easy questions for Fedora gurus

[Scott Douglass]

On Sat, 2009-03-07 at 22:26 -0500, Chris Ball wrote:
> Hi Scott,
> 
>    > 1. when I install new kernel via yum update, do I need to rebuild
>    > the initrd-*.img that came with that kernel in order for the
>    > /dev/root disk label to be known? Right now, I can't boot any new
>    > kernel as the "/dev/root" device specified in olpc.fth can not be
>    > found by the new kernel.
> 
> It's because "jffs2" and "cafe_nand" are missing from those initrds.
> I think if we specified those in /etc/modprobe.conf, they'd be read by
> mkinitrd at kernel install time and bundled into the initrd.  If you
> put them in that file before installing the new kernel, does that work?
> 
> (If so, please send us a patch to our kickstart file that writes them
> there.)
> 
> - Chris.

I added to /etc/modprobe.conf:

alias cafe_nand cafe_nand
alias jffs2 jffs2

I removed then installed the latest kernel via RPM (after fixing
RPM...). The ram disk created is different in size from the one created
when /etc/modprobe.conf was empty.

I copied the ram disk to /boot/initrdX.img, and copied the kernel
to /boot/vmlinuzX

I edited /boot/olpc.fth to use these items.

Rebooted.

Looks good, no error about /dev/root, but stops booting (cursor is
flashing, but nothing is happening...) after printing:

"input: OLPC HGPK ALPS HGPK
as /devices/platform/i8042/serial/input/input2"

So, something more is needed I guess.

I did try adding a bunch more modules (mtd, reed_solomon, zlib_compress,
etc.) in /etc/modprobe.conf and rebuilding the ram disk myself as well.
That produced a slightly different in size ram disk but ended up with
the same result as above.