The prog /sbin/mkinitrd makes the initrd used to boot an INSTALLED 
system. The problem here is to generate an initrd used to INSTALL a NEW 
system.

Alex Owen

On Tue, 20 Feb 2007, Chris Hunter wrote:

> 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
>>> ==============================================================================
>>> 
>> 
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