[SOLVED] mkinitcpio error during kernel 2.6.37-6 package upgrade

Question

After upgrading to kernel26-2.6.37-6-x86_64, I failed after reboot (couldn't mount root and got dropped to the "you're on your own" prompt). Fortunately, the fallback kernel worked. I didn't look into it at the time (it was late), and I noticed a new kernel package the next day, so I updated again thinking maybe it was a bug that got fixed. Nope. Same problem after reboot, but I paid a little more attention this time and saw the errors below:
sudo pacman -U kernel26-2.6.37.1-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz
...snip...
checking package integrity...
(1/1) checking for file conflicts [######################] 100%
(1/1) upgrading kernel26 [######################] 100%
>>> Updating module dependencies. Please wait ...
...snip...
==> Running command: /sbin/mkinitcpio -k 2.6.37-ARCH -c /etc/mkinitcpio.conf -g /boot/kernel26.img
:: Begin build
:: Parsing hook [base]
...snip...
:: Generating module dependencies
WARNING: Can't read module /tmp/mkinitcpio.WLY5Kx/lib/modules/2.6.37-ARCH/kernel/drivers/ata/pata_acpi.ko.gz: Exec format error
WARNING: Can't read module /tmp/mkinitcpio.WLY5Kx/lib/modules/2.6.37-ARCH/kernel/lib/libcrc32c.ko.gz: Exec format error
WARNING: Can't read module /tmp/mkinitcpio.WLY5Kx/lib/modules/2.6.37-ARCH/kernel/crypto/crc32c.ko.gz: Exec format error
WARNING: Can't read module /tmp/mkinitcpio.WLY5Kx/lib/modules/2.6.37-ARCH/kernel/arch/x86/crypto/crc32c-intel.ko.gz: Exec format error
:: Generating image '/boot/kernel26.img'...SUCCESS
==> SUCCESS
Since my root partition is btrfs, I require the libcrc32c module on load, and it looks like mkinitcpio couldn't manage to get it (and a few other modules) into my initrd. So I ran:
sudo /sbin/mkinitcpio -k 2.6.37-ARCH -c /etc/mkinitcpio.conf -g /boot/kernel26.img
again by hand, and it worked without errors. (Yeah, I'm a sudo person, in case you were wondering.)
Here are the relevant /etc/mkinitcpio.conf lines:
MODULES="dm_mod dm_mirror btrfs crc32c libcrc32c"
HOOKS="base udev autodetect pata scsi sata dmraid lvm2 filesystems"
I don't know squat about mkinitcpio and why it would work fine when run by hand but choke when run via pacman. Anyone have any ideas?
Last edited by archix (2011-02-21 18:35:46)

Answer 1

According to Ryan Hill's comment on http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=353907#c16 which is sending us to http://lwn.net/Articles/429345/  - it looks like ext4 is also impacted by this bug, not only compressed btrfs!
Chris Mason from Oracle (funny, "magical" coincidence ;P ) said he's got a patch for btrfs and hes testing it. Hope to see it soon...
Edit: ahhh here it is http://www.mail-archive.com/linux-btrfs … 08577.html
Edit2: patches were merged with today's (26.02.2011) mainline kernel snapshot: 2.6.38-rc6-git6
it seems to work fine for me, so i guess it's [SOLVED] now
Last edited by Vi0L0 (2011-02-26 15:51:46)