Michael wrote: > On Tuesday, 25 June 2024 00:47:07 BST Dale wrote: >> Michael wrote: >>> The first option in the man page explains what you did: >>> >>> https://linux.die.net/man/8/dracut >>> >>> -f, --force >>> overwrite existing initramfs file. >>> >>> Did you have an initramfs already in there? >> I had the kernel and the config file on /boot. > Did these files arrived in /boot/ by installing them yourself manually, or by > having them installed automatically by calling 'make install', which utilised > 'sys-kernel/installkernel' to do it with? > > If the latter, did 'sys-kernel/installkernel' have the right USE flags set > for > your system? >
I always do my kernel install manually. While dracut puts the image in /boot, I have to rename it so grub will match the names up correctly. Way back tho, I had one init image for each kernel version. Grub would match ever how many kernels I had of that version to the same init image and boot. Then either I did something different or it stopped working. Now each kernel has to have its own init image. Could be me. >> I did not have anything >> else there except grub and the CPU microcode file. I didn't save the >> init thingy when I was copying files over from previous install. I just >> saved the config and kernel. > I suspect you may have overlaid manual and automated kernel installation > procedures, resulting in one trying to over-write the other. Then you run > dracut and it complained, until you used --force to overwrite whatever files > had already been installed in /boot. > I manually config and build the kernel and then manually copy the kernel to /boot. >>> No don't start over! Have you read through this: >>> >>> https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Dracut > [snip ...] > >> Yep. I saw that too. Thing is, it confuses me. On the main install >> page, it shows /efi mounted on the / partition. In other words, the >> same place /boot, /usr and /var are mounted too. In the page you link >> to it seems to show the efi partition mounted inside /boot. Like this: >> /boot/efi. The main page I think says this is no longer recommended. >> Which am I to follow? If it being inside /boot is discouraged, someone >> needs to update the page. > Err ... you lost me there. Where in the > 'https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Dracut' > wiki page does it state what you mention above?! o_O > > The ESP partition's mountpoint is /efi. Some time ago the ESP mountpoint > used > to be /boot/efi, but this is no longer recommended. > > The boot partition's mountpoint for your installation is /boot. > > The directories for /usr, /var, et al. will be found in the / partition. If > you have chosen for your /var directory to be stored on a different > partition, > then its mountpoint would be /var. > I may have confused the pages but in one place it showed it inside /boot. In another place it said /efi was on / itself. I did it the last way as I did the first time. I think I read on this list somewhere about the change. Could have been on -dev mailing list too. >> I'm continuing on with the install but still puzzled about the dracut >> error. Is this what /efi should look like? >> >> >> (chroot) livecd / # tree /efi/ >> /efi/ >> └── EFI >> └── gentoo >> └── grubx64.efi >> >> 3 directories, 1 file >> (chroot) livecd / # > Yes, this looks good. The MoBo's UEFI firmware will load grubx64.efi, which > in turn will fetch your kernel & initrd images from /boot. > It did. I got to the point where I needed to boot and it worked. Yay!! >> I never looked in the directory on the last install. Nothing reported a >> error so I just went with it. ;-) > I'm guessing, in your last install you had not mixed up manual and automated > kernel installation steps, but in this one you did. ;-) > > You probably want to spend some quality time reading this at your leisure: > > https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Installkernel I've read up a little on that but I've done it manually so long, I just keep doing it that way. Someone posted I can set it up to do just like I'm doing it but still, I just stick with the old way. > > Regarding the microcode file '/boot/amd-uc.img', this is created by the 'sys- > kernel/linux-firmware' package if it has USE="initramfs" set. GRUB will find > pick up this image file and include it along with any other initramfs images > when you run grub-mkconfig, or when grub-mkconfig is run by 'make install'. > Then GRUB will load it at boot time. However, you can built both the AMD CPU > microcode and any other firmware needed by your machine in the kernel. Just > add them in your kernel: > > # Firmware loader > CONFIG_EXTRA_FIRMWARE="....." > > before you build it. > > Regarding Nvidia's module, I don't think you need an initramfs for this. > When > the kernel loads it will fetch the Nvidia module from /lib/modules/, provided > it can mount the root partition. I did check, grub did include it when I ran the grub-mkconfig command. I checked once on my main rig, it does load. I assume it does on the new rig too. If I recall correctly, nvidia loads shortly before the GUI stuff starts to come up. Unless that is changed. I know when I boot into a text console and no GUI ever started, lspci -k shows nvidia already loaded. I suspect I could go without a init thingy now but it's not that much trouble to make one. It does work. I think I had one fail once way back when dracut first came into use. Could have been me. Still, that's pretty good. As it is, I'm installing packages from my world file on the main rig in chunks. I think it has about 25 packages or so to go in this last batch. They are some of the larger packages, LOo, Kicad, Firefox, Seamonkey etc etc. Oh, the m.2 stick is staying pretty cool. The temp for the controller, which is usually the hottest one, stays below 105F. That cute little cooler is working very well. The CPU is running a little cooler now too. I think I saw it just below 170F a time or two. It's hard to catch it when the CPU is running at full speed. I'm mostly watching it in htop now. If the CPUTIN temp is supposed to be comparable to my old FX series sensor, this CPU runs cooler. That temp maxes out at under 110F. My FX CPU usually maxes out at about 124 to 125F. The new rig has a lot bigger cooler tho. Also has two cooler fans. Once all these packages install, I hope the GUI works. I got the partitions done right now tho. LOL Dale :-) :-)
