No kernel modules loaded after installing a new kernel.

General
1

Hi

I have the following problem. I downloaded, built and installed the Robert C. Nelson’s bb-kernel (https://github.com/RobertCNelson/bb-kernel).
I built the deb packages and installed them on my target system (OSD3358-SM-RED).
The new kernel boot’s but lsmod shows no kernel modules loaded. The kernel is certainly not built with everything built-in.

The build porcess outputs three files:
linux-headers-5.10.6-bone15_1xross_armhf.deb
linux-image-5.10.6-bone15_1xross_armhf.deb
linux-libc-dev_1xross_armhf.deb

I installed like thins: "$sudo dpkg -i linux-* ". I’m not sure if they have to be installed in a particular order.

I build the packages on a tinkerboard. Using it’s own environment.
The installation process on the target system passes with no problems. After it I can see the new vmlinuz image in /boot, the corresponding initrd, the new directory in /boot/dtbs with the new kernel’s name. the new directory in /lib/modules/ also. uEnv.txt is appropriately modified and nothing seems out of the ordinary.

I’m using the default Octavo image for the OSD3358-SM-RED.
The original kernel is 4.9 I’ve installed 5.10 (Is it too new? I tried with 4.19 as well and it was the same.)

After tinkering alot I decided to re-flash a fresh OSD3358-SM-RED-Custom-Debian-9.1-lxqt-09-19-2017-1.1.img image onto the sd card to see if I have messed up something… After installing the new kernel on the newly flashed image, the target system now boots to the initrd command prompt. It tells me it can’t find the mmc device file in /dev…

If you need any more information feel free to ask me.

Thanks for any help in advance.

2

Ivan,

Please take a look at https://www.digikey.com/eewiki/display/linuxonarm/OSD3358-SM-RED for a reference procedure to build image for OSD3358-SM-RED with bb-kernel. This was created by Robert Nelson as well. Please make sure you are building/copying kernel modules: https://www.digikey.com/eewiki/display/linuxonarm/OSD3358-SM-RED#OSD3358-SM-RED-CopyKernelModules.

The Debian 9.1 image from the website should work on the board without issue. You might try re-flashing or use another SD card. To see whether the interface is working, you can stop boot at U-Boot and use the mmc command(http://www.denx.de/wiki/view/DULG/UBootCmdGroupMMC) to verify the MMC interfaces and memory devices on them.

Please let us know if you have further questions.

Best,

Neeraj

3

Hi

Sorry for the late reply. The project got cancelled, and is going to sustain a major revision before being restarted (or if), but that’s beside the point. Your answer IS very useful, and it’s going to allow me build a Linux image specifically tailored to our needs.
About the kernel modules: Yup, I’m pretty sure they’re exactly where they have to be. After installing the new kernel, now in /lib/modules there are two sub-directories, one for the old kernel and one for the new, named 5.10-(I forgot the rest but it’s what you get from uname -r). Inside that directory I found all the kernel modules I looked for, but alas they’re not loaded. Anyway I’m currently looking into the links you provided and I’m going to apply them. I’m going to write here about my progress…

Best regards
Ivan