in initrd "exec sh /dev/console 2>&1" does not respond to keyboard

[David Mathog]

On 28-Feb-2019 17:46, David Mathog wrote:
> On 27-Feb-2019 18:13, Michael Conrad wrote:
>> Well, just a guess, but I'd say your problem is with kernel device
>> drivers for input.  Usually people have the basic text showing up on
>> their console and the complaints are about how to get ^C and other
>> tty-specific features to work while using /dev/console.  Your problem
>> sounds more like the Linux virtual console subsystem isn't connecting
>> to your input devices. I'd suggest poking around in the input drivers
>> section of the config and make sure things are compiled as "=y" and
>> not as modules.
> 
> Well, in 3 different kernels there were:
> 
> CONFIG_INPUT=y
> CONFIG_INPUT_MOUSEDEV=y
> CONFIG_INPUT_KEYBOARD=y
> 
> but only 2 of the 3 work, the third one ignores input. Oddly 3.10.108
> was the one originally giving me problems, so rebuilt it using "menu
> oldconfig" starting from the config-3.10.0-957.5.1.el7.x86_64 from
> Centos 7 and then 3.10.108 worked.  But the 3.10.108 kernel had
> problems with xfs.  So built kernel 3.14.78, starting from the last
> good 3.10.108 config, and that kernel does not respond (but xfs
> works!)

Correction, xfs did not work, that test was accidentally done with a 
Centos 7 kernel.  In case this bites somebody else, 3.14.* kernels have 
a parameter
CONFIG_MODVERSIONS which is automatically set when upgrading a config 
(here the 3.10.108 config) like so:

yes "" | make oldconfig

The problem is that on the subsequent build hundreds of warnings like 
this appear
in the log file:

WARNING: "schedule_timeout" [drivers/usb/storage/usb-storage.ko] has no 
CRC!

Looks innocuous right, just a warning?  These really should not be 
warnings but errors, because if one of these afflicted modules tries to 
load it will fail.  That happened with gcc  4.8.5 and 5.3.1, for x86_64. 
  Presumably it works for some other combination of compiler/build tools 
for that platform.  The solution for that was to change the config for 
3.14.78 to:

# CONFIG_MODVERSIONS is not set

and do a clean build.  With 3.14.78 built like that the keyboard works 
when it should and so does xfs.

Thanks,

David Mathog
mathog at caltech.edu
Manager, Sequence Analysis Facility, Biology Division, Caltech