# modules-update never ends, eats swap and locks PC [SOLVED]

## VinzC

Initial title: modules-update never ends, consumes swap and locks PC

Hi.

Since a few days ago an error "could not create /etc/modrobe.conf, updating manually" sometimes occurs when rebooting. When I run modules-update manually, a lot of swapping occurs (kswapd eats up all CPU) and the machine locks up.

After having forced a reboot I can now see other error messages like:

```
Jan 17 08:00:04 athena modprobe: WARNING: /etc/modprobe.conf line 226: ignoring bad line starting with 'agp=1'

Jan 17 08:00:04 athena modprobe: WARNING: /etc/modprobe.conf line 287: ignoring bad line starting with 'probeall'

Jan 17 08:00:04 athena modprobe: WARNING: /etc/modprobe.conf line 300: ignoring bad line starting with 'probeall'

Jan 17 08:00:04 athena modprobe: WARNING: /etc/modprobe.conf line 226: ignoring bad line starting with 'agp=1'

Jan 17 08:00:04 athena modprobe: WARNING: /etc/modprobe.conf line 287: ignoring bad line starting with 'probeall'

Jan 17 08:00:04 athena modprobe: WARNING: /etc/modprobe.conf line 300: ignoring bad line starting with 'probeall'

Jan 17 08:00:13 athena modprobe: WARNING: /etc/modprobe.conf line 226: ignoring bad line starting with 'agp=1'

Jan 17 08:00:13 athena modprobe: WARNING: /etc/modprobe.conf line 287: ignoring bad line starting with 'probeall'

Jan 17 08:00:13 athena modprobe: WARNING: /etc/modprobe.conf line 300: ignoring bad line starting with 'probeall'

Jan 17 08:00:13 athena modprobe: WARNING: /etc/modprobe.conf line 226: ignoring bad line starting with 'agp=1'

Jan 17 08:00:13 athena modprobe: WARNING: /etc/modprobe.conf line 287: ignoring bad line starting with 'probeall'

Jan 17 08:00:13 athena modprobe: WARNING: /etc/modprobe.conf line 300: ignoring bad line starting with 'probeall'

Jan 17 08:00:19 athena modprobe: WARNING: /etc/modprobe.conf line 226: ignoring bad line starting with 'agp=1'

Jan 17 08:00:19 athena modprobe: WARNING: /etc/modprobe.conf line 287: ignoring bad line starting with 'probeall'

Jan 17 08:00:19 athena modprobe: WARNING: /etc/modprobe.conf line 300: ignoring bad line starting with 'probeall'

Jan 17 08:00:19 athena modprobe: WARNING: /etc/modprobe.conf line 226: ignoring bad line starting with 'agp=1'

Jan 17 08:00:19 athena modprobe: WARNING: /etc/modprobe.conf line 287: ignoring bad line starting with 'probeall'

Jan 17 08:00:19 athena modprobe: WARNING: /etc/modprobe.conf line 300: ignoring bad line starting with 'probeall'

Jan 17 08:00:19 athena modprobe: WARNING: /etc/modprobe.conf line 226: ignoring bad line starting with 'agp=1'

Jan 17 08:00:19 athena modprobe: WARNING: /etc/modprobe.conf line 287: ignoring bad line starting with 'probeall'

Jan 17 08:00:19 athena modprobe: WARNING: /etc/modprobe.conf line 300: ignoring bad line starting with 'probeall'

Jan 17 08:00:19 athena modprobe: WARNING: /etc/modprobe.conf line 226: ignoring bad line starting with 'agp=1'

Jan 17 08:00:19 athena modprobe: WARNING: /etc/modprobe.conf line 287: ignoring bad line starting with 'probeall'

Jan 17 08:00:19 athena modprobe: WARNING: /etc/modprobe.conf line 300: ignoring bad line starting with 'probeall'

Jan 17 08:00:21 athena modprobe: WARNING: /etc/modprobe.conf line 226: ignoring bad line starting with 'agp=1'

Jan 17 08:00:21 athena modprobe: WARNING: /etc/modprobe.conf line 287: ignoring bad line starting with 'probeall'

Jan 17 08:00:21 athena modprobe: WARNING: /etc/modprobe.conf line 300: ignoring bad line starting with 'probeall'

Jan 17 08:00:21 athena modprobe: WARNING: /etc/modprobe.conf line 226: ignoring bad line starting with 'agp=1'

...

# and so on
```

Does anybody have an idea what's wrong?

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## didymos

Yeah.  Something is wrong with lines 226,287 and 300.  What are they and where did they come from?

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## VinzC

```
/etc/modules.d/rivatv:agp=1

/etc/modules.d/svgalib:probeall  /dev/svga  svgalib_helper

/etc/modules.d/svgalib_helper:probeall /dev/svga svgalib_helper
```

The lines that are referenced by the warning messages are from /etc/modprobe.conf, which might be incomplete or corrupt since I never succeeded in having modules-update exit properly. I always had to either [force] power down my PC or Ctrl-C before my PC got out of control. Anyways the lines above are standard options to their respective modules.

Here's the current state of /etc/modprobe.conf, without empty lines and comments:

```
alias char-major-10-175 agpgart

alias char-major-10-200 tun

alias char-major-81     bttv

alias char-major-108    ppp_generic

alias /dev/ppp          ppp_generic

alias tty-ldisc-3       ppp_async

alias tty-ldisc-14      ppp_synctty

alias ppp-compress-21   bsd_comp

alias ppp-compress-24   ppp_deflate

alias ppp-compress-26   ppp_deflate

alias loop-xfer-gen-0   loop_gen

alias loop-xfer-3       loop_fish2

alias loop-xfer-gen-10  loop_gen

alias cipher-2          des

alias cipher-3          fish2

alias cipher-4          blowfish

alias cipher-6          idea

alias cipher-7          serp6f

alias cipher-8          mars6

alias cipher-11         rc62

alias cipher-15         dfc2

alias cipher-16         rijndael

alias cipher-17         rc5

alias char-major-89    i2c-dev

alias char-major-195 NVdriver

alias /dev/nvidiactl char-major-195

alias char-major-116 snd

alias char-major-14 soundcore

alias sound-service-0-0 snd-mixer-oss

alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss

alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss

alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss

alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss

alias /dev/mixer snd-mixer-oss

alias /dev/dsp snd-pcm-oss

alias /dev/midi snd-seq-oss

options snd cards_limit=1

blacklist usb-uhci

blacklist usbcore

blacklist de4x5

blacklist dmfe

blacklist evbug

blacklist eth1394

blacklist shpchp

blacklist 8139cp

blacklist via_agp

blacklist rivatv

alias parport_lowlevel parport_pc

alias char-major-10-144 nvram

alias binfmt-0064 binfmt_aout

alias char-major-10-135 rtc

options kqemu major=0

alias char-major-195 nvidia

alias /dev/nvidiactl char-major-195

alias char-major-108    ppp_generic

alias /dev/ppp          ppp_generic

alias tty-ldisc-3       ppp_async

alias tty-ldisc-13      n_hdlc

alias tty-ldisc-14      ppp_synctty

alias ppp-compress-18   ppp_mppe

alias ppp-compress-21   bsd_comp

alias ppp-compress-24   ppp_deflate

alias ppp-compress-26   ppp_deflate

alias net-pf-24         pppoe

agp=1

probeall  /dev/svga  svgalib_helper

probeall /dev/svga svgalib_helper

alias /dev/video0 char-major-81

alias /dev/video1 char-major-81

alias /dev/video2 char-major-81

alias /dev/video3 char-major-81
```

I knew instead of probeall /dev/svga  svgalib_helper, for instance, it should be options svgalib probeall /dev/svga  svgalib_helper. But these lines are *generated* into /etc/modprobe.conf. I shouldn't be required to tweak them manually. Even if I did they would be erased as soon as modules-update runs (provided it worked normally).

Besides I don't clearly see what makes modules-update run indefinitely and hog up swap memory till the PC is not responding anymore... IMHO the erroneous lines are a *consequence* of modules-update bad behaviour.

EDIT: As I don't have svgalib installed on my system (USE flag svga is disabled) I removed /etc/modules.d/svgalib and /etc/modules.d/svgalib_helper. However the problem still remains.

----------

## didymos

Ok, by "problem still remains", do you mean that it's doing exactly the same thing, or is it just the one rivatv line that keeps appearing in the messages? In any case, looks like you're instincts on this are right: it is modules-update.  I found this on bugzilla:

sys-apps/module-init-tools: creates huge amount of processes with USE=no-old-linux

----------

## VinzC

Thanks didymos. I was searching deeper in the forums and it appears I suffer from the same symptoms as those described in the bug. It also looks like it's a pretty old bug and that reappeared lately but around the end of december last year. I'm currently syncing to check if there is a new version of module-init-tools.

Here is the article where I read that.

EDIT: There seems to be sys-apps/module-init-tools-3.2.2-r2 but it's currently masked by ~ARCH... Gonna try it anyway...

EDIT: Unmasking module-init-tools requires also unmasking baselayout, virtual/init... Not sure I'm going to do that remotely...  :Very Happy: 

----------

## VinzC

I prefered to apply the patch attached to the bug report by Martin Väth. However I get now error messages about wrong lines, which start with "blacklist".

Hmmm...  :Rolling Eyes:  I read the new way of blacklisting modules is no longer /etc/hotplug.d/blacklist but /etc/modules.d/blacklist. I've tried removing keyword "blacklist" but then I get errors like "modprobe: invalid line xxx in /etc/modules.conf [...] usbcore". Wtf?

BTW what the hell is the "new" way of blacklisting modules  :Question: 

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## didymos

Probably a good idea. baselayout is not one of those packages where it really doesn't matter much if you unmask it.  I know the devs mean it when a package is marked testing, but as far as I'm concerned, they really mean it when it comes to baselayout.

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## didymos

 *Quote:*   

> BTW what the hell is the "new" way of blacklisting modules 

 

Umm, not sure.  Never run into a problem with that. Truthfully, I didn't even know there was a new way, much less an old one.

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## VinzC

 *Quote:*   

> BTW what the hell is the "new" way of blacklisting modules 

 

 *didymos wrote:*   

> Umm, not sure.  Never run into a problem with that. Truthfully, I didn't even know there was a new way, much less an old one.

 

There is. With udev-103 the "old" blacklist file, which belongs to hotplug, isn't used anymore. Coldplug has to be removed and the entire plug&play process is done by udev... Intricate...

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## VinzC

As per GWN 4th December: blacklisting is under repair...

|-(

Why the heck declare udev 103 stable though it needs to be "repaired" (i.e. blacklisting is not yet ready)? The Xorg syndrom back again?  :Laughing: 

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