2.6.12 initrd module loading seems parallel on bootup

Darryl L. Miles
2005-06-25T22:11:37Z

I'm witnessing a problem with mounting root on a system that loads
modules from initrd in order to be able to mount root, this problem does
not exist in 2.6.11.12 but does in 2.6.12 and 2.6.12.1. Its as-if the
modprobe/insmod from the initrd mini-root is loading the modules in
parallel rather than in series. The machine is SMP too.

The printk output over the console indicates the module loading is
happening in parallel, as I can clearly see different driver bootup
messages out of their expected order.

During bootup synchronous behavior is needed so that the drivers can be
loaded in the order to allow auto-detection to occur at each stage in
order to resolve root, in my case:

Loading scsi_mod.ko module
Loading sd_mod.ko module
Loading scsi_transport_spi.ko module
Loading sym53c8xx.ko module
Loading cpqarray.ko module
Loading raid1.ko module
Loading jbd.ko module
Loading ext3.ko module

For an EXT3 fs over /dev/md0 over sym53x8xx SCSI bus.

Maybe this problem is a userspace problem, like an extra option needed
to insmod to make is wait ? Please advise.

--
Darryl L. Miles