[PATCH] linux-initrd: Add AHCI modules.

[PATCH] linux-initrd: Add AHCI modules.

[David Thompson]

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One problem that Mark Weaver and I encountered when intalling the GNU
system on our Thinkpad X60s was that initrd couldn't boot from our SATA
hard disks without passing additional kernel modules in the
operating-system declaration.  I think it would make a lot of sense to
have these modules loaded by default, given the widespread use of SATA
disks.

I doubt that hardcoding the AHCI module names into linux-modules is the
preferred way to do this, but I wanted to propose something simple to
get the discussion started. :)

Thoughts?


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From 2c9599720a8646a79fb3cb9517f7f0e6f1bfa25f Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: David Thompson <dthompson2@worcester.edu>
Date: Fri, 18 Jul 2014 11:03:02 -0400
Subject: [PATCH] linux-initrd: Add AHCI modules.

* gnu/system/linux-initrd (linux-modules): Add them.
---
 gnu/system/linux-initrd.scm | 3 ++-
 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/gnu/system/linux-initrd.scm b/gnu/system/linux-initrd.scm
index 9e39f2d..62f95c5 100644
--- a/gnu/system/linux-initrd.scm
+++ b/gnu/system/linux-initrd.scm
@@ -249,7 +249,8 @@ exception and backtrace!)."
 
   (define linux-modules
     ;; Modules added to the initrd and loaded from the initrd.
-    `(,@(if (or virtio? qemu-networking?)
+    `("libahci.ko" "ahci.ko" ; modules for SATA controllers
+      ,@(if (or virtio? qemu-networking?)
             virtio-modules
             '())
       ,@(if (find (file-system-type-predicate "cifs") file-systems)
-- 
2.0.0


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-- 
David Thompson
Web Developer - Free Software Foundation - http://fsf.org
GPG Key: 0FF1D807
Support the FSF: https://fsf.org/donate

Re: [PATCH] linux-initrd: Add AHCI modules.

[Mark H Weaver]

David Thompson <dthompson2@worcester.edu> writes:

> One problem that Mark Weaver and I encountered when intalling the GNU
> system on our Thinkpad X60s was that initrd couldn't boot from our SATA
> hard disks without passing additional kernel modules in the
> operating-system declaration.  I think it would make a lot of sense to
> have these modules loaded by default, given the widespread use of SATA
> disks.
>
> I doubt that hardcoding the AHCI module names into linux-modules is the
> preferred way to do this, but I wanted to propose something simple to
> get the discussion started. :)
>
> Thoughts?

Another option would be to build AHCI support into the kernel.  I'm
currently testing a proposed patch.  I'm not sure whether this is better
or not; I'll leave it to others to decide :)

      Mark

Re: [PATCH] linux-initrd: Add AHCI modules.

[Jason Self]

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I would prefer to not maintain different kernel configurations (for
Guix and non-Guix.)

If the initial ramdisk doesn't have enough stuff present to be able to
boot successfully, this seems to provide a good example of entire
directories of stuff to include:

http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/view/cvs/postlfs/initramfs.html

Even if it might make it bigger than manually tuning it this is
probably easier than figuring out which specific things need copying
and makes it bootable on a wide variety of computers with many
different setups. (And plus I hope for full disk encryption with LVM
some day.)  :)

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Re: [PATCH] linux-initrd: Add AHCI modules.

[Ludovic Courtès]

David Thompson <dthompson2@worcester.edu> skribis:

> From 2c9599720a8646a79fb3cb9517f7f0e6f1bfa25f Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
> From: David Thompson <dthompson2@worcester.edu>
> Date: Fri, 18 Jul 2014 11:03:02 -0400
> Subject: [PATCH] linux-initrd: Add AHCI modules.
>
> * gnu/system/linux-initrd (linux-modules): Add them.

Ah yes, OK to push!

Ludo’.

Re: [PATCH] linux-initrd: Add AHCI modules.

[Ludovic Courtès]

"Jason Self" <jason@bluehome.net> skribis:

> I would prefer to not maintain different kernel configurations (for
> Guix and non-Guix.)

This is an argument in favor of adding the modules to the initrd, rather
than changing the kernel config, right?  (If yes, I agree.)

> If the initial ramdisk doesn't have enough stuff present to be able to
> boot successfully, this seems to provide a good example of entire
> directories of stuff to include:
>
> http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/view/cvs/postlfs/initramfs.html

Yes, it doesn’t support LVM, dm-crypt, etc. but this is documented under
“Limitations”.  :-)

Or did you have something specific in mind?

Ludo’.

Re: [PATCH] linux-initrd: Add AHCI modules.

[David Thompson]

Ludovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org> writes:

> David Thompson <dthompson2@worcester.edu> skribis:
>
>> From 2c9599720a8646a79fb3cb9517f7f0e6f1bfa25f Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
>> From: David Thompson <dthompson2@worcester.edu>
>> Date: Fri, 18 Jul 2014 11:03:02 -0400
>> Subject: [PATCH] linux-initrd: Add AHCI modules.
>>
>> * gnu/system/linux-initrd (linux-modules): Add them.
>
> Ah yes, OK to push!

Pushed!

-- 
David Thompson
Web Developer - Free Software Foundation - http://fsf.org
GPG Key: 0FF1D807
Support the FSF: https://fsf.org/donate