On Tue, Oct 28, 2008 at 2:43 AM, Luca Berra <bluca@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > On Mon, Oct 27, 2008 at 08:34:01AM -0400, Joe Landman wrote: >>> >>> unfortunately the kernel panic is a consequence of a previous error, >>> someone willing to help you would need to know everithing that was >>> spitted between the 'starting red-hat nash' message and the kernel >>> panic. >> >> I looked and this was actually the earliest error. I will try to >> capture the rest of this and post it for download (it is long). > > it should at least spit out the modules it is loading and some of the > action it is doing. comparing this with a running one might help in > understanding what the difference is. Ok, this makes sense. Will bring this to a slightly different machine today and see if we can continue work (put on hold for a few days) > >>>> Do I need to create a specialized init script? Is there an >>> >>> usually no, redhat/centos initrd should be able to boot from a raid1 >> >> The baseline provided kernel can. This is a custom kernel, and I am >> attempting to find the right mkinitrd parameters. One of the nicer >> things in the Ubuntu/Debian process is that they have the ability to >> add most/all modules in to an initrd. Somehow this is my current >> thought, that we are missing something critical. > > is md modular (CONFIG_MD)? Yes. Same .config for a different kernel exhibiting the same problem. grep CONFIG_MD .config CONFIG_MD=y CONFIG_MD_LINEAR=m CONFIG_MD_RAID0=m CONFIG_MD_RAID1=m CONFIG_MD_RAID10=m CONFIG_MD_RAID456=m CONFIG_MD_RAID5_RESHAPE=y CONFIG_MD_MULTIPATH=m CONFIG_MD_FAULTY=m # CONFIG_MDIO_BITBANG is not set [...] >> This implies that /etc/mdadm.conf is in the initrd. Peeking inside >> the default centos one, I can see that this is not true. Which >> implies that it doesn't see /etc/mdadm.conf before it assembles the >> array, as the /etc/mdadm.conf is on the array, and not in the initrd >> image. >> >> Is there a way to include the /etc/mdadm.conf into the initrd? > > mkinitrd should include mdadm and /etc/mdadm.conf if it decides your > root is on md Ok. This is what I think (e.g. am guessing) is the likely culprit at the moment. [...] >>>> Any suggestions? More things to read? >>> >>> is your fstab correct? >> >> Yes. Boots fine with older kernel. fstab doesn't change between the two. > > i mean, mkinitrd reads /etc/fstab to decide what your root device is, > sometimes it fails and creates a wrong initrd Ok. I was unaware that it would build an incorrect initrd, I thought we could just miss the modules if they weren't explicitly included using --with= or similar. I have seen that with a number of RAID cards, that mkinitrd will not generate a workable initrd (no software RAID) as it leaves out the right drivers. I have been (defensively) including RAID card drivers in our initrd builds. > >>> is your mdadm.conf correct? >> >> >> Yes. Boots fine with older kernel. mdadm.conf doesn't change between the >> two. >> >>> are you loading the correct drivers for your hd controller? >> >> I believe so: looked at the list from lsmod and replicated this in >> the mkinitrd. However, I have seen drivers change markedly release to >> release. Hence my interest in building an initrd with the maximum >> number of modules (specific to SATA/SCSI) >> >>> >>> mkinitrd is a shell script, if all else fails, run it with sh -x and >>> read the output. >> >> Already done. Even instrumented the code so I could see what the >> handleraid function was in fact doing. It looks correct, figures out >> the right modules, and makes sure they are in there. > > post it and the content of both initrds on pastebin or such, > you seem to have drawn enough interest that someone will look at it. Ok, will bring the disks to a slightly different machine so I can do the serial port captures. Will post when I can (later today/tomorrow). Thanks for all the suggestions and guidance! Joe -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-raid" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
