fatal error on startup - "ramzswap: Unknown parameter `disksize_kb'"

[Alex]

Error inserting ramzswap

http://img822.imageshack.us/i/screenshotpz.png/

[Philip Muškovac (yofel)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. This bug did not have a package associated with it, which is important for ensuring that it gets looked at by the proper developers. You can learn more about finding the right package at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/FindRightPackage. I have classified this bug as a bug in the kernel (linux).

When reporting bugs in the future please use apport, either via the appropriate application's "Help -> Report a Problem" menu or using 'ubuntu-bug' and the name of the package affected. You can learn more about this functionality at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs.

[Philip Muškovac (yofel)]

Seems like something is wrong with the module parameters, the only parameter it allows is "num_devices:Number of ramzswap devices (uint)" while initramfs calls it with
modprobe -q --ignore-install ramzswap disksize_kb="$kbytes"
thus making it fail.

[ 6567.775504] ramzswap: module is from the staging directory, the quality is unknown, you have been warned.
[ 6567.776849] ramzswap: Unknown parameter `disksize_kb'

[Philip Muškovac (yofel)]

If I understand /usr/share/initramfs-tools/hooks/compcache right this should make the live disk unbootable on systems with <=512MiB RAM.

[Andrej Mernik (r33d3m33r-deactivatedaccount)]

I can confirm this error in both AMD64 and i386 versions of Ubuntu CD image, daily build. I'm using Unetbootin and booting from the USB key, size 2 GB, filesystem FAT32. RAM size is of the computer is 3GB.

[Jared Klingenberger (itsjareds)]

I confirm this as well on the i386 version of Ubuntu 10.10 alpha3 iso. I used Unetbootin as well, also with a 2 GB usb flash drive and FAT32 filesystem. This computer has 1 GB of RAM.

[lanchengliu (llc1900)]

i also have this problem.

[Joshua J Wulf (sitapati)]

Exactly the same problem, same setup as itsjareds - eeePC 901, 2GB flash USB using Unetbootin, 1GB RAM.

[Joshua J Wulf (sitapati)]

10.10 alpha 3 netbook iso

[Hansen (moteprime)]

I also got the error i Maverick Meerkat Alpha 3, dated 18 august 2010.
Fatal: Error inserting Ramzswap (/lib/modules/2.6.35-15-generic....
using unetbootin and usb pen.

Error is discussed here:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1539482

leading to :
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1533282

But i cant find the UI reference

[Hansen (moteprime)]

Used "Startup disk Creator" in Lucid, but booting maverick from usb pen gives error: "Unknown keyword in configuration file" and booting stops.

[Philip Muškovac (yofel)]

@mote: unless you get the exact same error message as you can see in the screenshot in the description you have a different issue. Please file a new bug. Your error sounds like bug 608382 actually.

[Hansen (moteprime)]

If i use UNnetbootin to create bootable usb stick i get the error:

FATAL: Error inserting ramzswap (/lib/modules/2.6.35-14-generic/kernel/drivers/sswap.ko): Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)
No init found. Try passing init= bootarg

If i use "Startup disk Creator" in Lucid i get the error:

"Unknown keyword in configuration file"

Is it not likely that the two errors are related?

[Robbie Williamson (robbiew)]

@Philip: since you are the original reporter, can you please confirm this bug exists with the daily located at http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current?

[Philip Muškovac (yofel)]

Robbie: I'm not the original reporter.

Alex: can you test it please?

[Joshua J Wulf (sitapati)]

Same error for me with the latest daily desktop iso

[Robbie Williamson (robbiew)]

Thanks Joshua

[Bruno Fernando (minhacaixademail)]

Latest daily 10.10 netbook failed, as alpha 3 did, in both my computers; Acer TravelMate 4000, 768Mb RAM and Acer Aspire One 110L, 1,5Gb Ram. Boot media were two flash drives, both tested OK on previous releases.

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

ramzswap's interface has changed and now requires an 'rzscontrol' tool to initialise devices. I don't believe that's packaged right now. However:

 * It's changed yet again upstream, is now called 'zram', and its disk size is controlled by writing to files in sysfs.
 * rzscontrol is a trivial ioctl caller.
 * compcache's licence is compatible with that of initramfs-tools.

Thus I plan to just copy rzscontrol's source into initramfs-tools for now and use it. This should be straightforward.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package initramfs-tools - 0.98ubuntu2

---------------
initramfs-tools (0.98ubuntu2) maverick; urgency=low

  * The ramzswap device changed its interface so that the disk size needs to
    be given using an ioctl rather than as a module parameter. Incorporate
    the rzscontrol tool from the compcache project
    (http://code.google.com/p/compcache/) so that we can control current
    ramzswap devices (LP: #600782). This is a strictly temporary measure,
    as recent versions of compcache change the interface (and module name)
    again to involve writing to sysfs files, which won't require any special
    tools.
 -- Colin Watson <email address hidden> Fri, 20 Aug 2010 09:46:26 +0100

[Alex (icidrop)]

Hey, original poster here. i wanted to test the daily build but...i 'm happy it already got fixed!

[Giuseppe Scarciglia (gscarcio)]

Hi,
I've the same problem on startup of my ubuntu 10.04, the message is:
****
FATAL: Error inserting ramzswap (/lib/modules/2.6.35-22-generic-pae/kernel/drivers/staging/ramzswap/ramzswap.ko):Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)
****

And in dmesg i can see:
****
ramzswap: module is from the staging directory, the quality is unknown, you have been warned.
ramzswap: Unknown parameter `disksize_kb'
****

The message comes from when I installed the kernel 2.6.35-22.34 from Lucid PPA. I had to install this kernel version because the 2.6.32 kernel does not recognize the entire hardware of my laptop. Does anyone know how to fix it or, where applicable, disable compcache/ramzswap?

Thanks to all,