Can I boot from a SCSI drive?
This is more a SuSE question, so I'm posting it to this list. I can do a manual install of 9.0 by removing the SCSI CD driver and adding the proper SCSI and RAID drivers. The install loads all the software from CD 1 and reboots. The reboot fails with the following message: kmod: failed to exec /sbin/modprobe -s -k scsi_hostadapter, errno = 2 Answers to this are not very definitive on google, but most seem to say that Linux can't boot from a SCSI drive unless the modules are compiled into the kernel. Neither of the SMP kernels supplied with 9.0 seem to work. The other "solution" I've seen is to put "alias scsi_hostadaptor" (also seems to be spelled "adapter" in places) into /etc/modules.conf. I don't know how to get that in there from the install program though. I'm stumped on how to proceed. I don't think I can compile a kernel until I have an install working. This all brings me to two questions: 1. Is this a compiled vs. module kernel problem? 2. Can I get a proper kernel onto the system? Thanks, Jim
* Jim Sabatke <jsabatke@execpc.com> [11-17-04 20:48]:
This is more a SuSE question, so I'm posting it to this list.
that's good.
I can do a manual install of 9.0 by removing the SCSI CD driver and adding the proper SCSI and RAID drivers. The install loads all the software from CD 1 and reboots. The reboot fails with the following message:
If you have a floppy disk drive, make a boot disk from the cd and do your install that way. If you do not have one, see if you can borrow a usb external floppy from someone or perhaps a flash drive or a memory chip and a card reader. They seem to be bootable. When I first downloaded Slackware on a 18k phone connection, the *only* way to boot was by floppy (IIRC - age *is* a factor). -- Patrick Shanahan Registered Linux User #207535 http://wahoo.no-ip.org @ http://counter.li.org HOG # US1244711 Photo Album: http://wahoo.no-ip.org/photos
On Wednesday, November 17, 2004 08:35 pm, Jim Sabatke wrote:
I can do a manual install of 9.0 by removing the SCSI CD driver and adding the proper SCSI and RAID drivers. The install loads all the software from CD 1 and reboots. The reboot fails
Jim, Try this: Do a regular graphic install (I'm presuming that at least before the first reboot the installer finds all of your SCSI devices and loads the right modules.) up to the point where you get the screen that asks you to confirm things like time zone, package selection, grub location/configuration etc. Do a CTRL-ALT-F9 to get to a root console and look at /etc/sysconfig/kernel. See if the line beginning "INITRD_MODULES=" contains the SCSI driver module as well as any file system modules you may need to boot the system. If not, edit the file with pico to add the modules. As an example, the line from my file reads: INITRD_MODULES="dpt_i2o reiserfs". One of the last scripts in the first part of the install runs "mkinitrd", which uses the /etc/sysconfig/kernel file to build the initial ramdisk. If the appropriate SCSI driver doesn't get added to /etc/sysconfig/kernel, then the initial ram disk can't see your hard drives, and the reboot during the install will fail. Hope this helps. Mark -- _______________________________________________________ A Message From... L. Mark Stone Reliable Networks of Maine, LLC 477 Congress Street Portland, ME 04101 Tel: (207) 772-5678
L. Mark Stone wrote:
Jim,
Try this:
Do a regular graphic install (I'm presuming that at least before the first reboot the installer finds all of your SCSI devices and loads the right modules.) up to the point where you get the screen that asks you to confirm things like time zone, package selection, grub location/configuration etc.
Do a CTRL-ALT-F9 to get to a root console and look at /etc/sysconfig/kernel.
See if the line beginning "INITRD_MODULES=" contains the SCSI driver module as well as any file system modules you may need to boot the system. If not, edit the file with pico to add the modules. As an example, the line from my file reads: INITRD_MODULES="dpt_i2o reiserfs".
One of the last scripts in the first part of the install runs "mkinitrd", which uses the /etc/sysconfig/kernel file to build the initial ramdisk. If the appropriate SCSI driver doesn't get added to /etc/sysconfig/kernel, then the initial ram disk can't see your hard drives, and the reboot during the install will fail.
Hope this helps.
Mark
That mostly worked, and it gave me enough info to figure it out. I have it booting and connected to my network!!!! I had to do a manual install, then boot an installed system from there. The missing thing was that I had to manually do a mkinitrd to create the boot image with the drivers I listed. I'm not sure why YaST didn't do it, but it works and I'm happy now. I went off track a bit following instructions on the net that weren't quite right, but it didn't take too long to get it straight. I really appreciate your advice. Thank you! Jim
participants (3)
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Jim Sabatke -
L. Mark Stone -
Patrick Shanahan