Using drvblock.img

[Philip Rowlands]

On Mon, 8 Mar 2004, Simper, Brian D wrote:

>I was booting from the CD to perform an install on an HP ProLiant DL 360
>G3.  I have tried the install several times and it is only successful
>when the install is supplemented using drvblock.img.  The stock CDs
>boot, but after you select "CDROM" as the install method, the install
>program says "No media found" even though it may have booted off the CD
>it now claims it can't find.

Completely different drivers; booting [with isolinux] uses BIOS/int 13h
support to fetch the data off the CD. Once the kernel and initrd are
loaded into RAM, linux doesn't ask the BIOS any more, but uses its own
hardware drivers (cdrom, ide-cd, or SCSI drivers if necessary).

I don't doubt your findings though, so let's check the difference.

RHEL3U1 isolinux/initrd.img[/modules/modules.cgz[/2.4.21-9.ELBOOT/i386]]
gives:

3c59x.o             crc32.o             megaraid.o     sis900.o
3w-xxxx.o           DAC960.o            mii.o          sr_mod.o
8139cp.o            dl2k.o              mptbase.o      st.o
8139too.o           dmfe.o              mptscsih.o     sunrpc.o
8390.o              dpt_i2o.o           natsemi.o      sym53c8xx_2.o
aacraid.o           ds.o                ne2k-pci.o     sym53c8xx.o
acenic.o            e1000.o             nfs.o          tcic.o
aic79xx.o           e100.o              ns83820.o      tg3.o
aic7xxx.o           eepro100.o          olympic.o      tlan.o
aic7xxx_old.o       epic100.o           orinoco_cs.o   tulip.o
airo_cs.o           ewrk3.o             orinoco.o      typhoon.o
aironet4500_core.o  fbcon-vga-planes.o  pcmcia_core.o  usb-storage.o
aironet4500_proc.o  fealnx.o            pcnet32.o      vga16fb.o
airo.o              gdth.o              pcnet_cs.o     via-rhine.o
amd8111e.o          hermes.o            qla1280.o      wvlan_cs.o
ata_piix.o          i82365.o            qla2200.o      xircom_cb.o
b44.o               ips.o               qla2300.o      yenta_socket.o
BusLogic.o          libata.o            scsi_mod.o
cciss.o             lockd.o             sd_mod.o
cpqarray.o          megaraid2.o         sg.o

RHEL3U1 images/drvblock.img[/modules.cgz[/2.4.21-9.ELBOOT/i386]] gives:
3w-xxxx.o      ata_piix.o  dpt_i2o.o    megaraid.o  qla2300.o
aacraid.o      BusLogic.o  gdth.o       mptbase.o   scsi_mod.o
aic79xx.o      cciss.o     ips.o        mptscsih.o  sym53c8xx_2.o
aic7xxx.o      cpqarray.o  libata.o     qla1280.o   sym53c8xx.o
aic7xxx_old.o  DAC960.o    megaraid2.o  qla2200.o   usb-storage.o


I conclude again that there is no reason drvblock.img should be
necessary when booting through isolinux; the drivers are already
present.

Any errors/warnings appearing on the other VCs? Which driver is actually
being loaded from drvblock? (check with lsmod).


Cheers,
Phil