ext3 -f ext3 -r /dev/hda3

I looked through the script. Neat and clean.
Eric, your skills for scripting amaze me.

BTW, thanks for the script. I will add it to my tool box.

chess · 04-09-2008, 09:25 PM

Eric,

Nice script! I tried it and got this output:

Code:

mkinitrd -c -k XXXXX -m ata_generic:pata_acpi:ata_generic:pata_acpi:mbcache:jbd:ext3 -f ext3 -r /dev/sda3

multios · 04-10-2008, 07:47 AM

Eric,
mkinitrd -c -k XXXXX -m ata_generic

ata_via:mbcache:jbd:ext3 -f ext3 -r /dev/hda7

Thanks!

submax · 04-17-2008, 05:51 PM

@Alien Bob

your script is fantastic!!! very compliments!!!

you Know my site and in particular kernelpkg tool?