[rhelv6-list] module load order changed in initramfs

[Jon Masters]

On Tue, 2011-01-11 at 15:04 +0000, John Haxby wrote:
> On 11 January 2011 14:30, neo3 matrix <neo3matrix at gmail.com> wrote:

> > So, my question is how can I get the modules list and their load
> > order from initramfs?

You don't :) Not directly. It requires the initramfs to actually be run
and for the module loading to take place in reaction to the kernel
detecting various devices.

> > If not from initramfs,  is there any other way to get it from a
> > normal running system?

I'm not sure whether you actually need to duplicate the ordering, or
simply the list of modules that were loaded, and I'm still not really
sure what you're trying to do. Is it that you're emulating the running
system, or driving a system image under a virtual machine, and don't
want to actually run any of the bits that came with it? (perhaps for
some kind of forensics purpose in addition to disaster recovery?).

> I don't think that there is a specific load order: even if you could
> detect the order in which devices are discovered (and thereby the
> modules are loaded) there is no guarantee that it will be the same
> next time it is booted

Yea, there is a reasonable expectation that it will be identical across
same boots of the same system, running the same kernel build. We
intentionally engineered that the system behave this way, in contrast to
the way that Fedora will load many modules at the same time, racing.

> or if it is the same, that it will be consistent across different
> machines (even identically configured different machines).

This is true. Even similar model numbers could have different hardware
bus structures, and different detection ordering therefore.

Jon.