Built-in Kernel Module not loading?

MarcoMarin · Apprentice Joined: 12 Mar 2014 Posts: 151

Hi,

Been struggling with my wireless card and Gentoo for many days, even been led down the road of kernel module programming, but still no solution. Wasn't able to try Gentoo without internet access. :oops:

The livecd works flawlessly, I issue a simple wpa command and it connects, which allowed me to install the base system. But that base can't do it, even though I later used genkernel to compile a kernel as close to the liveCD as possible.

The details are as follows:

1) Both liveCD and base system shows the Realtek 8185 card under lspci command, however only the livecd specifies the kernel module rtl8180 as being used, after a lspci -nnk command. The base system omits those lines suggesting it is not being loaded (though detected).

2) The liveCD lists the rtl8180 module as loaded, after a lsmod | grep 818. It also lists its dependencies as mac80211, cfg80211 and eeprom_93cx6. None of which is shown on the base installation. I can however modprobe them manually, without problems.. except for the rtl8180 itself.. I can do it with a rtl8187 driver (and it loads all those dependencies on its own, so if rtl8180 was there it would not be needed to do manually), but it does not turn the card on.

That rtl8187 exists under /lib/modules, but the rtl8180 does not, suggesting it is indeed built-in (see below)

3) This led me to believe I needed to compile the rtl8180.ko kernel object, downloaded it from realtek website, emerged linux-headers, but the makefile still complained after that.. analysing the makefile, it refers to autoconf.h which Gentoo doesn't seem to use. (read on some other thread, also didn't find it).. I've been studying module and kernel programming on how to tweak it to make it compile but it may not be needed as the kernel claims to have it built-in (and who knows what other problems will creep up besides autoconf):

4) I managed to find a rtl8180.ko somewhere and tried insmodding it and modprobing it -v, the former complained of invalid format as expected but "--force-vermagic" doesn't seem to be an option anymore.. the latter said "module builtin"... But if so, why doesn't it start?

Finally, tried emerging linux-firmware (after having to learn how to unemerge radeon_ucode safely, which was blocking it, that's why I didn't do it earlier) but sure enough, it isn't there either!

According to this thread:
https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-838948-highlight-rtl8185.html

how early it is loaded could be an issue? I don't think this should be a problem, but how could a builtin (which perhaps loads earlier) driver not show up?

This thread:
https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-553519-highlight-rtl8185.html

suggests it could have something to do with compiling the kernel options as <M>odules instead of <Y>buillt in... but menuconfig complains an upstream option must also be <y> if those are to be <y> as well, but I can't figure out what it is (wireless options is already *, which is the most upstream option)... Also, everything modprobes normally, mac80211, cfg80211, eeeprom_93cx6 and they are all <M>odularized on the kernel... they don't have a problem with that.. but the supposed "built in" module does?

It seems it might be the missing firmware, but I can't find it anywhere...

help?

Hu · Administrator Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 21880

Please post the dmesg from a boot where the card does not appear and the output of grep -e '^[^#]' on your kernel configuration. The latter may be better in a pastebin.

MarcoMarin · Apprentice Joined: 12 Mar 2014 Posts: 151

MarcoMarin · Apprentice Joined: 12 Mar 2014 Posts: 151

Hi,

this sourceforge page:

http://rtl8180-sa2400.sourceforge.net/

says the following:

MarcoMarin · Apprentice Joined: 12 Mar 2014 Posts: 151

This place:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1009540

says the following:

MarcoMarin · Apprentice Joined: 12 Mar 2014 Posts: 151

hmmm.. depmod: ERROR: fstatat(3, 3.10.15): No such file or directory.

nb, my kernel is 3.12.13

needless to say it didn't work, though it boots the same.
That error I got after also disabling the other Realtek module right below my model. During the last stages of genkernel.

IIRC, 3.10.15 is the kernel version for the livecd, and the rtl8180.ko driver...

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2014 9:18 pm Post subject:

MarcoMarin,

The kernel help says

MarcoMarin · Apprentice Joined: 12 Mar 2014 Posts: 151

I don't get it. You mean my "device list is not complete"? or that list on the kernel help?

Does my .config I posted say those options are not selected?! I was pretty sure those were the first things I've tried.

I will double check it tomorrow, thanks!

MarcoMarin · Apprentice Joined: 12 Mar 2014 Posts: 151

Yep... can't see anything off on the .config nor menuconfig..

Maybe the next n00b will have better luck than me with that card

Maybe when I know better I'll come back to this thread.

Well.. I was going to place this box behind a firewall anyway, so until I'm able to muster the motivation to set that up I've configured a temporarily precarious internet sharing from this humble netbook.. so I'm not giving up on Gentoo just yet.

Just its wireless.

Thanks all for the help,
MM

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2014 5:25 pm Post subject:

MarcoMarin,

Your original dmesg was truncated. Its only important for fault finding, so at your next kernel build
bump the setting of

MarcoMarin · Apprentice Joined: 12 Mar 2014 Posts: 151

Cool, 18 bits, I'll remember it next time =)

1. Nope, relied solely on menuconfig.
2. Yeh, I suspected as much when genkernel didn't give me a choice to rename and bypassed the copying from /arch step. It was tricky to figure which was the new one, since during compilation it created a System.map kernel and changed the current one, both with the same identical timestamp..

maybe it was backing up the running kernel in one of them or it was somehow protected from overwriting by the system (though i was root)... but the former was like 50% smaller and, most conspicuously, didn't boot as a valid kernel ^_^

Sure enough, uname -a gives that same timestamp, from yesterday, of said last experiment.

ifconfig gives the same as always.. the ethernet card, plus li'lo. (not the bootloader

)

Thank you once again, NeddySeagoon, I'll try to return the favor where I can.. maybe I'll hang out at a #channel and ops there can shout out when installation questions arise on the fora :lol:

that is, after I get my console IRC client running =)

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2014 8:18 pm Post subject:

MarcoMarin

Lets start from the very beginning then, since it appears that everything is OK but it doesn't work.

Please post the output of lspci and lspci -n

This will give your vendor and device IDs from your hardware. Its just possible that the hardware you have is not as advertised on the box.
That the vendor and device IDs are incorrect is very very rare.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

MarcoMarin · Apprentice Joined: 12 Mar 2014 Posts: 151

Having net allowed me to proceed to the next mystery, why emerging openbox and razorqt is not enough to startx... I was ready to place [Unsolved] on the title here :lol:

But if you still wanna play, perhaps I could finally learn how to copy and paste large amounts of text (or cat a file into links) on the console? This is stopping my sole-console-system dream on its tracks...

and having to dual boot into windows just to complete this simple task makes me feel dirty.

MarcoMarin · Apprentice Joined: 12 Mar 2014 Posts: 151

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2014 10:07 pm Post subject:

This page lists your device

MarcoMarin · Apprentice Joined: 12 Mar 2014 Posts: 151

That is actually quite possible.

I noticed some module having problems "setting time to system time", even though I said it was local and didn't want it to mess with the bios clock... :evil:

But.. if it did had problems, then it would not succeed changing anything..

Cool, I'll make clean tomorrow and report back =)

MarcoMarin · Apprentice Joined: 12 Mar 2014 Posts: 151

Nope.. although with all the kernel compilations even a slight de-sync could have had an impact, I'm still synced with the atomic clock

.. the thing had problems messing with the clock after all.. lol (if it even tried, I may have misread that, and it was the other way around, "setting system clock using hardware clock", this one did not fail on this last halt and may have been a one off)

Still no progress, wlp1s7 didn't show up for ifconfig -a nor iwconfig, lspci -nnk still not using rtl8180, and uname -a shows the correct timestamp for the current kernel.

Still interested in dmesg? Tell me now, before I take a shower. :lol:

(after I install xorg, i can get back to 1 shower a week)

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2014 8:17 pm Post subject:

MarcoMarin,

Yes please, both dmesg and your current kernel .config file.
They will need to go on a pastebin site as they are too big for a post.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

MarcoMarin · Apprentice Joined: 12 Mar 2014 Posts: 151

Hi, neddyseagoon

here is the output from dmesg:
http://pastebin.com/3AA484Mu

and here is the config file:
http://pastebin.com/bJZLhUNK

thanks.

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2014 4:59 pm Post subject:

MarcoMarin,

Thats "mostly harmless". Your kernel contains a lot of junk but it won't get in the way.

You have

MarcoMarin · Apprentice Joined: 12 Mar 2014 Posts: 151

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2014 8:47 pm Post subject:

MarcoMarin,

Yes, we have gone through this but with a different kernel build.

Rule 1 is assume nothing,
That's why I asked for a new self consistent data set from your new kernel.

So, yes its the same questions but you have changed the kernel. The old answers are no longer useful.

CONFIG_RTL8180=m means put the code into /lib/modules/`uname `r\
CONFIG_RTL8180=y means put the code into /boot/<kernel_name>

Your root filesystem is mounted at

MarcoMarin · Apprentice Joined: 12 Mar 2014 Posts: 151

Sure, no problem. But only thing that changed was the buffer, right? and once we've established that the clock was in order then make clean had no impact.

steveL · Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2014 7:42 am Post subject:

You may want to check point 0: always answer the questions asked, when they're asked.

Especially if NeddySeagoon is the one asking them.

MarcoMarin · Apprentice Joined: 12 Mar 2014 Posts: 151