No Kernel Modules Found
In the house network the Lenovo T400 laptop has a 32-bit Slackware 15.0 partition. Much like the vintage single core computers running Slackware 14.1 32-bit, this laptop system does not get used often.
A recent booting into the laptop 32-bit system revealed sluggish performance. Then inadvertently noticed was a mangled Conky CPU frequency display, which uses the output of inxi -C.
Running inxi found the system running with a single core, confirmed with the lscpu command and /proc/cpuinfo.
Rebooting with the Slackware huge kernel found all in order. The huge kernel does not use an initrd and is a convenient alternate kernel for such events. On a whim a new initrd was generated for the generic kernel.
Unlike 64-bit systems, for 32-bit Slackware systems there are two generic kernel packages, one for single core systems and one for multiple cores (smp). Overlooked during recent sessions is the boot loader was configured to use the single core kernel. A quick edit remedied that speed bump. Unlike the previous attempt that booted with a single core, the system then failed to boot with a No kernel modules found error.
Back to the huge kernel. Reinstall all kernel packages. Again generate an initrd. Reboot with the generic kernel and same result.
Some minutes later the proverbial light bulb glowed. The mkinitrd command needed a -k parameter of 5.15.117-smp rather than 5.15.117 as with the 64-bit systems. The 32-bit initrd failed because of typing the latter, which is for single core systems. This little oversight required updating the house network system update shell script used on all systems.
In hindsight the system sluggishness probably always existed since updating from Slackware 14.2 to 15.0 but not noticed because of the infrequent usage.
Nuances like this are one reason some 32-bit systems remain in the house network. These 32-bit systems are helpful with writing robust shell scripts and watching for differences from the 64-bit systems. A reminder not to get complacent and to pay attention.
Posted: Category: Usability Tagged: Slackware
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