Pretty sure that /sbin/mkinitrd has an option to include modules. I did
this with redhat 9 to include promise raid drivers.

I believe mkinitrd is run when you install a new kernel rpm package.

-- 
Chris Hunter
Systems Programmer
Department of Astronomy, Yale University
[log in to unmask]


Quoting Alex Owen <[log in to unmask]>:

> Pablo.
>
> I have had to make a custom initrd for an updated net driver...
> Here are some basic notes. The "# recreate modules.cgz" step is the 
> magic bit that took me time to learn!!
>
> Hmm.. you want a whole new kernel... I just back ported the specific 
> driver... so do share your solution when you have it!
>
> Good luck
>
> Alex Owen
>
>
> #Basic method:
> # * extract initrd
> # * extract modules.cgz
> # * copy in module
> # * recreate modules.czg
> # * modify other files under initrd/modules/
> # * repack initrd
>
> mkdir /tmp/initrd
> cd /tmp/initrd
> rm -rf mnt modules
> mkdir mnt modules
> ####COPY real SL initrd.img to ./initrd.img.gz
> gunzip ./initrd.img.gz
> mount -oloop ./initrd.img ./mnt
> # extract modules.cgz
> cd modules
> zcat ../mnt/modules/modules.cgz | cpio -i --make-directories
> # copy in module (forcedeth.ko in my case)
> cp 
> ~/redhat/nvidia/NV_MCP55_Linux_DRV_PKG_v1.11/RHEL4_U3/source/forcedeth.ko 
> ./2.6.9-34.EL/i686/forcedeth.ko
>
> # recreate modules.cgz
> ## the cpio invocation is quite specific and took some hours to find
> find . -type f | cpio --quiet -H crc -o | gzip -9 
> >/tmp/initrd/mnt/modules/modules.cgz
>
> #I needed to get my dirver loaded for these PIC ID's
> # modify other files under initrd/modules/
> cd /tmp/initrd
> cat <<'EOF' | sed -e's/  /\t/' >> ./mnt/modules/pcitable 0x10de  
> 0x0056  "forcedeth"
> 0x10de  0x0057  "forcedeth"
> 0x10de  0x0037  "forcedeth"
> 0x10de  0x0038  "forcedeth"
> 0x10de  0x0268  "forcedeth"
> 0x10de  0x0269  "forcedeth"
> 0x10de  0x0372  "forcedeth"
> 0x10de  0x0373  "forcedeth"
> EOF
>
> # repack initrd
> cd /tmp/initrd
> umount ./mnt
> gzip -9 initrd.img
>
> ##rename resulting initrd.img.gz to initrd.img and boot with this new 
> initrd.img
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> Dr Richard Alexander Owen	           Physicist/Programmer
>
> Queen Mary, University of London      Tel: 0207 882 5054
> Physics Department		    Email: [log in to unmask]
> Mile End Road
> London E1 4NS, UK
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> On Tue, 20 Feb 2007, Pablo Fernandez wrote:
>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> We're trying to modify SL4.3 in order to be able to boot very new machines
>> over the network. In fact this has not been possible since the hardware is
>> not detected by the 2.6.9 kernel at PXE boot time (btw the very first step).
>>
>> My question is if anyone, if possible, can tell me how does the SL 
>> team create
>> the initrd image to boot from PXE. I can create the kernel myself (i.e.
>> 2.6.20, and make it detect the hardware) but I can't create the initrd image
>> to start a kickstart installation (so mkinitrd doesn't help here). I 
>> tried to
>> use the initrd image for pxe that comes with 2.6.9 but since it can't load
>> the modules it does not allow me to go on with the installation (even though
>> the kernel detected the hardware before).
>>
>> Thank you all!
>> Regards,
>> Pablo Fernandez
>> -- 
>> ==============================================================================
>> Pablo Fernandez Fernandez             e-mail: 
>> [log in to unmask]
>> Dpto Fisica Teorica. C-XI.
>> Facultad de Ciencias
>> Universidad Autonoma de Madrid.                          Phone: 34 
>> 91 497 3976
>> Cantoblanco, 28049 Madrid, Spain.                          Fax: 34 
>> 91 497 4086
>> ==============================================================================
>>
>