[gentoo-user] Creating an initrd for loading...
I'm working on a Sparc system (SunBlade 2000 Desktop Server) that needs an initrd image to load (due to having a QLA 2200 SCSI controller); but I am having some trouble with the initrd image. (I had tried the gentoo-sparc list, but it is slow - I'm not getting responses - and I need to finish this server by Friday. And the issue right now is solely the initrd image.) The problem I am having is that the kernel is complaining about not having the initrd image. I have SILO (sparc equiv of LILO) installed, and have told it of the initrd image, but the kernel doesn't seem to find it. (SILO reports all is well, so I can only assume it is finding the initrd image without a problem.) My main question comes down to this: I am using the 'genkernel' package to build install the kernel and initrd image. Both show up in /boot. How much can I rely on genkernel to build a valid initrd image? How can I mount the initrd image to verify it has the modules, etc. and verify it is a valid image? TIA, Ben -- gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] Creating an initrd for loading...
On Thu, 2008-03-27 at 12:35 -0400, Benjamen R. Meyer wrote: I'm working on a Sparc system (SunBlade 2000 Desktop Server) that needs an initrd image to load (due to having a QLA 2200 SCSI controller); but I am having some trouble with the initrd image. (I had tried the gentoo-sparc list, but it is slow - I'm not getting responses - and I need to finish this server by Friday. And the issue right now is solely the initrd image.) The problem I am having is that the kernel is complaining about not having the initrd image. I have SILO (sparc equiv of LILO) installed, and have told it of the initrd image, but the kernel doesn't seem to find it. (SILO reports all is well, so I can only assume it is finding the initrd image without a problem.) My main question comes down to this: I am using the 'genkernel' package to build install the kernel and initrd image. Both show up in /boot. How much can I rely on genkernel to build a valid initrd image? Try genkernel menuconfig all to check for a valid kernel config before genkernel builds it. Refer to genkernel's man-page for further options. How can I mount the initrd image to verify it has the modules, etc. and verify it is a valid image? There is a wiki-entry about it: http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Initramfs Hope this helps. signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part
Re: [gentoo-user] Creating an initrd for loading...
Florian Philipp wrote: On Thu, 2008-03-27 at 12:35 -0400, Benjamen R. Meyer wrote: My main question comes down to this: I am using the 'genkernel' package to build install the kernel and initrd image. Both show up in /boot. How much can I rely on genkernel to build a valid initrd image? Try genkernel menuconfig all to check for a valid kernel config before genkernel builds it. Refer to genkernel's man-page for further options. Yes, I did that. I ran genkernel, and generated it all. The initrd just doesn't seem to be working. How can I mount the initrd image to verify it has the modules, etc. and verify it is a valid image? There is a wiki-entry about it: http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Initramfs Ok, so I used zcat to decompress the image, and then cpio to extract the data to a temporary folder. (The instructions on the wiki didn't work for some reason...complaints about finding cpio and zcat complaining about arguments). Any how... I snooped around the extracted files and was unable to find either the qla2xxx module (or the qla2200 modules, or any modules for that matter) or the qla2200 firmware. The firmware is on the hard drive (/dev/sda1 - /lib/firmward/qla2200_fw.bin), and so is the module - /lib/modules/2.6.24-gentoo-r3/kernel/drivers/scsi/qla2xxx/qla2xxx.ko. Is the initrd image invalid?? Or are they stored somehow in the files non-obviously? How could I easily add them to the initrd image? (This is really my first time playing with initrd images...) Thanks, Ben -- gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] Creating an initrd for loading...
On Thu, 2008-03-27 at 14:31 -0400, Benjamen R. Meyer wrote: Florian Philipp wrote: On Thu, 2008-03-27 at 12:35 -0400, Benjamen R. Meyer wrote: My main question comes down to this: I am using the 'genkernel' package to build install the kernel and initrd image. Both show up in /boot. How much can I rely on genkernel to build a valid initrd image? Try genkernel menuconfig all to check for a valid kernel config before genkernel builds it. Refer to genkernel's man-page for further options. Yes, I did that. I ran genkernel, and generated it all. The initrd just doesn't seem to be working. How can I mount the initrd image to verify it has the modules, etc. and verify it is a valid image? There is a wiki-entry about it: http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Initramfs Ok, so I used zcat to decompress the image, and then cpio to extract the data to a temporary folder. (The instructions on the wiki didn't work for some reason...complaints about finding cpio and zcat complaining about arguments). Any how... I snooped around the extracted files and was unable to find either the qla2xxx module (or the qla2200 modules, or any modules for that matter) or the qla2200 firmware. The firmware is on the hard drive (/dev/sda1 - /lib/firmward/qla2200_fw.bin), and so is the module - /lib/modules/2.6.24-gentoo-r3/kernel/drivers/scsi/qla2xxx/qla2xxx.ko. Is the initrd image invalid?? Or are they stored somehow in the files non-obviously? How could I easily add them to the initrd image? (This is really my first time playing with initrd images...) Thanks, Ben They are in lib/modules. I think it should work if you just copy the modules to their respective folder and add their names to the respective file in etc/modules. To create a initrd new initrd, use the following command: find . | cpio --quiet --dereference -o -H newc | gzip -9 /boot/initrd signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part
Re: [gentoo-user] Creating an initrd for loading...
Florian Philipp wrote: On Thu, 2008-03-27 at 14:31 -0400, Benjamen R. Meyer wrote: Florian Philipp wrote: On Thu, 2008-03-27 at 12:35 -0400, Benjamen R. Meyer wrote: How can I mount the initrd image to verify it has the modules, etc. and verify it is a valid image? There is a wiki-entry about it: http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Initramfs Ok, so I used zcat to decompress the image, and then cpio to extract the data to a temporary folder. (The instructions on the wiki didn't work for some reason...complaints about finding cpio and zcat complaining about arguments). Any how... I snooped around the extracted files and was unable to find either the qla2xxx module (or the qla2200 modules, or any modules for that matter) or the qla2200 firmware. The firmware is on the hard drive (/dev/sda1 - /lib/firmward/qla2200_fw.bin), and so is the module - /lib/modules/2.6.24-gentoo-r3/kernel/drivers/scsi/qla2xxx/qla2xxx.ko. Is the initrd image invalid?? Or are they stored somehow in the files non-obviously? How could I easily add them to the initrd image? (This is really my first time playing with initrd images...) They are in lib/modules. I think it should work if you just copy the modules to their respective folder and add their names to the respective file in etc/modules. Okay, I tried this two ways: 1) touched files in /etc/modules with the module names. (Probably not right) - didn't work. 2) added all the files in /lib/modules/2.6.24-gentoo-r3/kernel/drivers/scsi and sub-directories to /etc/modules/scsi - didn't work. Perhaps I need to add the information for the firmware??? To create a initrd new initrd, use the following command: find . | cpio --quiet --dereference -o -H newc | gzip -9 /boot/initrd Okay, used this instead of the lengthy process I was doing before: find ./ | cpio -H newc -o /boot/initrd.bmeyer.cpio gzip /boot/initrd.bmeyer.cpio mv /boot/initrd.bmeyer.cpio.gz /boot/initrd.bmeyer Any how...still stuck. Think I'm further along..but don't know. FYI - right after it runs 'mdev' there is a line saying it can't find 'ls'...not sure if that is an error with mdev, or an error after mdev. Either way, I can't find out since the system goes unusable until I reboot manually (cycle power). TIA, Ben -- gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org mailing list
