Bug 506934 - RFE: user usb modules support
Summary: RFE: user usb modules support
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED WONTFIX
Alias: None
Product: Fedora
Classification: Fedora
Component: mkinitrd
Version: 11
Hardware: All
OS: Linux
low
medium
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Peter Jones
QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2009-06-19 11:42 UTC by Karel Volný
Modified: 2009-06-19 15:35 UTC (History)
4 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2009-06-19 15:35:48 UTC
Type: ---
Embargoed:


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Description Karel Volný 2009-06-19 11:42:10 UTC
Description of problem:
I tried to install a system on USB stick and make it bootable, however it failed. I've figured out that the problem I am facing ATM is that the initrd does not include support for usb storage and thus the root does not get mounted.

From mkinitrd man page:
mkinitrd  creates  an  initial image used by the kernel for preloading the block device modules (such as IDE, SCSI or RAID) which are needed to access the root filesystem. mkinitrd automatically loads filesystem modules (such  as  ext3  and  jbd),  IDE  modules,  all scsi_hostadapter  entries in /etc/modprobe.conf, and raid modules if the system’s root partition is on raid, which makes it simple to build and use kernels using modular device drivers.

- this list does not include anything like "usb storage modules" (usb != ide, usb != scsi ...), and trying to add e.g. "usb-storage" into /etc/modprobe.conf is in vain, mkinitrd does not include this module within the initrd it creates.

This can be workarounded when manually invoking mkinitrd using the "--with" option, but it is missed on automatic initrd builds like during kernel package installation.

So please add support also for including USB storage drivers modules.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
mkinitrd-6.0.86-2.fc11

How reproducible:
always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. install Fedora on non-usb disk (i.e. qemu image etc.)
2. check the contents of /boot/initrd...
3. try to add usb-storage into /etc/modprobe.d/...
4. reinstall the kernel (rpm --replacepkgs ...)
5. check the contents of /boot/initrd...
  
Actual results:
the initrd image DOES NOT contain usb-storage module

Expected results:
the initrd image DOES contain usb-storage module


Additional info:
This RFE is related to bug #204742 and also bug #478824, but the point is a bit different here.

Also note that the man page is obsolete as modprobe.conf is now replaced with modprobe.d/*

Comment 1 Jeremy Katz 2009-06-19 15:35:48 UTC
With current mkinitrd, it is very much tailored to the system you are building the initrd on.  You can use /etc/sysconfig/modules to set up some defaults that get listened to.  We're not going to change that in the current code.

In Fedora 12, we will hopefully be moving to dracut at which point this will be changed and what you're hoping for will actually be the default mode of operation.


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