I think you need to spend some time rooting around in the initrd. You'll see that the script in the initrd does the insmod of the DASD driver, _and_ specifies the device numbers to be used by it. After so many people reported problems updating their parmfile and re-running zipl but still not seeing the new DASD picked up, that's what I did, which is how I know SLES8 works the way I'm saying it does. Your system may be different, but that's how it ships from SUSE.
Mark Post -----Original Message----- From: Linux on 390 Port [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Hall, Ken (IDS ECCS) Sent: Friday, April 02, 2004 8:20 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: new disk for linux The kernel modules (dasd_mod.o and dasd_eckd_mod) are in the initrd, but the DASD parm is picked up from the BOOT filesystem. That's updated by running zipl, copied from /etc/zipl.conf. You don't boot from the initrd, that's mounted AFTER the kernel loads from the boot filesystem. If you needed the initrd to boot, you wouldn't be able to get it, since that ALSO lives in the boot filesystem (/boot/initrd). In practice, the only reason for using an initrd is if you want to separate the boot filesystem from the root filesystem. When you do this, you hit a Catch-22: You can't mount the root filesystem until you have the dasd drivers loaded, but if they're not in the same filesystem you booted from, you can't load them. The initrd gets around this by providing a temporary ramdisk "mini-root" filesystem that contains the dasd drivers. This used to be done in Intel boxen mainly because of the old requirement that the boot partition be smaller than ~500 mb. I've never seen a compelling reason for separating the boot and root filesystems on zLinux, or even on current level Intel hardware, but it's a common practice, so SUSE allowed for it in SLES8. > -----Original Message----- > From: Linux on 390 Port [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of > Post, Mark K > Sent: Thursday, April 01, 2004 5:10 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: [LINUX-390] new disk for linux > > > On SLES8 systems (default, out of the box), the kernel modules and the > script that invokes them are all in the initrd. At the time the DASD > driver gets loaded by that script, there is no way for it to be able > to access the > contents of anything on disk. If you're not using an initrd, > then of course > you don't have to rebuild it. If you are using SLES8 with an > initrd, then > the HOWTO I referenced is applicable, and has fixed the > problems many people > on this list have had with SLES8, since it acted differently > than previous > SUSE platforms. > > > Mark Post > -----Original Message----- > From: Linux on 390 Port [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of > Hall, Ken (IDS ECCS) > Sent: Thursday, April 01, 2004 4:18 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: new disk for linux > > > Uh, yes it does. > > Whether or not an initrd is used, the DASD parm comes from the boot > parameter file created by zipl. That's on the disk you boot from, > which may or may not also contain the root filesystem. (In my case it > does.) > > I just changed /etc/zipl.conf on my test system, ran zipl, and > rebooted. The change was reflected in /proc/dasd/devices. I've never > had to rebuild > the initrd manually. > > The only time you have to update the initrd is when you do a kernel > upgrade, and if you're using the RPM packaged kernels, that's taken > care of by the > install. > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Linux on 390 Port [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of > > Post, Mark K > > Sent: Thursday, April 01, 2004 4:01 PM > > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Subject: Re: [LINUX-390] new disk for linux > > > > > > Umm, no, it does not. With SLES8, SUSE went to using an > initrd. The > > HOWTO I referenced in another reply talks about how to update that. > > > > > > Mark Post > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Linux on 390 Port [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On > Behalf Of > > Hall, Ken (IDS ECCS) > > Sent: Thursday, April 01, 2004 3:47 PM > > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Subject: Re: new disk for linux > > > > > > I think you added the device to the wrong file. I usually add it to > > /etc/zipl.conf, then run zipl. I believe zipl copies > zipl.conf to the > > /boot files (among other things). > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > > From: Linux on 390 Port > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of > > > Scorch Burnet > > > Sent: Thursday, April 01, 2004 3:44 PM > > > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > Subject: [LINUX-390] new disk for linux > > > > > > > > > I am trying to add another disk to one of my SLES8 Linux images on > > > z/VM. I added the mdisk statement to the user direct, excuted the > > > directxa, and logged onto the guest. after cms formatting the new > > > mdisk, iI added the new disk address to > /boot/zipl/parmfile and ran > > > zipl. > > > > > > After rebooting, I expected to be able to format and > > partition the new > > > disk, but I do not see it in /proc/dasd/devices. > > > > > > Can someone give me a list of the steps I need to perform > > in order to > > > add this new dasd to my linux machine. > > > > > > any help is appreciated > > > > > > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access > > instructions, send > > > email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: INFO > LINUX-390 or > > > visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390 > > > > > > > ============================================================== > > ============== > > == > > > > If you are not an intended recipient of this e-mail, please > notify the > > sender, delete it and do not read, act upon, print, disclose, copy, > > retain or redistribute it. > > > > Click here for important additional terms relating to this e-mail. > > <http://www.ml.com/email_terms/> > > > > ============================================================== > > ============== > > == > > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access > instructions, send > > email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or > > visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390 > > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access > instructions, send > > email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or > > visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390 > > > > ============================================================== > ============== > == > > If you are not an intended recipient of this e-mail, please notify the > sender, delete it and do not read, act upon, print, disclose, copy, > retain or redistribute it. > > Click here for important additional terms relating to this e-mail. > <http://www.ml.com/email_terms/> > > ============================================================== > ============== > == > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send > email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or > visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390 > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send > email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or > visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390 > ============================================================================ == If you are not an intended recipient of this e-mail, please notify the sender, delete it and do not read, act upon, print, disclose, copy, retain or redistribute it. Click here for important additional terms relating to this e-mail. <http://www.ml.com/email_terms/> ============================================================================ == ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390
