Re: DAC960 Alpha support (was: Re: Redhat 7.2 on a DEC ALPHA 2100)
On Thu, Feb 27, 2003 at 11:53:20AM +1100, Richard Muratti wrote:
>
> You will have to patch the DAC firmware to version 2.70.
> The DAC driver that comes with RH7.2 checks for V2.73.
Yes, that was part of the patch.
It turns out that the "do_mounts.c" part is not necessary for the RH
7.2 kernels, as it is already there for the more recent DAC960
controllers that come with firmware that the Linux driver supports.
> I hacked a custom RH7.2 CD where i pulled apart the CD
> pulled apart the initial ram disks searched for any instance of DAC960.o
> and modified the string 2.73 to 2.70 in the module.
YES!!! Great tip - saves the hassle of having to rebuild!
I was able to use "emacs" to binary patch the DAC960.o module; just
search for "2.73" and replace with "2.70" (don't include the quotes).
Save it and it'll "just work" - thank goodness there's no checksum... ;-}
> I then reassembled the CD and made a new ISO.
>
> It booted OK found the controller and installed OK.
> The only problem was RH installed a different DAC960.o file from
> a kernel rpm that i didn't patch and left the system un bootable (root raid)
Yup, there's always one that gets away... ;-}
> I had a another copy of RH7.2 on another disk so I was able to mount the
> raid partition and install a patched kernel with a modified DAC960 driver
> built into the kernel
>
> If your interested I can send you the relevant bits from my custom CD
>
> Also see my posts on the debian-alpha-list
Thanks for the extensive feedback and help, Rick.
Needless to say, it's a difficult task to rebuild the install CD.
We are currently working on a new ISO set for RH 7.2, including all the
update RPMS, along with a new set of kernel RPMS based on 2.4.18. These
have been tested in a root-on DAC960 configuration, and worked well.
But PLEASE, don't ask when they'll become available, we have a lot of
testing still to go through.
In the meantime, via judicious use of binary editing, mkinitrd, and
such, one can convert a non-DAC960-rooted installation into one that
is.
Good luck, and feel free to ask more questions on how to do this...
--Jay++
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Jay A Estabrook HPTC - LINUX support
Hewlett-Packard Company - MRO1-2/K15 (508) 467-2080
200 Forest Street, Marlboro MA 01752 Jay.Estabrook@hp.com
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