mkinitrd fails - Permission denied

[Neil Cherry]

Jack Holden wrote:
>  I am running FC5 with the 2.6.15-1.2054 kernel and mkinitrd-5.0.32. 
>
>  When I try to create a new initrd, mkinitrd fails with the error:
>      /sbin/mkinitrd: line 975: initrd-2.6.15-1.2054_FC5.TEST.img 
>  Permission denied
>  I've tried using different file names with the same result.  I've also 
>  tried when logged in as root from the initial login (boot level 3) as 
>  well as via su from both the cli and xterm.  Same thing.  I've also 
>  tried building the initrd in the /boot and /root directories.
>  
>  I believe that this is the version of mkinitrd that was included with 
>  the installation.  I have updated everything via yum update, but I can't 
>  run the 2.6.16-2080 kernel yet (problem with dmraid).  I have the source 
>  packages for 2.6.15-2054 and 2.6.16-2080 installed.  I have successfully 
>  created initrd's before with this system, but I can't remember if it was 
>  before or after yum update.  (I think it was after because it was an 
>  attempt to fix the dmraid problem with 2.6.16-2080.)
>  
>  Can anyone suggest a fix or something to look at?  I've looked at 
>  mkinitrd and didn't see anything alarming about line 975.  I appreciate 
>  any advice.
>  
>  Thanks,
>  Jack Holden
>   
Is the boot partition mounted as read only or maybe a initrd file
exists and is read only?

-- 
Linux Home Automation         Neil Cherry       ncherry(a)linuxha.com
http://www.linuxha.com/                         Main site
http://linuxha.blogspot.com/                    My HA Blog
http://home.comcast.net/~ncherry/               Backup site

[Dan Book]

Jack Holden wrote:
>  I am running FC5 with the 2.6.15-1.2054 kernel and mkinitrd-5.0.32. 
>
>  When I try to create a new initrd, mkinitrd fails with the error:
>      /sbin/mkinitrd: line 975: initrd-2.6.15-1.2054_FC5.TEST.img 
>  Permission denied
>  I've tried using different file names with the same result.  I've also 
>  tried when logged in as root from the initial login (boot level 3) as 
>  well as via su from both the cli and xterm.  Same thing.  I've also 
>  tried building the initrd in the /boot and /root directories.
>
>  I believe that this is the version of mkinitrd that was included with 
>  the installation.  I have updated everything via yum update, but I 
>  can't run the 2.6.16-2080 kernel yet (problem with dmraid).  I have 
>  the source packages for 2.6.15-2054 and 2.6.16-2080 installed.  I have 
>  successfully created initrd's before with this system, but I can't 
>  remember if it was before or after yum update.  (I think it was after 
>  because it was an attempt to fix the dmraid problem with 2.6.16-2080.)
>
>  Can anyone suggest a fix or something to look at?  I've looked at 
>  mkinitrd and didn't see anything alarming about line 975.  I 
>  appreciate any advice.
>
>  Thanks,
>  Jack Holden
>  
Perhaps an SELinux issue. I don't know how to use it so check the vast 
numbers of posts on this list about fixing those issues. Look in your 
logs for avc denied messages.
-Dan

[Jack Holden]

Dan wrote:
>  Jack Holden wrote:
> > I am running FC5 with the 2.6.15-1.2054 kernel and mkinitrd-5.0.32.  
> > When I try to create a new initrd, mkinitrd fails with the error:
> >     /sbin/mkinitrd: line 975: initrd-2.6.15-1.2054_FC5.TEST.img 
> > Permission denied
> > I've tried using different file names with the same result.  I've also 
> > tried when logged in as root from the initial login (boot level 3) as 
> > well as via su from both the cli and xterm.  Same thing.  I've also 
> > tried building the initrd in the /boot and /root directories.
> >
> > I believe that this is the version of mkinitrd that was included with 
> > the installation.  I have updated everything via yum update, but I 
> > can't run the 2.6.16-2080 kernel yet (problem with dmraid).  I have 
> > the source packages for 2.6.15-2054 and 2.6.16-2080 installed.  I have 
> > successfully created initrd's before with this system, but I can't 
> > remember if it was before or after yum update.  (I think it was after 
> > because it was an attempt to fix the dmraid problem with 2.6.16-2080.)
> >
> > Can anyone suggest a fix or something to look at?  I've looked at 
> > mkinitrd and didn't see anything alarming about line 975.  I 
> > appreciate any advice.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Jack Holden
> >
>  Perhaps an SELinux issue. I don't know how to use it so check the vast 
>  numbers of posts on this list about fixing those issues. Look in your 
>  logs for avc denied messages.
>  -Dan
>   
The suggestions I've gotten so far:

1 - Is /boot mounted as read only?
I hate to admit this, but I don't set my systems up with separate 
partitions.  Everything is mounted under / (except SWAP).  The file 
system is mounted as read + write, and I've tried making the initrd in 
/root and /boot with the same results.

2 - Could it be an SELinux problem?
It's possible.  I'm not much of an SELinux expert.  However, I disabled 
SELinux during the initial installation, and I think it's still 
disabled.  I checked the config file in /etc/selinux and it still 
appears to be disabled.

Is anyone else having this problem?  TIA.

Thanks,
Jack Holden

mkinitrd fails - Permission denied - Solved

[Jack Holden]

Jack Holden wrote:
>  Dan wrote:
> > Jack Holden wrote:
> >> I am running FC5 with the 2.6.15-1.2054 kernel and mkinitrd-5.0.32.  
> >> When I try to create a new initrd, mkinitrd fails with the error:
> >>     /sbin/mkinitrd: line 975: initrd-2.6.15-1.2054_FC5.TEST.img 
> >> Permission denied
> >> I've tried using different file names with the same result.  I've 
> >> also tried when logged in as root from the initial login (boot level 
> >> 3) as well as via su from both the cli and xterm.  Same thing.  I've 
> >> also tried building the initrd in the /boot and /root directories.
> >>
> >> I believe that this is the version of mkinitrd that was included 
> >> with the installation.  I have updated everything via yum update, 
> >> but I can't run the 2.6.16-2080 kernel yet (problem with dmraid).  I 
> >> have the source packages for 2.6.15-2054 and 2.6.16-2080 installed.  
> >> I have successfully created initrd's before with this system, but I 
> >> can't remember if it was before or after yum update.  (I think it 
> >> was after because it was an attempt to fix the dmraid problem with 
> >> 2.6.16-2080.)
> >>
> >> Can anyone suggest a fix or something to look at?  I've looked at 
> >> mkinitrd and didn't see anything alarming about line 975.  I 
> >> appreciate any advice.
> >>
> >> Thanks,
> >> Jack Holden
> >>
> > Perhaps an SELinux issue. I don't know how to use it so check the 
> > vast numbers of posts on this list about fixing those issues. Look in 
> > your logs for avc denied messages.
> > -Dan
> >
>
>  The suggestions I've gotten so far:
>
>  1 - Is /boot mounted as read only?
>  I hate to admit this, but I don't set my systems up with separate 
>  partitions.  Everything is mounted under / (except SWAP).  The file 
>  system is mounted as read + write, and I've tried making the initrd in 
>  /root and /boot with the same results.
>
>  2 - Could it be an SELinux problem?
>  It's possible.  I'm not much of an SELinux expert.  However, I 
>  disabled SELinux during the initial installation, and I think it's 
>  still disabled.  I checked the config file in /etc/selinux and it 
>  still appears to be disabled.
>
>  Is anyone else having this problem?  TIA.
>
>  Thanks,
>  Jack Holden
>
>  
Turns out this was a bone-head problem.  I started digging around in the 
mkinitrd script and realized that the script isn't path aware.  Target 
files like ./initrd.img are not created in the directory from which you 
run the script.  The script ends up in the /sys directory by the time it 
finishes putting the image file together.  Line 975 runs gzip on the 
image (which is in /tmp).  The script will fail if the target file 
doesn't point it away from /sys.  So, targets like /boot/initrd.img or 
/root/initrd.img will work, but ones like initrd.img or ./initrd.img 
will fail.

Thanks to everyone who suggested things to look at.  I hope this is 
helpful to someone else down the road.

Jack Holden