Any natty tools for adding to initrd?

[Vic]

Hi All.

I want to add a network driver to the initrd of a distro I'm not actually
running anywhere.

Is there a slappy feature hidden somewhere in the cobbler tool to do this,
or have I got to build it by hand?

Thanks!

Vic.

[James Laska]

On Wed, 2009-06-17 at 16:28 +0100, Vic wrote:
>  Hi All.
>  
>  I want to add a network driver to the initrd of a distro I'm not actually
>  running anywhere.
>  
>  Is there a slappy feature hidden somewhere in the cobbler tool to do this,
>  or have I got to build it by hand? 
If using a anaconda-based distribution, there are some scripts in the
anaconda source that may provide some guidance.

http://git.fedorahosted.org/git/?p=anaconda.git;a=blob;f=scripts/upd-kern...

Thanks,
James

[Vic]

>  If using a anaconda-based distribution, there are some scripts in
> the
>  anaconda source that may provide some guidance.
>
>
> http://git.fedorahosted.org/git/?p=anaconda.git;a=blob;f=scripts/upd-kern...
Thanks for that - it doesn't *quite* do what I need (it expects a
cpio-based initrd, and mine is an ext2 FS). but that gave me enough ideas
to get things going. I'll let you know if it works :-)

Vic.

[James Cammarata]

On Wed, 17 Jun 2009 17:21:39 +0100 (BST), "Vic" <cobbler(a)beer.org.uk&gt;
wrote:
> > If using a anaconda-based distribution, there are some scripts in
> the
> > anaconda source that may provide some guidance.
> >
> >
http://git.fedorahosted.org/git/?p=anaconda.git;a=blob;f=scripts/upd-kern...
>  
>  Thanks for that - it doesn't *quite* do what I need (it expects a
>  cpio-based initrd, and mine is an ext2 FS). but that gave me enough ideas
>  to get things going. I'll let you know if it works :-) 
What OS version are you running, initrd's have been cpio for a while now.

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[Vic]

>  What OS version are you running 
RHEL4 at the moment - although that's just for testing.

>  initrd's have been cpio for a while now. 
The pxeboot initrds appear to be filesystems...

Anyway - adding the forcedeth driver didn't help - it was already there.
It just doesn't want to work with RHEL4; although the module gets loaded,
the network interface is not seen. That kinda puts a crimp on a cobbler
installation :-(

Time to do some digging...

Vic.

[Andy Gospodarek]

On Wed, Jun 17, 2009 at 11:25:05PM +0100, Vic wrote:
>  
>  > What OS version are you running
>  
>  RHEL4 at the moment - although that's just for testing.
>  
>  > initrd's have been cpio for a while now.
>  
>  The pxeboot initrds appear to be filesystems...
>  
>  Anyway - adding the forcedeth driver didn't help - it was already there.
>  It just doesn't want to work with RHEL4; although the module gets loaded,
>  the network interface is not seen. That kinda puts a crimp on a cobbler
>  installation :-(
>  
>  Time to do some digging...
>   
You can always look at the output of

# modinfo forcedeth.ko

and see if the pci-id you want to support is in the list of supported
devices.

[Vic]

>  You can always look at the output of
>
>  # modinfo forcedeth.ko
>
>  and see if the pci-id you want to support is in the list of supported
>  devices. 
It's supported alright, and the module is being loaded.

The trouble appears to be that the chipset is showing up as an Ethernet
bridge rather than a network card - and the installer won't use that.

There's a bugzilla report at
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=156688 which seems to describe
the problem exactly.

Unfortunately for me, my BIOS doesn't seem to have the workaround
mentioned in there. This might mean that RHEL4 will not install :-(

Ho hum...

Vic.