Bug#398084: mdadm: Get out of my initrds, thanks ;-)

[Fabrice Lorrain]

Package: mdadm
Version: 2.5.5-1
Severity: normal


Hello,

mdadm is trying to be über smart in trying to put itself in the kernel
initrds.

For the record, what I wanted to do was :
- check some option in mdadm man page
- play with mdadm over loop devices

$ LANG=C ls -l /etc/mdadm
ls: /etc/mdadm: No such file or directory
$ LANG=C sudo aptitude install mdadm
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading extended state information      
Initializing package states... Done
Reading task descriptions... Done  
Building tag database... Done    
The following packages have been kept back:
  linux-image-2.6-k7 lnpd 
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  mdadm 
0 packages upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 2 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B/221kB of archives. After unpacking 651kB will be used.
Writing extended state information... Done
Preconfiguring packages ...
Selecting previously deselected package mdadm.
(Reading database ... 324851 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking mdadm (from .../mdadm_2.5.5-1_i386.deb) ...
Setting up mdadm (2.5.5-1) ...
Generating mdadm.conf... done.
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-2.6.16-2-k7
W: mdadm: /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf defines no arrays.
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-2.6.14.3-arkham
W: mdadm: /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf defines no arrays.
Assembling MD arrays...failed (no arrays found in config file or
automatically).

$ cat /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf 
# mdadm.conf
#
# Please refer to mdadm.conf(5) for information about this file.
#

# by default, scan all partitions (/proc/partitions) for MD superblocks.
# alternatively, specify devices to scan, using wildcards if desired.
DEVICE partitions

# auto-create devices with Debian standard permissions
CREATE owner=root group=disk mode=0660 auto=yes

# automatically tag new arrays as belonging to the local system
HOMEHOST <system>

# instruct the monitoring daemon where to send mail alerts
MAILADDR root

# definitions of existing MD arrays

# This file was auto-generated on Sat, 11 Nov 2006 18:28:22 +0100
# by mkconf $Id: mkconf 240 2006-10-26 20:42:03Z madduck $

I don't see at all the usfullness of putting mdadm in all my initrds :
- I don't need it,
- It is a slow process
- it barf a bunch of warning
- and the "Assembling MD arrays" pass failed because uneeded.

Maybe asking the user if he wants to build/start any array might help.

# dpkg --purge mdadm doesn't do what I expect either, but I will follow up 
with another BTS report, for this.

@+,
	Fab

-- Package-specific info:
--- mount output
/dev/hda2 on / type ext3 (rw,errors=remount-ro)
tmpfs on /lib/init/rw type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,mode=0755)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
procbususb on /proc/bus/usb type usbfs (rw)
udev on /dev type tmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=620)
/dev/hda5 on /usr type ext3 (rw)
/dev/hda6 on /usr/local type ext3 (rw)
/dev/hda7 on /srv type ext3 (rw)
oort:/mnt/baie on /mnt/oort type nfs (rw,soft,addr=192.168.28.254)
nfsd on /proc/fs/nfsd type nfsd (rw)
rpc_pipefs on /var/lib/nfs/rpc_pipefs type rpc_pipefs (rw)
binfmt_misc on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw)

--- mdadm.conf
# mdadm.conf
#
# Please refer to mdadm.conf(5) for information about this file.
#

# by default, scan all partitions (/proc/partitions) for MD superblocks.
# alternatively, specify devices to scan, using wildcards if desired.
DEVICE partitions

# auto-create devices with Debian standard permissions
CREATE owner=root group=disk mode=0660 auto=yes

# automatically tag new arrays as belonging to the local system
HOMEHOST <system>

# instruct the monitoring daemon where to send mail alerts
MAILADDR root

# definitions of existing MD arrays

# This file was auto-generated on Sat, 11 Nov 2006 18:28:22 +0100
# by mkconf $Id: mkconf 240 2006-10-26 20:42:03Z madduck $

--- /proc/mdstat:
Personalities : 
unused devices: <none>

--- /proc/partitions:
major minor  #blocks  name

   3     0  120627360 hda
   3     1     979933 hda1
   3     2    4883760 hda2
   3     3    9767520 hda3
   3     4          1 hda4
   3     5   19535008 hda5
   3     6   14651248 hda6
   3     7   39062016 hda7

--- initrd.img-2.6.18-1-k7:

zcat: /boot/initrd.img-2.6.18-1-k7: unexpected end of file
cpio: Fin prématurée de l'archive.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 4.0
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Shell:  /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash
Kernel: Linux 2.6.18-1-k7
Locale: LANG=fr_FR.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=fr_FR.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)

Versions of packages mdadm depends on:
ii  debconf [debconf-2.0]        1.5.8       Debian configuration management sy
ii  libc6                        2.3.6.ds1-8 GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii  lsb-base                     3.1-19      Linux Standard Base 3.1 init scrip
ii  makedev                      2.3.1-83    creates device files in /dev

Versions of packages mdadm recommends:
ii  module-init-tools             3.2.2-3    tools for managing Linux kernel mo
ii  postfix [mail-transport-agent 2.3.4-1    A high-performance mail transport 

-- debconf information:
  mdadm/autostart: true
  mdadm/initrdstart: all
  mdadm/initrdstart_notinconf: false
  mdadm/initrdstart_msg_errexist:
  mdadm/initrdstart_msg_intro:
  mdadm/initrdstart_msg_errblock:
* mdadm/start_daemon: false
  mdadm/mail_to: root
  mdadm/initrdstart_msg_errmd:
  mdadm/initrdstart_msg_errconf:
* mdadm/autocheck: false