GNU bug report logs - #34902
Kernel module not found at boot time due to hyphen/underscore mismatch

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From: help-debbugs <at> gnu.org (GNU bug Tracking System)
To: Ludovic Courtès <ludo <at> gnu.org>
Cc: tracker <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#34902: closed (Kernel module not found at boot time due to
 hyphen/underscore mismatch)
Date: Fri, 16 Aug 2019 21:11:03 +0000

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Your message dated Fri, 16 Aug 2019 23:10:15 +0200
with message-id <874l2gg6ko.fsf <at> gnu.org>
and subject line Re: bug#34902: guix cannot find a module on boot
has caused the debbugs.gnu.org bug report #34902,
regarding Kernel module not found at boot time due to hyphen/underscore mismatch
to be marked as done.

(If you believe you have received this mail in error, please contact
help-debbugs <at> gnu.org.)


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34902: http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=34902
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From: Julien Lepiller <julien <at> lepiller.eu>
To: bug-guix <at> gnu.org
Subject: guix cannot find a module on boot
Date: Mon, 18 Mar 2019 10:17:14 +0100

Hi!

I've installed the Guix system on my cubietruck yesterday, but had some 
difficulties. At first, the root partition was not available at boot, so 
I got a repl with a message saying that /dev/mmcblk0p1 was not 
available. I added the following to my guix config file:

(initrd-modules (cons "sunxi_mmc" %base-initrd-modules))

although the guix system command worked, the produced system still 
couldn't boot, but this time the message was that guix was unable to 
find sunxi_mmc.ko. Using the repl I could confirm that this module was 
indeed here, but under the name sunxi-mmc.ko. Using load-linux-module*, 
I was able to confirm that loading it made the filesystem available in 
/dev. In the end this line:

(initrd-modules (cons "sunxi-mmc" %base-initrd-modules))

was the right line to add, and I could properly boot my cubietruck!

The bug here is that guix should either be smarter and load sunxi-mmc.ko 
when it can't find sunxi_mmc.ko, or not allow me to build a system when 
I specify sunxi_mmc since it doesn't exist at boot time.

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From: Ludovic Courtès <ludo <at> gnu.org>
To: Danny Milosavljevic <dannym <at> scratchpost.org>
Cc: Julien Lepiller <julien <at> lepiller.eu>, 34902-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org,
 30604 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#34902: guix cannot find a module on boot
Date: Fri, 16 Aug 2019 23:10:15 +0200

Hello!

Danny Milosavljevic <dannym <at> scratchpost.org> skribis:

> Maybe I'm too paranoid but can we have "guix" in the file name "modules.name"
> somewhere?  Otherwise I see it coming that upstream uses modules.name for an
> incompatible purpose and then we'd be with a guix interface that's broken
> and/or break their interface.
>
> (So much complexity for something so silly.  Honestly, I feel like E-mailing
> the upstream author and telling him what I think.  WTF :P)
>
> Should we warn when we use the fallback?  I like the defensive programming
> but I feel we shouldn't have it *silently* fall back when the database is
> broken/missing.
>
> Otherwise LGTM!

So I went ahead and pushed these patches, derived from our beautiful
patch set at <https://issues.guix.gnu.org/issue/30604>:

  c85ccf60bf linux-modules: Define and use a module name database.
  e1a9a7f275 linux-modules: Add 'load-linux-modules-from-directory'.
  2a693b69ca linux-modules: Add "modules.devname" writer.
  4f8b9d1a6f linux-modules: Add "modules.alias" writer.

The actual fix for the hyphen/underscore mismatch that Julien reported
is commit c85ccf60bf.  The “modules.devname” and “modules.alias” are
actually unused so far but (1) it was easier to preserve them, and (2)
that’ll give us an incentive to finish
<https://issues.guix.gnu.org/issue/30604>.  :-)

I added an explicit comment that “modules.name” uses a Guix-specific
format.  We can always rename it if the kernel folks decide to acquire
that file name.

Julien, could you please confirm that your initial issue is fixed?

Thanks,
Ludo’.

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