Re: SCSI CDROM

[Rick Stevens <rstevens vitalstream com>]

Chris Hornbrook wrote:

> Could the SCSI module not be loading at boot time due to not having a initrd
> image specified in lilo.conf.  Since I had no scsi controller or devices when I
> installed, it did create the image by default.  Or am I on the wrong track.


The initrd image is only needed if something that is vitally necessary
to boot is modularized instead of built into the kernel (for example,
if the root filesystem was on a SCSI controller and support for
that controller was not compiled into the kernel).  It's a way of
permitting modules to get loaded even when the filesystem that has
the modules can't be mounted yet.  Since your root filesystem is on
IDE and IDE is built into the kernel, you don't need an initrd.

I use a "modprobe aic7xxx" in my /etc/rc.d/rc.local file.  Looking at
the startup scripts, even the network code does a modprobe of the
appropriate ethernet module before starting up.  Since SCSI isn't
vital to booting the system, stuffing it into the /etc/rc.d/rc.local
script is fairly clean.

Of course, that's just my opinion.  I could be wrong.

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- Rick Stevens, SSE, VitalStream, Inc.      rstevens vitalstream com -
- 949-743-2010 (Voice)                    http://www.vitalstream.com -
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-   To understand recursion, you must first understand recursion.    -
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