iBFT support while Installation and Booting

["Prasanna Mumbai" <mumbai prasanna gmail com>]

Hi all,

Currently, Anaconda can install to an iSCSI LU but doesn't make use of the iBFT, if it's available.  The iBFT (iSCSI Boot Firmware Table) is written to memory by iSCSI bootable NICs. Recently patches were accepted that created the fwparam_ibft application, which would output the iBFT.  The forthcoming patches to Open-iSCSI, mkinitrd and Anaconda will allow Anaconda to install to an iSCSI LU using the iBFT.

 "iscsistart" patch: added 
options to iscsistart, one for reading and displaying iBFT and other option will 
let you read the iBFT and establish a connection to the LU.  

 "fwparam_ibft" patch:  changed 
function main to fwparam_ibft & adds fwparam_ibft.c and fwpwaram_ibft.h to 
/usr directory and deletes the /util/fwparam directory.  fwparam_ibft.c would 
get built as a part of iscsistart application so as to give the functionality 
for the options provided in the above patch.

"anaconda" patch:  Instead of calling fwparam_ibft and parsing the output it only needs to call iscsistart with the new "-b" option.

"mkinitrd" patch:  Instead of inserting hard coded connection parameters into the initrd, the initrd will simply call "iscsistart –b" which will create the connection using the newly modified iscsistart.

These patches won't support PPC, as I don't have the required H/W to test if I do the coding.  So some guys should help me out.  Changes required in PPC are: the main should be replaced with fwparam_ibft providing the required functionality similar to fwparam_ibft.c

~Cheers
Prasanna

 

Attachment: iscsistart.patch
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Attachment: fwparam_ibft.patch
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Attachment: anaconda.patch
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Attachment: mkinitrd.patch
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