Leonard den Ottolander wrote:
>
> Hi Steve,
>
> > I create a initrd image for the
> > IDE cdrom module (mkinitrd --preload ide-cd initrd-2.2.16.img 2.2.16)
>
> You don't mention that you have an extra CD player. You should only use ide-
> cd for CD *readers*. You use the writer as a pseudo SCSI device.
> You don't necessarily have to make an initrd for this purpose. You probably
> don't need the ide-cd driver until after booting.
The CD-Writing How-To suggests that one compile modules for ATAPI cdrom
support
(ide-cd) and for SCSI emulation (ide-scsi). Presumably this is so that
one can
use the native drivers for reading cd-roms and the scsi for writing
them. This seems
like the "Department of Redundancy Department". It also says that users
of Redhat Linux should make an initrd image with the --preload ide-cd
option. I guess this would be
so that both modules are available at bootup. Again, this seams to be
redundant. Why not use just scsi adapter emulation instead?
>
> > During bootup I get error
> > msg like this '/lib/ide-cd.o: unresolved symbol....'
> > ...
> > If I run 'modprobe \*' only two of the maybe 10-15 modules I compiled
>
> OK, so it seems you compiled and installed the modules. In that case, maybe
> you forgot to copy your new kernel to /boot?
Nope. Did that.
>
> > load. Doing 'lsmod' shows the ide-scsi module and nls_iso8859-1. I can
> > go to /lib/modules/2.2.16 and manually load the modules and it works.
> > The cdrom drive is mountable. But isn't this what modprobe is suppose to
> > do?
>
> Well, the command you specify (with the backslash in it) makes no sense.
If I run 'modprobe' without any arguments I get this response:
[steve@turin scsi]$ modprobe
modprobe: Nothing to load ???
Specify at least a module or a wildcard like \*
This is why I used \*. Admittedly, I know very little about how
'modprobe' works.
That's one of my goals in the exersize. To understand how modprobe
works.
> You load nothing this way. The modules you see were probably loaded at boot.
That what I thought as well.
> Ususally you set the modules that should be loaded at boot in
> /etc/conf.modules.
Or modules.conf according to the man pages.
> If you want to load modules by hand you either have to have
> the modules directories in the path, or specify a filename or path on the
> command line. Don't forget you should use ./* if you reference files in the
> current directory if it is not in the path.
>
> > So, if you've read this far here are the questions:
> >
> > 1. What is causing ide-cd.o to generate this error msg?
>
> Again, the kernel and modules don't seem to match. Either you did not install
> the kernel in /boot, or you use the wrong ide-cd.o on the initrd, since you
> state you can load ide-cd.o from /lib/modules/###/block. (Well, that is how I
> understand it, you are a little fuzzy in this respect. If you recompile a
> kernel (and not the modules) some modules might have this symbol problem,
> others might not. So can you load all the modules by hand? Or just a few?)
I made sure that I followed the standard kernel compile sequence:
make mrproper
make xconfig
make dep
make bzImage
make modules
make modules_install
depmod -a /lib/modules/<kernel-version>/
cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/vmlinuz-2.2.16
cp System.map to /boot/System.map-2.2.16
ln -s System.map-2.2.16 System.map
edit lilo.conf and rerun /sbin/lilo
And I verified that I can load all modules by hand.
>
> > 2. Why is modprobe looking in /lib and not
> > /lib/modules/<kernel-version>/modules.dep?
>
> a) Well, this is your initial ramdisk, which stores the modules in /lib.
I'm assuming this is the /lib in the ramdisk not in the normal
filesystem.
> b) modprobe only looks for dependencies in modules.dep, it does not load all the
> files mentioned in this file if you supply it a *. conf.modules is for that.
>
> > 3. What the hell do modules.conf/conf.modules have to do with the price
> > of tea in china?
>
> Where again did you read that one?
This is where I _am_ a little fuzzy :-). Seems as though the user has to
know what
aliases and options to add to the conf.modules file. But if this is the
first time the
user is adding/using this module the assumption is that the user won't
know what to add to that file. I'll revisit the man pages again. I must
have missed something.
>
> > 4. How do I modify modules.conf/conf.modules to allow modprobe to load
> > ide-cd.o?
>
> Add "options ide-cd ignore=hdc" to conf.modules, assuming your CD writer is
> hdc (it's a good idea to jumper the writer as master instead of slave). This
> way all cd players except for the writer are recognized as IDE devices. This
> is all explained in the CD-Writing-HOWTO. I guess you missed it :).
No, I read this, but it seems to only be relevant if you only use
ide-scsi. I think :-\
>
> > 5. Where does the initrd file come into play in all this?
>
> Initrd is an initial ramdisk, that you use if you need to load drivers that
> are needed at boot, eg. for SCSI-adapters, if you boot from SCSI. ide-cd is
> not one of them, but(/so) it doesn't harm (not) loading it early in the boot
> process.
Exactly. It seems as though the HOWTO is not clear on this point. Or
maybe I'm not
reading it correctly. This wouldn't be the first time.
>
> > 6. Who will win the World Series this year? (Just checking to see if
> > your awake. :-))
>
> The Chicago Rangers ;)? Well, I think France is winning the European
> Championship this year.
>
> Ciao,
>
> Leonard.
>
Thanks for your input. The fog is lifting if you can believe it. As I
mentioned above,
part of this is to get the CD-RW to work and part is to understand how
modprobe works. The HOWTO suggested modularizing the required drivers.
One for reading (ide-cd) and one for writing (ide-scsi). I read this and
thought this would be an opportune time to
brush up on kernel modules and how they are handled in Linux. But the
CD-Writing HOWTO is not clear on WHY you would want to do create an
initrd image since the ide-scsi module will work for both. I will
re-read it again. This time slowly.
Steve
--
illegitimi non carborundum
"Don't let the bastards grind you down"
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