When booting up using a 2.6.8.1 vanilla kernel, /etc/init.d/modules is run before all filesystems are mounted. If this causes /tmp (-> /var/tmp) to not be available, for example if /var is mounted from its own partition (as is the case on our machine), /sbin/generate-modprobe.conf, run by modules-update, fails, leaving an empty /etc/modprobe.conf. As a consequence, almost all subsequent start scripts fail because a required module cannot be found. Running modules-update as root fixes this, but unattended boot is impossible. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. Install development-sources-2.6.8.1, configure, compile and install the kernel. 2. Create an own partition for /var, move all /var content there, put it into fstab. Make sure there's no /var/tmp on your root partition. 3. Reboot and your start scripts should be unable to load any modules. Portage 2.0.50-r11 (default-x86-1.4, gcc-3.3.4, glibc-2.3.3.20040420-r1, 2.4.27) ================================================================= System uname: 2.4.27 i686 AMD Duron(tm) processor Gentoo Base System version 1.4.16 Autoconf: sys-devel/autoconf-2.59-r4 Automake: sys-devel/automake-1.8.5-r1 ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86" AUTOCLEAN="yes" CFLAGS="-march=athlon -O2 -pipe" CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu" COMPILER="" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/kde/2/share/config /usr/kde/3/share/config /usr/share/config /var/bind /var/qmail/control" CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/gconf /etc/terminfo /etc/env.d" CXXFLAGS="-march=athlon -O2 -pipe" DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles" FEATURES="autoaddcvs ccache sandbox" GENTOO_MIRRORS="ftp://linux.rz.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/gentoo-mirror/ ftp://ftp.belnet.be/mirror/rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo/ http://ftp.belnet.be/mirror/rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo/ ftp://ftp.easynet.nl/mirror/gentoo// http://194.83.57.11/sites/www.ibiblio.org/gentoo/" MAKEOPTS="-j2" PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" PORTDIR="/usr/portage" PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/portage/overlay" SYNC="rsync://rsync.de.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage" USE="3dnow aalib acpi acpi4linux apache2 apm berkdb bitmap-fonts crypt gdbm gif imagemagick jpeg libwww mmx ncurses nopri nozaptel pam perl png python readline slang ssl tcpd x86 xprint zlib"
Created attachment 41326 [details, diff] Proposed fix for this bug A possible fix to this (which works for me) is letting generate-modprobe.conf create its temporary files somewhere on the root partition, for example /etc/modules.d/. See attached patch for details.
Not a kernel bug. generate-modprobe.conf is provided by module-init-tools.
Patch fixed it for me too. Had the same problem with generate-modprobe.conf, but it wasn't until I saw this bug report that I realized it was due to my /var filesystem being on a separate partition (and /tmp being a symlink to /var/tmp).
closing old bugs - this seems solved already - my machines work properly with a seperate /tmp.
