# Genkernel 3.4.x and the mdev-problem

## Uwe82

Hi,

I have a problem that was sometimes discussed here. I wanted to upgrade the nvidia-driver and my X11. So I had to rebuild my kernel and did that with an update of the kernel to 2.6.18-r2.

But I get errors when booting the kernel:

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> Activating mdev
> 
> /ini: 228: mdev: not found
> ...

 

I found a tipp with genkernel.conf, switching the UDEV-Part in front of the DEVFSD-block before:

 *Quote:*   

> UDEV_VER="077"
> 
> UDEV_DIR="udev-${UDEV_VER}"
> 
> UDEV_SRCTAR="${GK_SHARE}/pkg/udev-${UDEV_VER}.tar.bz2"
> ...

 

But it didn't help. Also the upgrade to the testing version (3.4.5-r1) of genkernel did not solve the problem.

I'm lucky that I have saved an old kernel for such purposes that works and is using udev.

Any hints? ....

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## Uwe82

No one has an idea?  :Sad: 

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## linuxbum

Uew82,

Reading you post and the others that have this problem along with my 1650 dell.

The change to /etc/genkernel.conf  is to comment out the DEVFSD and uncomment the UDEV lines.

I am currently testing this fix. will post back as soon as I know if it fixed then error.

3.4.4 has same error with not using the UDEV subsystem.

Bryan

Ok upon further review this edit change did not fix the mdev  being used instead of udev  :Sad: 

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## Uwe82

 *linuxbum wrote:*   

> Ok upon further review this edit change did not fix the mdev  being used instead of udev 

 

Bummer ...  :Sad: 

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## Uwe82

@linuxbum: Did you try going back to 2.6.17? I think, I'll try this this weekend. There is also a bug report for this. We should both watch it for any changes ...

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## linuxbum

Uew82

 I did reboot system with 2.6.15 kernel that was built before the 2.6.18 .

BTW this is the same .config file used for both.

I will monitor the bug report and see if we ever get a fix.

anybody find good explanation on what the mdev and udev subsystems  differences are ?

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## meranto

if your /etc/genkernel is not manually modified (or really important to you) you could consider to remove/rename it and remerge genkernel, which installs the new /etc/genkernel, which worked instantly for me when I used genkernel after that to build my kernel

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## Uwe82

I tried both now, but neither a new kernel version, nor reemerging genkernel did help. I also tried with the not stable marked packages...

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## linuxbum

Uwe82

I was able to remove genkernel-3.4.X and reinstall genkernel-3.3.11d and compiled the 2.6.18-r4 kernel and was able to boot the system with out any errors about mdev.

Here is the steps I took:

create file /etc/portage/package.mask

entry in ths file" >sys-kernel/genkernels-3.3.11d"

include the greater than sign  :Smile: 

emerge -C genkernel   then

emerge -av genkernel 

make sure it shows that sys-kernel/genkernel-3.3.11d is the version being installed.

Then build kernel as you normally would with genkernel.

I will update bug report

Bryan

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## Uwe82

How can I install an older Version than 3.4.1 when there is no 3.3.x-build in portage any more?   :Question: 

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## linuxbum

Check in the /usr/portage/sys-kernel/genkernel directory 

See what is the oldest version you have stored there.

```

 log # cd /usr/portage/sys-kernel/genkernel

az34logtrap genkernel # ls -la

total 84

drwxr-xr-x  3 root root  4096 Dec 13 20:22 .

drwxr-xr-x 30 root root  4096 Dec 12 01:36 ..

-rw-r--r--  1 root root 28757 Nov 22 17:36 ChangeLog

-rw-r--r--  1 root root 10102 Dec 13 20:40 Manifest

drwxr-xr-x  2 root root  4096 Dec 13 20:40 files

-rw-r--r--  1 root root  3189 Dec 13 20:22 genkernel-3.3.10.ebuild

-rw-r--r--  1 root root  3492 Dec 13 20:22 genkernel-3.3.11d.ebuild

-rw-r--r--  1 root root  2874 Nov  9 15:06 genkernel-3.4.1.ebuild

-rw-r--r--  1 root root  3031 Nov 10 17:37 genkernel-3.4.4.ebuild

-rw-r--r--  1 root root  3125 Nov 22 17:33 genkernel-3.4.5-r1.ebuild

-rw-r--r--  1 root root  3029 Nov 14 17:51 genkernel-3.4.5.ebuild

-rw-r--r--  1 root root   225 Oct 13 19:36 metadata.xml

```

I did have to create the digest after putting file in the directory.

Bryan

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## linuxbum

Uwe82

New patch out for the problem.

See https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=149020.

I was able to upgrade to genkernel 3.4.4 and install patches as described in Bugs and rebuilt 2.6.18-r4 kerenl no errors this time when booting.

Bryan

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## Uwe82

 *linuxbum wrote:*   

> Uwe82
> 
> New patch out for the problem.
> 
> See https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=149020.
> ...

 

Yeah, that worked! Thanks for this notice, now I can use gentoo again  :Smile: 

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## martigan80

When I try the link I get an error saying the bug number is not valid.

Also one quick question.  While in the CLI of installing gentoo, how do I apply the patch as you discribed?  Is there a "Patching for n00bs" section?

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## Uwe82

There is a dot too much at the end of the URL  :Wink: 

There are two patch files. Download them with wget after you emerged genkernel. Then just use

```
patch patchfile1
```

and the same for the second patch file. After that just continue configuring your kernel. (I hope, I remembered it right  :Wink: )

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## martigan80

 *Uwe82 wrote:*   

> There is a dot too much at the end of the URL 
> 
> There are two patch files. Download them with wget after you emerged genkernel. Then just use
> 
> ```
> ...

 

God I feel like a total n00b for that link mistake!

 I'm gonna try that soon.

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## yakonfire

Hi there,

I'm a newbie.  I am having this same mdev problem with genkernel 3.4.5-r1 (just to let you know that it apparently hasn't been officially fixed yet).  I can't figure out how to revert to 3.4.4; only the current genkernel seems to be in the portage tree.  

One of the 3.4.4 patches seems to work on 3.4.5-r1, but not the second one.  I'll update when I find out whether it works, but if anyone has suggestions, that would be great.

UPDATE: some combination of the genkernel.conf edit mentioned above, the patch, and messing around a bit with the grub.conf file (either adding udev to the kernel line, or changing "initrd /boot/initramfs-genkernel..." back to "initramfs /boot/initrd-genkernel..." -- a misguided fiddle) seems to have worked.

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