modules.dep file problem in initrd image of a custom kernel

[Marco Antonelli]

Hello everyone,
I am writing this email because I have a problem, but I'm not interested in
solving it (that is already done) but I am interested in the cause of it.
On Ubuntu-forums there is a thread about this:
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=148710
but I'll try to summarize it here.

I have Breezy with a custom kernel, compiled from the sources (version
2.6.12) in the repository.
I compiled it with the make-kpkg command, with the --initrd option, so I
created the initrd image, which is necessary in order to have Usplash.
When I boot, even if I can successfully startup my machine, many (between 50
and 100, I think) messages are displayed, saying:

modprobe: FATAL: could not load /lib/modules/2.6.12-light-0.9.1/modules.dep:
no such file or directory

I tried really a lot to figure out what was happening, and so, after a lot
of googling, I could unpack the initrd image.
I understood that modprobe is looking for the modules.dep file not in the in
the file system (I have that file) but in the initrd image itself, and
indeed that file is missing. Placing the modules.dep from the filesystem
inside the image solved the problem.
Just for curiosity I looked inside the initrd image shipped with the
precompiled kernel in the Ubuntu repository, and the really strange thing is
that there is no the modules.dep file!!!
So, my question is:

Why I have this errors when I boot my custom kernel and not when I boot the
precompiled one?!?

I also find two little bugs in the initrd.

1) in the /scripts/init-top/usplash shell script there is this code:

insmod /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/video/console/bitblit.ko
insmod /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/video/console/font.ko
insmod /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/video/console/tileblit.ko
insmod /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/video/console/fbcon.ko
insmod /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/video/cfbcopyarea.ko
insmod /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/video/cfbfillrect.ko
insmod /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/video/cfbimgblt.ko
insmod /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/video/softcursor.ko
insmod /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/video/vgastate.ko

I don't have this modules (some are compiled inside my kernel, some others
aren't present at all, but I don't remember which ones), and error messages
are displayed (but Usplash works fine)

2) The /scripts/local file is a collection of shell functions, inside
mountroot() function I found:

# FIXME This has no error checking
modprobe ${FSTYPE}

I have a ext3 filesystem, and the ext3 driver is compiled in the kernel, so
I have an error message for this, too.

For this two little bugs, who should advise?
For the first problem (modules.dep), does anybody know something?

Thanks a lot,
Marco
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/attachments/20060331/00212a7b/attachment.htm