Linux Kernel Modules Refuses to Load

emclinux

I have a server running RHEL 5.5 with EMC PowerPath installed. Due to the security requirement, I had to upgrade the kernel to a newer version. Unfortunately, I was not aware of the impact of the upgrade on EMC PowerPath. After the upgrade, the server cannot load the PowerPath kernel modules anymore.

So, I downgraded back to the original kernel. Still the kernel modules refused to load.

I tried up load the modules manually, but get the following error.

[root@cvoapd05 EMCpower.LINUX-5.3.1.02.00]# modprobe emcp
FATAL: Error inserting emcp (/lib/modules/2.6.18-194.32.1.el5/powerpath/emcp.ko): Device or resource busy

The .ko files are still in the path "/lib/modules/2.6.18-194.32.1.el5/powerpath", and the file sizes and dates are unchanged.

Is there anyway I can recover from this problem?

grub.conf:

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE:  You have a /boot partition.  This means that
#          all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
#          root (hd0,0)
#          kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/cciss/c0d0p8
#          initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/cciss/c0d0
# default=0 # commented out by Proliant HBA install script
default=0
fallback=1
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (2.6.18-194.32.1.el5)
        root (hd0,0)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18-194.32.1.el5 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet crashkernel=1024M@16M
        initrd /initrd-2.6.18-194.32.1.el5.img

title Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (2.6.18-194.el5)
        root (hd0,0)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18-194.el5 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet crashkernel=1024M@16M
        initrd /initrd-2.6.18-194.el5.img

# This entry (no. 1) added by Proliant HBA install script
# in package cpq_cciss-3.6.26-5.rhel5
title HP-2.6.18-194.el5
        root (hd0,0)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18-194.el5 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet crashkernel=1024M@16M
        initrd /HP-initrd-2.6.18-194.el5.img

Best Answer

There is probably another driver attached to a device that the powerpath driver is trying to attach to. Check to see if there are any other multipath drivers loaded, lsmod | grep path should be sufficient. In fact, simply providing the output of lsmod should help us determine what is causing this issue.

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