atl1e.ko missing in initrd, causes kernel panic on thin clients

[Stéphane Graber]

Binary package hint: initramfs-tools

The atl1e.ko (Attansic Technology Gigabit Ethernet) module is missing in the default initrd although it's present on an installed system in /lib/modules/2.6.27-7-generic/kernel/drivers/net/atl1e/

This chipset is present in the latest Asus EEE that we are trying to use as thin clients, that missing module make them to kernel panic (unable to mount /) when trying to mount / from the network.

Is there a good reason for it not to be included in the initrd or is that just a bug of whatever chooses what to put in the initrd ?

Adding it to /etc/initramfs-tools/modules and rebuilding the initrd fixes the issue but I'd prefer not to have to do that.

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

I'm reassigning this to the linux package. I think a typo was made in debian/d-i/modules/nic-modules for bug 273904 . It looks like bug 273904 added "atle" to the nic-modules files when it really should have been "atl1e". I'm also going to open an Intrepid nomination to fix this. Thanks.

[Steve Conklin (sconklin)]

I've built a test kernel that corrects this. Please test this and let me know if it resolves the problem.

The test kernel is located here:
http://people.ubuntu.com/~sconklin/292411/

Thank you.

[Stéphane Graber (stgraber)]

I didn't try the kernel itself but I did a cpio test on both 2.6.27-8 and I can't find atl1e.ko in it.

stgraber@sahal:~# cat /boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-8-generic | gzip -d | cpio -t | grep atl1e
50780 blocks

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

So it seems we uncovered 2 issues with this bug. The first is the typo in the nic-modules file which Steve fixed. I think it might be a bit harder to test that fix as it would require rebuilding the debian-installer against the updated nic-modules file. The second issue is the real culprit of this bug. After speaking with cjwatson, this bug is really with initramfs on the running system and the bug itself is with /usr/share/initramfs-tools/hook-functions . Apparently it hardcodes a set of "interesting" NIC modules that needs to be updated. I've gone ahead and added an initramfs-tools task to this bug report to track it. Thanks.

[Tim Gardner (timg-tpi)]

SRU Justification - initramfs-tools_0.92bubuntu16

Impact: initramfs does not contain atl1e NIC driver in initramfs

Patch Description: Add atl1e to the default list of NICS built into initramfs by default.

Patch: http://launchpadlibrarian.net/19652461/initramfs-tools-diffs.txt

Test Case: LTSP units fail to boot after not being able to find a network device.

[Steve Conklin (sconklin)]

http://kernel.ubuntu.com/git?p=ubuntu/ubuntu-intrepid.git;a=commit;h=e40877524e894b31d9acb314fe42b5fc9e9598f6

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

Accepted into intrepid-proposed, please test and give feedback here. Please see https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Thank you in advance!

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

For clarification, I accepted the initramfs-tools intrepid update. New kernel isn't uploaded yet.

[Stéphane Graber (stgraber)]

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Martin Pitt wrote:
> For clarification, I accepted the initramfs-tools intrepid update.
> New kernel isn't uploaded yet.
>
> ** Changed in: initramfs-tools (Ubuntu) Status: New => Fix
> Committed
>
I'll try the initramfs change today, thanks.

Stéphane
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[Stéphane Graber (stgraber)]

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I just tried the new initramfs-tools, after installing it "cpio -t"
reports that atl1e.ko is now present.
So the fix is confirmed, thanks.

Stéphane
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[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

Accepted linux into intrepid-proposed, please test and give feedback here. Please see https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Thank you in advance!

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package initramfs-tools - 0.92bubuntu16

---------------
initramfs-tools (0.92bubuntu16) intrepid-proposed; urgency=low

  * Added atl1e to the list of NICs built into the initramfs.
    -LP: #292411

 -- Tim Gardner <email address hidden> Fri, 14 Nov 2008 11:40:29 -0700

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

initramfs-tools copied to jaunty and intrepid-updates.

[Paul Bransford (draeath)]

This also prevents the minimal network-install ISO's from installing on Asus EeePC 1000's.

[Mattias Wadenstein (maswan)]

Could the intrepid network boot images please be regenerated with this update? As Draeth wrote, this prevents network installs for devices with an atl1e NIC (without mangling the initrd.gz yourself).

[Bryan Wu (cooloney)]

Draeath,

Could you please provide more information about you issue? Do you mean intrepid minimal network-install ISO does not work on Asus EeePC 1000's, because of missing atl1e driver in initrd.gz?

But I'm pretty sure this issue is fixed in both kernel and initramfs-tools. Could you please test again and let us know the result. And I also check Jaunty kernel which already included this fixing. I will set the status to fixed-release.

-Bryan

[Alex Valavanis (valavanisalex)]

Intrepid Ibex reached end-of-life on 30 April 2010 so I am closing the report. The bug has been fixed in newer releases of Ubuntu.