Problem with updated driverdisk not being used

Pat patchu1 at yahoo.com
Wed Apr 15 23:02:14 UTC 2009


Hi Martin,
Thanks for the reply. I confirmed that using "linux dd" with the driver disk does indeed cause RHEL to use the newer driver for the 3ware RAID card. 

About driverdisc autodetection, I install RHEL 5.2 from a DVD which is the only drive I utilize, I'm not quite sure I can avoid having to use "linux dd" and then swapping discs in order to load in the driverdisc even if it has the label oemdrv. I'm trying to keep user interaction and discs at a minimum for this installation so having to swap discs is not an option for me. If they can be acquired over the network, that is a different story.

Another solution I tried was copying my kickstart file to the RHEL install DVD. I also copied the contents of the driverdisc to the root of the install DVD as well:

modules.alias
modules.cgz
modules.dep
modules.pcimap
pci.ids
pcitable
rhdd

My kickstart file then contains the following line:

driverdisk hda --type=iso9660

So anaconda does not need to go out onto the network for my kickstart file or my driver disk. This setup worked for me before when RHEL 4.x did not come with a driver for this RAID card. In this case, RHEL 5.2 does come with a default driver but I'm trying to use a newer driver with the driver disk. However when I tried this, the installer took quite awhile at the driver disk portion but it did continue on. After the install was complete and I booted into the OS, I verified the default driver for the 3ware card was still being used. 

It appears that unless you specify "linux dd" at the boot prompt, Anaconda loads in the default drivers before the kickstart file is read in no matter where that kickstart file is, even if the kickstart file is local to the install disc. Is that correct?

It's possible my install DVD with the embedded kickstart file and driver disk was somehow incorrect, for example if something changed from RHEL from 4.x to 5.x. If you think I may have left something something out when I created it, let me know. 

I was thinking of trying it again but copy the img file of the driver disk to the install DVD rather than the individual files. In this case I would use this line in my kickstart file:

driverdisk --source=hda:/3waredriverdisk.img


But again, if the default drivers load before the kickstart file is read, this change would not solve my problem.


Thanks,

Pat

Thanks,
Pat




> On Apr 15, 2009, at 3:28 AM, Martin Sivak wrote:
> 
> Hello Pat,
> 
> yes, your idea is right on. Anaconda needs to load the
> network driver to access your kickstart file and even to
> access the driver disc. And it is not possible to replace
> earlier loaded driver using driverdisc.
> 
> If you need to use updated NIC driver, avoid using network
> before the driver disc gets loaded. Which leaves you the
> options of "linux dd" or using driverdisc autodetection
> (just set the driverdisc's label to "oemdrv").
> 
> Martin Sivak
> Anaconda team
> 
> ----- "Pat" <patchu1 at yahoo.com>
> wrote:
> 
> Quick Summary: 
> 
> RHEL 5.2 is using the default driver rather than the
> updated driver I
> specified using the driverdisk option in my kickstart
> file.
> 
> 
> Detailed Description:
> 
> I have a system with a 3ware 9650SE RAID card which I'm
> installing
> RHEL 5.2 (x86_64) on. The system will be booting from this
> 3ware card.
> RHEL 5.2 comes with a default driver that can automatically
> detect and
> use this card. The driver is 3w-9xxx Driver version:
> 2.26.02.008.
> 
> I'm trying to use an updated driver from 3ware,
> 2.26.08.004, by
> specifying the driverdisk option in my kickstart file:
> 
> driverdisk --source=http://192.168.0.119/3waredriverdisk.img
> 
> BTW, I generated the img driver disk using the instructions
> from the
> page http://www.ruizs.org/archives/49:
> 
> #Create a blank, 20MB image
> dd if=/dev/zero of=/root/driverdisk.img bs=1M count=2
> #Format the image with ext2
> mkfs -t ext2 -q /root/driverdisk.img
> #mount it and copy the files over
> mount -o loop /root/driverdisk.img /mnt/tmp
> cp /root/3ware/* /mnt/tmp/
> umount /mnt/tmp
> 
> 
> However after the installation is complete, the default
> 3ware driver
> is still being used. I should note the rest of my kickstart
> directives
> were followed correctly.
> 
> I have an idea on what is going wrong. The kickstart
> command I use
> is:
> 
> linux ks=http://192.168.0.119/mykickstart.cfg
> 
> Right after I hit return, RHEL loads up the default 3w-9xxx
> driver. It
> did not even go on to the network to read my kickstart
> file, I know
> this since I'm prompted to choose which ethernet port to
> use by
> anaconda since there are two network ports on the system,
> the default
> 3w-9xxx driver loads before that. So I'm guessing my
> driverdisk option
> in my kickstart is ignored since a driver is already
> loaded. Perhaps
> anaconda would not have loaded the default 3ware driver if
> I had used
> the linux dd command at the prompt rather than specifying
> it in the
> kickstart? 
> 
> Does anyone have suggestions on a workaround? I can't use
> the linux dd
> command since I don't want to swap disk everytime. Thank
> for any
> assistance!
> 
> Regards,
> Pat
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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>       
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