Re: initramfs: kernel update adds unwanted driver?

[Grant Edwards]

On 2018-04-14, francis.montag...@inria.fr  wrote:

> Thus, for the running kernel:
>
>   /bin/kernel-install add $(uname -r) /lib/$(uname -r)/vmlinuz
>
> It will regenerate the initramfs and eventually other things like the
> grub.cfg.
>
> I tested to add a /etc/dracut.conf.d/test.conf to omit a driver. It
> works: the driver is no more in the initramfs.

That mostly works: it omits the kernel module itself (which we'll call
"foo").  Howevr, it still includes in the initramfs the files
etc/modprobe.d/foo.conf and /etc/modules-load.d/foo.conf.

That doesn't seem to cause any real harm other than an annoying error
message in the syslog:

  Apr 16 05:00:19 beta systemd-modules-load[192]: Failed to find module 'foo'

I've been re-reading the dracut docs, and can't figure out how to tell
it to omit those files (I suspect the latter of the two is the
critical one).  I suppose I could remove those files, regenerate the
initramfs, then re-install them.

That's annoying. :/

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  at   Maybe it leads to heaven,
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Re: initramfs: kernel update adds unwanted driver?

[Roger Heflin]

You can also use lsinitrd to show the current files in any initramfs
and/or cat out the contents of single files you see in the initramfs.

On Sat, Apr 14, 2018 at 10:43 AM,   wrote:
>
> On Sat, 14 Apr 2018 15:07:28 - Grant Edwards wrote:
>> On 2018-04-14, francis.montag...@inria.fr  wrote:
>>> Thus, for the running kernel:
>>> /bin/kernel-install add $(uname -r) /lib/$(uname -r)/vmlinuz
>
>> Thanks!  That looks like a good option.  I may prompt the user for
>> confirmation before doing that step in my driver install script -- how
>> likely is it that the admin has done something manually which that
>> script will undo?
>
> IMO it is really unlikely since there is many ways to hook the
> postrans action of the kernel-core RPM, ex:
>
>   /usr/lib/kernel/install.d/
>   /etc/kernel/install.d/
>   /etc/kernel/postinst.d/
>
> I use for example postinst.d for regenerating the grub.cfg with
> grub2-mkconfig.
>
> --
> francis
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Re: initramfs: kernel update adds unwanted driver?

[Francis . Montagnac]

On Sat, 14 Apr 2018 15:07:28 - Grant Edwards wrote:
> On 2018-04-14, francis.montag...@inria.fr  wrote:
>> Thus, for the running kernel:
>> /bin/kernel-install add $(uname -r) /lib/$(uname -r)/vmlinuz

> Thanks!  That looks like a good option.  I may prompt the user for
> confirmation before doing that step in my driver install script -- how
> likely is it that the admin has done something manually which that
> script will undo?

IMO it is really unlikely since there is many ways to hook the
postrans action of the kernel-core RPM, ex:

  /usr/lib/kernel/install.d/
  /etc/kernel/install.d/
  /etc/kernel/postinst.d/

I use for example postinst.d for regenerating the grub.cfg with
grub2-mkconfig.

-- 
francis
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Re: initramfs: kernel update adds unwanted driver?

[Grant Edwards]

On 2018-04-14, francis.montag...@inria.fr  wrote:
> On Fri, 13 Apr 2018 21:03:34 - Grant Edwards wrote:
>
>> First create a file named /etc/dracut.conf.d/foo containing the line
>> omit_drivers+="foo".  Then either
>
> Bexware, this file should have .conf as suffix.

Ah yes, thanks for pointing that out.

>> 1. Rebuild the initramfs with the 'dracut' command.  I haven't tested
>>this yet. It seems a bit risky [...]

> You can simply execute the postrans of the kernel-core RPM
>
> rpm -q --scripts kernel-core-$(uname -r)
> ...
> posttrans scriptlet (using /bin/sh):
> /bin/kernel-install add 4.15.4-300.fc27.x86_64 
> /lib/modules/4.15.4-300.fc27.x86_64/vmlinuz || exit $?
>
> Thus, for the running kernel:
>
> /bin/kernel-install add $(uname -r) /lib/$(uname -r)/vmlinuz
>
> It will regenerate the initramfs and eventually other things like the
> grub.cfg.
>
> I tested to add a /etc/dracut.conf.d/test.conf to omit a driver. It
> works: the driver is no more in the initramfs.

Thanks!  That looks like a good option.  I may prompt the user for
confirmation before doing that step in my driver install script -- how
likely is it that the admin has done something manually which that
script will undo? [It's been a long time since I ran RedHat much. I
think RedHat 8.0 was the last version I used regularly.]

-- 
Grant




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Re: initramfs: kernel update adds unwanted driver?

[Francis . Montagnac]

Hi.

On Fri, 13 Apr 2018 21:03:34 - Grant Edwards wrote:

> First create a file named /etc/dracut.conf.d/foo containing the line
> omit_drivers+="foo".  Then either

Beware, this file should have .conf as suffix.

> 1. Rebuild the initramfs with the 'dracut' command.  I haven't tested
>this yet. It seems a bit risky, since (AFAICT) I don't have any way
>of knowing what command-line options were used to generate the
>current, working initramfs, and I might end up making unintentional
>changes when I regenerate it.

You can simply execute the postrans of the kernel-core RPM

rpm -q --scripts kernel-core-$(uname -r)
...
posttrans scriptlet (using /bin/sh):
/bin/kernel-install add 4.15.4-300.fc27.x86_64 
/lib/modules/4.15.4-300.fc27.x86_64/vmlinuz || exit $?

Thus, for the running kernel:

/bin/kernel-install add $(uname -r) /lib/$(uname -r)/vmlinuz

It will regenerate the initramfs and eventually other things like the
grub.cfg.

I tested to add a /etc/dracut.conf.d/test.conf to omit a driver. It
works: the driver is no more in the initramfs.

-- 
francis
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Re: initramfs: kernel update adds unwanted driver?

[Grant Edwards]

On 2018-04-13, Rick Stevens  wrote:
> On 04/13/2018 09:34 AM, Grant Edwards wrote:

>> What's the best way to remove the old, broken driver from the
>> initramfs so that the driver in the root filesystem is used on boot?
>> 
>> Is there a way to prevent the kernel update process from adding the
>> driver back to the initramfs the next time a kernel is updated?
[...]

> Uhm, probably do a "rmmod foo;modprobe foo", THEN rebuild the
> initramfs image. Also check both the /etc/dracut.conf file and
> /etc/dracut.conf.d directory to see if they're specifying some
> ancient version of your module. At worst, add a
> --add-modules=" to the command.

Except the goal is to _not_ have the driver in the initramfs.  There
is absolutely no reason it needs to be there, and eliminating it from
the initramfs avoids a source of confusion.

I've identified a couple options:

First create a file named /etc/dracut.conf.d/foo containing the line
omit_drivers+="foo".  Then either

1. Rebuild the initramfs with the 'dracut' command.  I haven't tested
   this yet. It seems a bit risky, since (AFAICT) I don't have any way
   of knowing what command-line options were used to generate the
   current, working initramfs, and I might end up making unintentional
   changes when I regenerate it.  One presumes that a well-behaved
   admin would edit the dracut config files rather than use
   command-line options, but I one should not assume customers are all
   well-behaved.

or

2. Unpack the current initramfs-*.img file, delete the foo.ko.xz file
   and re-pack the initramfs-*.img file. I've written a bash shell
   script to do that, and its seems to work fine.  This feels a little
   less risky than regenerating the initramfs from scratch.

In either case, the omit_drivers setting should prevent re-breaking
the system with future runs of dracut (either manually by the admin or
as part of a kernel upgrade).

-- 
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Re: initramfs: kernel update adds unwanted driver?

[Rick Stevens]

On 04/13/2018 09:34 AM, Grant Edwards wrote:
> On Fedora 27 with kernel recently updated to 4.15.15-300.fc27.i686, I
> ran into a problem when I installed a new version of a driver (we'll
> call "foo") in /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/[...].
> 
> Doing a "rmmod foo; modprobe foo" loads the new driver and everything
> works great.  However, rebooting loads a 15-year old version of the
> driver (which doesn't work great).
> 
> lsinitrd shows that the 15-year old driver is present in the
> initramfs.  On a clean install of Fedora 27 (running an identical
> kernel version) the initramfs does not contain the "foo" driver at
> all.
> 
> Did the kernel upgrade process muck up the initramfs by adding the old
> version of the "foo" driver?  The "old" version is the one that's
> shipped with the kernel package, but I've never seen it included in
> the initramfs before.
> 
> What's the best way to remove the old, broken driver from the
> initramfs so that the driver in the root filesystem is used on boot?
> 
> Is there a way to prevent the kernel update process from adding the
> driver back to the initramfs the next time a kernel is updated?
> 
> Alternatively, I suppose I could add a "service" that runs at boot
> time and does a "rmmod foo; modrobe foo", but that seems like the
> wrong way to fix this...

Uhm, probably do a "rmmod foo;modprobe foo", THEN rebuild the initramfs
image. Also check both the /etc/dracut.conf file and /etc/dracut.conf.d
directory to see if they're specifying some ancient version of your
module. At worst, add a --add-modules=" to the command.
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