dracut fails to generate initrd

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pablo_supertux · Post by **pablo_supertux** » Sun Dec 04, 2022 9:19 pm

Hi

after my world update, I compiled the new gentoo-sources-5.15.80 as always and wanted to generate the initrd file with dracut. I always do it like this:

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dracut -i /lib/firmware/nvidia /lib/firmware/nvidia -i /lib/firmware/i915 /lib/firmware/i915 --kver <version> --force

that usually works very well, but now I get this error:

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# dracut -i /lib/firmware/nvidia /lib/firmware/nvidia -i /lib/firmware/i915 /lib/firmware/i915 --kver 5.15.80-gentoo --force
dracut: Executing: /usr/bin/dracut -i /lib/firmware/nvidia /lib/firmware/nvidia -i /lib/firmware/i915 /lib/firmware/i915 --kver 5.15.80-gentoo --force
dracut: Can't write to /boot/efi/c7c70f062effe5e005eb418852699b9b/5.15.80-gentoo: Directory /boot/efi/c7c70f062effe5e005eb418852699b9b/5.15.80-gentoo does not exist or is not accessible.

Why is it trying to write stuff on /boot/efi? My /boot/efi is mounted with ro, I've always mounted it read-only. It seems to me, that dracut is trying to use /boot/efi as temporal directory instead of /tmp. Currently sys-kernel/dracut-057-r2 is installed. Even if I pass the --no-uefi or --tmpdir /tmp dracut keep wanting to write on the /boot/efi. What is going on?

pablo_supertux · Post by **pablo_supertux** » Sun Dec 04, 2022 9:25 pm

I ended up umounting /boot/efi, dracut was able to work.

I checked whether dracut wrote something in /boot/efi but it's empty. So my guess that dracut is using /boot/efi as some kind of temporal directory is correct. But why didn't the --tmpdir work? (dracut --help shows that the default value of --tmpdir is /var/tmp).

I'm confused

g10h4ck · Post by **g10h4ck** » Thu Aug 31, 2023 6:34 pm

Got same identical problem, the explained workaround worked, but I am confused too

g10h4ck · Post by **g10h4ck** » Mon Sep 04, 2023 10:25 am

UPDATE

As per dracut manual it is normal it probes for a few directories like /efi

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       Create an initramfs <image> for the kernel with the version
       <kernel version>. If <kernel version> is omitted, then the
       version of the actual running kernel is used. If <image> is
       omitted or empty, depending on bootloader specification, the
       default location can be
       /efi/<machine-id>/<kernel-version>/initrd,
       /boot/<machine-id>/<kernel-version>/initrd,
       /boot/efi/<machine-id>/<kernel-version>/initrd,
       /lib/modules/<kernel-version>/initrd or
       /boot/initramfs-<kernel-version>.img

Probably because it detects my firmware boots via UEFI it end up attempting writing there and thus failing. In my case I finally managed to work around it without fiddling with mount anymore by specifying the image path on dracut command line.

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dracut --force /boot/initramfs-6.1.46-gentoo.img --kver 6.1.46-gentoo

force option was needed because the image was already existing

P.S. This topic seems to be in the wrong section of the forum, could OP move in the proper one?

Post by **pietinger** » Mon Sep 04, 2023 10:59 am

Moved from Portage & Programming to Kernel & Hardware.