Chicken n egg problem with mkinitrd

[K.C. Chan]

All, I am running into a bit of a snag here? Here's what happen after compiling kernel 2.4.17 and running mkinitrd: "
mkinitrd -v initrd-2.4.17 2.4.17
Using modules:
All of your loopback devices are in use! ". How do I resolve this chicken-n-problem? The current kernel version is: "kernel-2.4.2-2". Thanks.

[Ron Kinner]

See:http://www.van-dijk.net/mailarchive/cpqlin0007/0081.html

Also shouldn't you have some sort of extension on the end of your first parameter like .img?

Ron

[K.C. Chan]

Ron Kinner,
I am stock at "cd /lib/modules//block" and insmod loop returns: "/lib/modules/2.4.17/block
insmod: loop: no module by that name found" Any suggestion on getting this to work. Thanks.

[Eric Ladner]

Go through the make config again and enable the loop device under block devices as 'Y', not a module or 'N'.

[K.C. Chan]

Eric Ladner,
I've compiled kernel 2.4.17 with loop back option = Y, but still getting same error: "all loop back are in use" when running mkinitrd initrd-2.4.17.img 2.4.17. Do you have any idea? Thanks.

[Paul S_1]

You have no loopback devices available.

Either 'modprobe loop' or boot back to your stock linux kernel and run mkinitrd.

mkinitrd /boot/initrd-[kernel version].img [kernel version, not vmlinuz-*]

To see if you have the driver loaded, run lsmod (as root) or cat /proc/modules (as a normal user). You should see loop listed as unused.

To see if you even have the driver go:
cd /lib/modules/[kernel version]/kernel/drivers/block

and ls

you should see loop.o

--Paul

[K.C. Chan]

All, I've gotten this to work by rebuilding the current working kernel with loopback support. Then on the new kernel I've also make sure the loopback support is selected, so this way I can use mkinitrd on the future kernel. Thanks.