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