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dudg

Member

Registered: 2024-01-22

Posts: 3  

System starts without modules following an upgrade

Hello everyone,

My ramdisks have just been rendered moduleless. Booting into two of my kernels (6.6.11 and 6.5.0-5) results in a blinking cursor followed by an initramfs shell with a message that the search for rootfs has timed-out. Indeed, `df` doesn't show my root partition and in addition, the `/proc/modules` file is completely empty.

Fortunetely, my third kernel (6.5.0-3) actually starts init (sysv) and allows me to log into my user account. This kernel also lacks some of the modules, namely `iwl` and `i915`.

My rootfs is on ext4 and I'm on ceres.

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All of this has happened after I tried to perform an upgrade. A new kernel (6.6.11) was about to be configured but during the ramdisk generation the `mkinitramfs` complained about missing /sbin commands and apt reported errors for:

• * cpio
  * linux-image-6.6.11-amd64
  * linux headers-6.6.11-amd64
  * linux-image-amd64
  * linux headers-amd64

I linked `modprobe`, `modinfo` and `mt-gnu` from /usr/sbin but unfortunetely, it only changed the error to:

Error processing package linux-headers-6.6.11-amd64 (--configure):
	dependency problems - leaving unchanged

After that, I rebooted the machine into the 6.6.11 kernel and got greeted with kernel panic (unable to mount rootfs). Fortunetely, the 6.5.0-3 was working without a few modules and I proceeded to install `usrmerge` thinking that it may help.

The installation first errored out stating that `/lib/udev/rules.d/60-ffado.rules` and `/lib/modules/6.6.11-amd64/modules.alias.bin` are both in `/` and `/usr`. I resolved the issue manualy and was able to install the `usrmerge` package. I ran `update-initramfs` for 6.5.0-5 and 6.6.11 kernels and now both are booting without modules loaded.

I suspect that during an upgrade, some of the modules were not transfered out of the `/usr` and now `update-initramfs` and the 6.5.0-3 kernel are just not picking them up.

Is it possible to bring system back to a normal state or have I completely doomed it?

Best regards.

dudg

Member

Registered: 2024-01-22

Posts: 3  

Re: System starts without modules following an upgrade

I have just tried insmod /usr/lib/modules/6.5.0-3-amd64/kernel/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915.ko but it fails with:

ERROR: could not insert module /usr/lib/modules/6.5.0-3-amd64/kernel/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915.ko: Unknown symbol in module

Last edited by dudg (2024-01-22 21:30:15)

rolfie

Member

Registered: 2017-11-25

Posts: 1,067  

Re: System starts without modules following an upgrade

Well, you should expect that ceres sometimes does break ... Its unstable. Try again tomorrow.

dudg

Member

Registered: 2024-01-22

Posts: 3  

Re: System starts without modules following an upgrade

Yeah I know that but I had no other issues for more than 2 years of using ceres and this popped up all of a sudden

rolfie

Member

Registered: 2017-11-25

Posts: 1,067  

Re: System starts without modules following an upgrade

Then you were lucky for two years. Too bad. Try again tomorrow ...

golinux

Administrator

Registered: 2016-11-25

Posts: 3,153  

Re: System starts without modules following an upgrade

There might also be usrmerge related issues before the dust settles and some could be quite annoying . . .

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TheLancashireman

Member

Registered: 2019-07-01

Posts: 13  

Re: System starts without modules following an upgrade

I just solved a similar problem by downgrading eudev and libeudev from 3.2.14 to 3.2.12.

See this comment and those preceding it:  https://dev1galaxy.org/viewtopic.php?pid=48499#p48499