Red Hat Bugzilla – Bug 144019
proper behaviour if a scsi driver doesn't exist in new kernel?
Last modified: 2007-11-30 17:07:05 EST
Description of problem: I'm openening this bugzilla more for a discussion since I don't know what the correct answer is. If a newer kernel doesn't have a scsi driver referenced in /etc/modprobe.conf then /boot/initrd-<kernelver>.img does not get created, but we continue to make a grub entry for the kernel even though there is a good chance it won't work without the initrd. In RHEL 4 it seems to skip any module it doesn't know about and make the initrd with the modules it does know about. I'm pretty sure the first situation is a bad one. I'm not so sure the RHEL4 solution is any better though. Most likely you'll still end up with a system that won't boot. Should the proper behaviour be that we don't make a grub entry at all if any module is missing? And complain to the user of course.
the initrd gets created by mkinitrd; reassigning
Complaining to the user won't work -- they don't see the messages in cases like up2date. The right answer is that we shouldn't have kernel modules dissapearing, and if we do we need to update modprobe.conf before new-kernel-package is run in the %post for the kernel.
This bug is filed against RHEL 3, which is in maintenance phase. During the maintenance phase, only security errata and select mission critical bug fixes will be released for enterprise products. Since this bug does not meet that criteria, it is now being closed. For more information of the RHEL errata support policy, please visit: http://www.redhat.com/security/updates/errata/ If you feel this bug is indeed mission critical, please contact your support representative. You may be asked to provide detailed information on how this bug is affecting you.