Modprobe errors in built image

[HugoFlorentino]

I managed to create an x86_64 image successfully, but when system is initializing I am getting a couple of errors:

Loading Linux virt ...
Loading initial ramdisk ...
modprobe: ERROR: missing parameters. See -h.
modprobe: ERROR: missing parameters. See -h.

How could I further diagnose what is failing?

[dermotbradley]

There is insufficient information to diagnose.

Which options did you specify for the create-disk-image-script?

What this VM image creating using my script or your modified version of my script?

[HugoFlorentino]

There is insufficient information to diagnose.

Which options did you specify for the create-disk-image-script?

It happens regardless of parameters, try with this example:

./create-disk-image --script-filename create.sh --virtual vmware

Then try running from qemu:

sudo qemu-system-x86_64 -curses -vga vmware -machine pc -m 256 -drive format=raw,index=0,media=disk,file=alpine-edge-x86_64-virtual-vmware.img

What this VM image creating using my script or your modified version of my script?

Both

[dermotbradley]

I pushed changes to my script recently. Can you please retest using the current version and let me know if this problem is resolved or persists?

[HugoFlorentino]

I pushed changes to my script recently. Can you please retest using the current version and let me know if this problem is resolved or persists?

I did retest after changes, error messages persist. Actually it appears 4 times, I suspect this has to do with datasources, because I had tried using ['AltCloud','None'] and that way only two errors appeared.

[dermotbradley]

I did retest after changes, error messages persist. Actually it appears 4 times, I suspect this has to do with datasources, because I had tried using ['AltCloud','None'] and that way only two errors appeared.

The only datasource that makes any use of modprobe is AltCloud (for the "floppy" module).

It is not clear if the modprobe errors are happening during the initramfs' init runs or later in the boot sequence. I would recommend that you create the script using the "--debug" option as this will do a couple of things: (a) remove "quiet" from the cmdline and so the boot sequence will show more information, and (b) it will enable cloud-init debugging and so the contents of /var/log/cloud-init.log will contain a lot more information.

Having said that I noticed a mistake in my script regarding VMware - I was not including the vmw_pvscsi, ata_piix, or mptspi/mptsas storage drivers in the initramfs which would then prevent the initramfs' init from mounting the root filesystem. The Alpine initramfs' init script does specifically run modprobe for ata_piix, mptspi, and vmw_pvscsi which would likely explain the modprobe errors you saw. However the change you made to cloud-init datasources would have no impact on that as cloud-init could not have been run if the rootfs was not mounted in the first place.

I have fixed the above problem with VMware-related storage drivers and have pushed these fixed to Github.

Can you indicate which storage and network devices you are using when you create the VM in VMware? Also can you clarify which VMware product you are using? ESXi? Vsphere? VMware Fusion?

Unfortunately I don't have any VMware hypervisors here to test with.

[dermotbradley]

Earlier I was looking at the linux-lts, not the linux-virt, modules list - ata_piix and vmw_pvscsi are built into the linux-virt kernel, it is just the mpt* modules that are not but which the initramfs' init will modprobe for.

[HugoFlorentino]

Can you indicate which storage and network devices you are using when you create the VM in VMware? Also can you clarify which VMware product you are using? ESXi? Vsphere? VMware Fusion?

I was trying to prepare an image to upload to Vsphere, but unfortunately until image is prepared I can only test using qemu. The script doesn't seem ready for vsphere just yet though, so I tried VMware to see if it worked.

[dermotbradley]

I was trying to prepare an image to upload to Vsphere, but unfortunately until image is prepared I can only test using qemu.

What I meant is that whenever you end up creating a VM in Vsphere/ESXI what options would you be selecting for the disk controller and network device?

AFAIK ESXI supports at least those 3 different types of storage controller (pvscsi would be the "best"), and multiple network devices (vmxnet3 would be the best).

BTW what exactly is the difference between "Vsphere" and "VMware"? I thought ESXI was the actual hypervisor and Vsphere bundled ESXI along with other management stuff (Vcentre?).

[HugoFlorentino]

BTW what exactly is the difference between "Vsphere" and "VMware"? I thought ESXI was the actual hypervisor and Vsphere bundled ESXI along with other management stuff (Vcentre?).

I wish I could tell you exactly. I just know by my data center's web interface they use Vsphere. I have no access to the internals.

[dermotbradley]

I wish I could tell you exactly. I just know by my data center's web interface they use Vsphere. I have no access to the internals.

I believe that ESXI is still the hypervisor used with Vsphere.

The only difference in behaviour between running the VMs created by my script directly on ESXI and via Vsphere is likely to be that the cloud-init datasource used/presented may differ and therefore how it obtains network-config and/or user-data.

[HugoFlorentino]

I will try making an ESXI image and changing datasource to AltCloud to see how it behaves.

[dermotbradley]

There is currently no distinction in my script between different types of VMware software. Also currently a created VMware image will try AltCloud, OVF, and VMware datasources, depending on which of these it detects.

I have updated the VMWare.md file to mention some qemu-img convert options that may be applicable to your testing.

[HugoFlorentino]

There is currently no distinction in my script between different types of VMware software. Also currently a created VMware image will try AltCloud, OVF, and VMware datasources, depending on which of these it detects.

I have updated the VMWare.md file to mention some qemu-img convert options that may be applicable to your testing.

My testing environment is a bit unusual because my datacenter provider does not officially support Alpine images and the vSphere interface they provide doesn't allow uploading images, either in vmdk or any other format for that matter.

So I am actually testing by creating and uploading images as raw files to my Ubuntu instance, then mount them in a loop device with a little help from kpartx and just rsync contents against an already prepared partition. Then I just need to adjust UUIDs for /etc/fstab and /boot/grub/grub.cfg in Alpine to match that partition, and update grub in my Ubuntu so Alpine gets added to menu.

Sounds a little more complex than needed, but at least it works.

And by the way, modprobe errors persist. Let me show VM hardware as detected by lspci :

00:00.0 "Host bridge [0600]" "Intel Corporation [8086]" "440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX Host bridge [7190]" -r01 "VMware [15ad]" "Virtual Machine Chipset [1976]"
00:01.0 "PCI bridge [0604]" "Intel Corporation [8086]" "440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX AGP bridge [7191]" -r01 "" ""
00:07.0 "ISA bridge [0601]" "Intel Corporation [8086]" "82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ISA [7110]" -r08 "VMware [15ad]" "Virtual Machine Chipset [1976]"
00:07.1 "IDE interface [0101]" "Intel Corporation [8086]" "82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 IDE [7111]" -r01 -p8a "VMware [15ad]" "Virtual Machine Chipset [1976]"
00:07.3 "Bridge [0680]" "Intel Corporation [8086]" "82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ACPI [7113]" -r08 "VMware [15ad]" "Virtual Machine Chipset [1976]"
00:07.7 "System peripheral [0880]" "VMware [15ad]" "Virtual Machine Communication Interface [0740]" -r10 "VMware [15ad]" "Virtual Machine Communication Interface [0740]"
00:0f.0 "VGA compatible controller [0300]" "VMware [15ad]" "SVGA II Adapter [0405]" "VMware [15ad]" "SVGA II Adapter [0405]"
00:10.0 "SCSI storage controller [0100]" "Broadcom / LSI [1000]" "53c1030 PCI-X Fusion-MPT Dual Ultra320 SCSI [0030]" -r01 "VMware [15ad]" "LSI Logic Parallel SCSI Controller [1976]"
00:11.0 "PCI bridge [0604]" "VMware [15ad]" "PCI bridge [0790]" -r02 -p01 "" ""
00:15.0 "PCI bridge [0604]" "VMware [15ad]" "PCI Express Root Port [07a0]" -r01 "" ""
00:15.1 "PCI bridge [0604]" "VMware [15ad]" "PCI Express Root Port [07a0]" -r01 "" ""
00:15.2 "PCI bridge [0604]" "VMware [15ad]" "PCI Express Root Port [07a0]" -r01 "" ""
00:15.3 "PCI bridge [0604]" "VMware [15ad]" "PCI Express Root Port [07a0]" -r01 "" ""
00:15.4 "PCI bridge [0604]" "VMware [15ad]" "PCI Express Root Port [07a0]" -r01 "" ""
00:15.5 "PCI bridge [0604]" "VMware [15ad]" "PCI Express Root Port [07a0]" -r01 "" ""
00:15.6 "PCI bridge [0604]" "VMware [15ad]" "PCI Express Root Port [07a0]" -r01 "" ""
00:15.7 "PCI bridge [0604]" "VMware [15ad]" "PCI Express Root Port [07a0]" -r01 "" ""
00:16.0 "PCI bridge [0604]" "VMware [15ad]" "PCI Express Root Port [07a0]" -r01 "" ""
00:16.1 "PCI bridge [0604]" "VMware [15ad]" "PCI Express Root Port [07a0]" -r01 "" ""
00:16.2 "PCI bridge [0604]" "VMware [15ad]" "PCI Express Root Port [07a0]" -r01 "" ""
00:16.3 "PCI bridge [0604]" "VMware [15ad]" "PCI Express Root Port [07a0]" -r01 "" ""
00:16.4 "PCI bridge [0604]" "VMware [15ad]" "PCI Express Root Port [07a0]" -r01 "" ""
00:16.5 "PCI bridge [0604]" "VMware [15ad]" "PCI Express Root Port [07a0]" -r01 "" ""
00:16.6 "PCI bridge [0604]" "VMware [15ad]" "PCI Express Root Port [07a0]" -r01 "" ""
00:16.7 "PCI bridge [0604]" "VMware [15ad]" "PCI Express Root Port [07a0]" -r01 "" ""
00:17.0 "PCI bridge [0604]" "VMware [15ad]" "PCI Express Root Port [07a0]" -r01 "" ""
00:17.1 "PCI bridge [0604]" "VMware [15ad]" "PCI Express Root Port [07a0]" -r01 "" ""
00:17.2 "PCI bridge [0604]" "VMware [15ad]" "PCI Express Root Port [07a0]" -r01 "" ""
00:17.3 "PCI bridge [0604]" "VMware [15ad]" "PCI Express Root Port [07a0]" -r01 "" ""
00:17.4 "PCI bridge [0604]" "VMware [15ad]" "PCI Express Root Port [07a0]" -r01 "" ""
00:17.5 "PCI bridge [0604]" "VMware [15ad]" "PCI Express Root Port [07a0]" -r01 "" ""
00:17.6 "PCI bridge [0604]" "VMware [15ad]" "PCI Express Root Port [07a0]" -r01 "" ""
00:17.7 "PCI bridge [0604]" "VMware [15ad]" "PCI Express Root Port [07a0]" -r01 "" ""
00:18.0 "PCI bridge [0604]" "VMware [15ad]" "PCI Express Root Port [07a0]" -r01 "" ""
00:18.1 "PCI bridge [0604]" "VMware [15ad]" "PCI Express Root Port [07a0]" -r01 "" ""
00:18.2 "PCI bridge [0604]" "VMware [15ad]" "PCI Express Root Port [07a0]" -r01 "" ""
00:18.3 "PCI bridge [0604]" "VMware [15ad]" "PCI Express Root Port [07a0]" -r01 "" ""
00:18.4 "PCI bridge [0604]" "VMware [15ad]" "PCI Express Root Port [07a0]" -r01 "" ""
00:18.5 "PCI bridge [0604]" "VMware [15ad]" "PCI Express Root Port [07a0]" -r01 "" ""
00:18.6 "PCI bridge [0604]" "VMware [15ad]" "PCI Express Root Port [07a0]" -r01 "" ""
00:18.7 "PCI bridge [0604]" "VMware [15ad]" "PCI Express Root Port [07a0]" -r01 "" ""
02:01.0 "SATA controller [0106]" "VMware [15ad]" "SATA AHCI controller [07e0]" -p01 "VMware [15ad]" "SATA AHCI controller [07e0]"
0b:00.0 "Ethernet controller [0200]" "VMware [15ad]" "VMXNET3 Ethernet Controller [07b0]" -r01 "VMware [15ad]" "VMXNET3 Ethernet Controller [07b0]"```

[HugoFlorentino]

By the way, I haven't found in the documentation how to use an option to provide custom user data to cloud-init, for example if one choses 'NoCloud' or 'None' datasource.

[dermotbradley]

By the way, I haven't found in the documentation how to use an option to provide custom user data to cloud-init, for example if one choses 'NoCloud' or 'None' datasource.

I assumed anyone using this would have some familiarity with cloud-init in general. I did provide some info regarding NoCloud here: https://github.com/dermotbradley/create-alpine-disk-image/blob/main/Virtual/QEMU.md#cloud-init-user-data and some examples here: https://github.com/dermotbradley/create-alpine-disk-image/tree/main/Virtual/config-examples

More detail on the cloud-init site: https://cloudinit.readthedocs.io/en/latest/topics/datasources/nocloud.html

There is no way to provide user-data for 'None' as it represents "there is no Datasource", https://cloudinit.readthedocs.io/en/latest/topics/datasources/fallback.html

"It is the equivalent of a empty datasource in that it provides a empty string as userdata and a empty dictionary as metadata."