CentOS - Oct 2007 - Trying to create a custom initrd that will work with PXE Booting

Hi,

I am trying to create a custom initrd that will work with PXE Booting on 
CentOS release 4.5 (Final) and Fedora Core 6.  Can anyone point me to 
some documentation that will help with this ?

The specific situation is that we have received some machines that need 
the latest e1000 Driver from Intel in order to detect the network card.  
If I install the systems without network and then do rpmbuild -tb 
e1000-7.6.9.tar.gz a RPM is built and can be installed, and the Network 
card works fine as soon as you load the new e1000 Module.  But we could 
be receiving a number of these systems so a Kickstart installation is 
required.

I have tried installing the version of the kernel uses during kick start 
installs and then creating and installing the e1000 rpm and then 
updating the pxe initrd with the version of e1000.ko that is created but 
still the the card isn't detected.

Another thing I have tried is creating a respin using Pungi and then 
using the PXE images that this generates but still no joy.

I do know that the Card works fine with CentOS 5 and Fedora 7.  Aside 
from upgrading to these does anyone have any suggestions? :)

Thanks

Clint Dilks wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I am trying to create a custom initrd that will work with PXE Booting on 
> CentOS release 4.5 (Final) and Fedora Core 6.  Can anyone point me to 
> some documentation that will help with this ?
> 
> The specific situation is that we have received some machines that need 
> the latest e1000 Driver from Intel in order to detect the network card.  
> If I install the systems without network and then do rpmbuild -tb 
> e1000-7.6.9.tar.gz a RPM is built and can be installed, and the Network 
> card works fine as soon as you load the new e1000 Module.  But we could 
> be receiving a number of these systems so a Kickstart installation is 
> required.
> 
> I have tried installing the version of the kernel uses during kick start 
> installs and then creating and installing the e1000 rpm and then 
> updating the pxe initrd with the version of e1000.ko that is created but 
> still the the card isn't detected.
> 
> Another thing I have tried is creating a respin using Pungi and then 
> using the PXE images that this generates but still no joy.
> 
> I do know that the Card works fine with CentOS 5 and Fedora 7.  Aside 
> from upgrading to these does anyone have any suggestions? :)
You might want to try the RHEL4 kernels at 
<http://people.redhat.com/~jbaron/rhel4/> - these will become (with 
possibly some more tweaks) the 4.6 kernels

They might have e1000 updates you need.

James Pearson

Clint Dilks wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I am trying to create a custom initrd that will work with PXE Booting on
> CentOS release 4.5 (Final) and Fedora Core 6.  Can anyone point me to
> some documentation that will help with this ?
I've done this for F7 (the NIC is detected by the default e1000, but
fails to run at gigabit speed).

The trick is:

Install the OS, don't do yum update.
Compile the e1000 module.
Unpack the initrd file
Replace the e1000 module
Repack the initrd file again
Use the new initrd file for PXE booting

This works for F7.

Mogens

-- 
Mogens Kjaer, Carlsberg A/S, Computer Department
Gamle Carlsberg Vej 10, DK-2500 Valby, Denmark
Phone: +45 33 27 53 25, Fax: +45 33 27 47 08
Email: mk at crc.dk Homepage: http://www.crc.dk

On Thu, 2007-10-18 at 22:13 +1300, Clint Dilks wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I am trying to create a custom initrd that will work with PXE Booting on 
> CentOS release 4.5 (Final) and Fedora Core 6.  Can anyone point me to 
> some documentation that will help with this ?
> 
> The specific situation is that we have received some machines that need 
> the latest e1000 Driver from Intel in order to detect the network card.  
> If I install the systems without network and then do rpmbuild -tb 
> e1000-7.6.9.tar.gz a RPM is built and can be installed, and the Network 
> card works fine as soon as you load the new e1000 Module.  But we could 
> be receiving a number of these systems so a Kickstart installation is 
> required.
> 
> I have tried installing the version of the kernel uses during kick start 
> installs and then creating and installing the e1000 rpm and then 
> updating the pxe initrd with the version of e1000.ko that is created but 
> still the the card isn't detected.
> 
> Another thing I have tried is creating a respin using Pungi and then 
> using the PXE images that this generates but still no joy.
> 
> I do know that the Card works fine with CentOS 5 and Fedora 7.  Aside 
> from upgrading to these does anyone have any suggestions? :)
I don't have time now for a detailed answer, but a google on the
following may provide some clues:

        initrd module site:lists.centos.org

Phil