make modules_install is dangerous

krotuss · Apprentice Joined: 01 Aug 2008 Posts: 252

Hi, I have just discovered that make modules_install may be dangerous when rebuilding kernel. That is because if you have /boot on separate partition, and that partition is not yet mounted, and fs driver for /boot is built as module, you may not be able to modprobe it and finish kernel installation. I find it bit strange, given that old kernel is backed up as .old, that modules for actually running kernel are not preserved. Can this be prevented in way that does not require to mount either auto mount at boot or remember to mount /boot before building kernel? Maybe kernels 'make' can read some config from somewhere and auto mount boot?

Also I was not doing any extreme changes, basically just disabling some unnecessary modules to speed up kernel build, yet new ext4 module failed to load into running kernel. Is the way it works now, or I have just got unlucky?

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sat Jun 14, 2025 4:56 pm Post subject:

krotuss,

That's a problem with your running kernel.
If you rebuild the same kernel version as you are running that are all sorts of ways to make the new modules incompatible with the running kernel. Don't do that.
There is a version in