updated 3w-9xxx module -- was: CentOS install prob

[R P Herrold]

On Thu, 20 Sep 2007, der.hans wrote:

> I was able to boot the rescue image, load the 3ware module 
> and open up the initrd being used for the boots. The initrd 
> has the 3ware module as well as the scsi_mod driver and ext3 
> driver. It looks like everything is there.

the latest 3-ware PCI-X cards need a later 3ware driver 
variant than centOS and their upstream presently ship.  One 
installs with the driver disk (dd) option; one may also also 
need to make a custom initrd with the altered module.  If not 
needed at boot time, one may be able to wait and let the usual 
module probing call it in as well, when a mount occurs.

I doco the custom mkinitrd part generally at:
 	http://www.owlriver.com/tips/driver-modules/

I'll turn this piece into another 'tip' when it comes back 
around in my email spool.


Additionally it turns out that the sources for the later 
3-ware version are available from 3-ware, so that one may 
compile and add it to the tree traversed by the depmod, after 
moving the unwanted one away to another name:


as root:

... poke around a bit to see what is loaded

   335  modprobe 3w-9xxx
   336  locate  3w-9xxx

... examine and inventory what is present as to size and 
datestamp

   337  ls -al \
/lib/modules/2.6.18-8.1.8.el5/kernel/drivers/scsi/3w-9xxx.ko 	\
/lib/modules/2.6.18-8.1.8.el5/updates/3w-9xxx.ko  		\
/lib/modules/2.6.18-8.el5/kernel/drivers/scsi/3w-9xxx.ko 	\
/lib/modules/2.6.18-8.el5/updates/3w-9xxx.ko
   338  lsmod | grep 3w
   339  rmmod 3w_9xxx
   340  lsmod | grep 3w
   341  mv  \
/lib/modules/2.6.18-8.1.8.el5/kernel/drivers/scsi/3w-9xxx.ko  \
/lib/modules/2.6.18-8.1.8.el5/kernel/drivers/scsi/3w-9xxx.ko_
   342  depmod -a


as non-root:

   273  ls
   274  less 3w-9xxx-2.6.16kernel_9.4.1.2.tgz

... this was pulled from the 3-ware support site

   275  tar zxf  3w-9xxx-2.6.16kernel_9.4.1.2.tgz
   276  ls
   277  cd driver/
   278  ls
   279  make

... the make dies because I needed the 'kernel-devel' package 
which was not present for some headers

   280  ls
   281  less Makefile
   282  rpm -qa | grep kernel
   283  rpm -ql kernel-headers
   284  make
   285  sudo yum provides 'source/drivers/scsi'
   286  sudo yum -y install kernel-devel

... so I install the build dependency

   287  ls
   288  make
   289  ls
   290  history
   291  find -name *.ko

... and a new kernel module results:

   292  uname -a

which I move into the proper location for the depmod to find:

   293  sudo scp ./3w-9xxx.ko  /lib/modules/2.6.18-8.1.8.el5/updates/
   295  sudo depmod -a
   296  sudo /sbin/depmod -a
   297  sudo /sbin/depmod -a -v


Then, back as root:

[root at hostname modules]# uname -a
Linux hostname.yyy.lan 2.6.18-8.1.8.el5 #1 SMP Tue Jul
 	10 06:39:17 EDT 2007 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
[root at hostname modules]# find -name '3w-9xxx*' | grep  '2.6.18-8.1.8.el5'
./2.6.18-8.1.8.el5/kernel/drivers/scsi/3w-9xxx.ko_
./2.6.18-8.1.8.el5/updates/3w-9xxx.ko
[root at hostname modules]#

Note that the last line is the one we just built.

... and all is well, and we verify with a  hands off reboot 
that it 'just works'

-- Russ Herrold
-- 
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