Genkernel 3.4.x and the mdev-problem

Uwe82 · n00b Joined: 03 Mar 2005 Posts: 21

Hi,

I have a problem that was sometimes discussed here. I wanted to upgrade the nvidia-driver and my X11. So I had to rebuild my kernel and did that with an update of the kernel to 2.6.18-r2.

But I get errors when booting the kernel:

Uwe82 · n00b Joined: 03 Mar 2005 Posts: 21

No one has an idea?

linuxbum · Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2006 2:55 pm Post subject:

Uew82,

Reading you post and the others that have this problem along with my 1650 dell.
The change to /etc/genkernel.conf is to comment out the DEVFSD and uncomment the UDEV lines.

I am currently testing this fix. will post back as soon as I know if it fixed then error.

3.4.4 has same error with not using the UDEV subsystem.

Bryan

Ok upon further review this edit change did not fix the mdev being used instead of udev

Uwe82 · n00b Joined: 03 Mar 2005 Posts: 21

Uwe82 · n00b Joined: 03 Mar 2005 Posts: 21

@linuxbum: Did you try going back to 2.6.17? I think, I'll try this this weekend. There is also a bug report for this. We should both watch it for any changes ...

linuxbum · Posted: Thu Dec 07, 2006 8:48 pm Post subject:

Uew82
I did reboot system with 2.6.15 kernel that was built before the 2.6.18 .
BTW this is the same .config file used for both.

I will monitor the bug report and see if we ever get a fix.

anybody find good explanation on what the mdev and udev subsystems differences are ?

meranto · Posted: Thu Dec 07, 2006 9:22 pm Post subject:

if your /etc/genkernel is not manually modified (or really important to you) you could consider to remove/rename it and remerge genkernel, which installs the new /etc/genkernel, which worked instantly for me when I used genkernel after that to build my kernel
_________________
Linus Torvalds: "Really, I'm not out to destroy Microsoft. That will just be a completely unintentional side effect."

Uwe82 · n00b Joined: 03 Mar 2005 Posts: 21

I tried both now, but neither a new kernel version, nor reemerging genkernel did help. I also tried with the not stable marked packages...

linuxbum · Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 9:04 pm Post subject:

Uwe82

I was able to remove genkernel-3.4.X and reinstall genkernel-3.3.11d and compiled the 2.6.18-r4 kernel and was able to boot the system with out any errors about mdev.

Here is the steps I took:

create file /etc/portage/package.mask

entry in ths file" >sys-kernel/genkernels-3.3.11d"
include the greater than sign

emerge -C genkernel then
emerge -av genkernel
make sure it shows that sys-kernel/genkernel-3.3.11d is the version being installed.

Then build kernel as you normally would with genkernel.

I will update bug report
Bryan

Uwe82 · n00b Joined: 03 Mar 2005 Posts: 21

How can I install an older Version than 3.4.1 when there is no 3.3.x-build in portage any more? :?:

linuxbum · Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2006 8:17 pm Post subject:

Check in the /usr/portage/sys-kernel/genkernel directory
See what is the oldest version you have stored there.

linuxbum · Posted: Fri Dec 15, 2006 8:11 pm Post subject:

Uwe82

New patch out for the problem.
See https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=149020.

I was able to upgrade to genkernel 3.4.4 and install patches as described in Bugs and rebuilt 2.6.18-r4 kerenl no errors this time when booting.

Bryan

Uwe82 · n00b Joined: 03 Mar 2005 Posts: 21

martigan80 · n00b Joined: 31 Aug 2005 Posts: 46

When I try the link I get an error saying the bug number is not valid.

Also one quick question. While in the CLI of installing gentoo, how do I apply the patch as you discribed? Is there a "Patching for n00bs" section?

Uwe82 · n00b Joined: 03 Mar 2005 Posts: 21

There is a dot too much at the end of the URL

There are two patch files. Download them with wget after you emerged genkernel. Then just use

martigan80 · n00b Joined: 31 Aug 2005 Posts: 46

yakonfire · n00b Joined: 17 Jan 2007 Posts: 1

Hi there,

I'm a newbie. I am having this same mdev problem with genkernel 3.4.5-r1 (just to let you know that it apparently hasn't been officially fixed yet). I can't figure out how to revert to 3.4.4; only the current genkernel seems to be in the portage tree.

One of the 3.4.4 patches seems to work on 3.4.5-r1, but not the second one. I'll update when I find out whether it works, but if anyone has suggestions, that would be great.

UPDATE: some combination of the genkernel.conf edit mentioned above, the patch, and messing around a bit with the grub.conf file (either adding udev to the kernel line, or changing "initrd /boot/initramfs-genkernel..." back to "initramfs /boot/initrd-genkernel..." -- a misguided fiddle) seems to have worked.