can't get alt0 driver when doing a kernel rebuild on genvmunix

[Joe Manek]

I'm already running on a degpa-sa as alt0, but now I need to add an lto-1 tape device. I put the kzpba-cx pci card in, booted on genvmunix with the card installed and tape drive. the tape drive is seen, used doconfig to build new kernel, moved it in, booted, see tape device just fine, but no alt0 anymore. after much debugging I've determined that my genvmunix doesn't have any idea what the degpa-sa/alt0 is. Now my problem, more of a catch 22. I have to have GigE via alt0, which limits me to my existing kernel, but I need to get the tape device built so I can have higher density backups. What am I missing? It's been a while, but I was obviously able to install and configure the degpa-sa orginally and I would have had to use the genvmunix kernel build process to do it. Any help, thoughts, hint or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Oh, yea...no I can't upgrade beyond 4.0d.

[Vladimir Fabecic]

Hello
Looks like your genvmunix is not good.
Idea:
Copy original kernel configuration file somewhere. Then boot genvmunix and build the new kernel which has kzpba inside. Copy new kernel configuration file somewhere.
Now look for differences. Find the line that consists option for kzpba (do not remember but something like "# Static Driver Definitions
...
config_driver isp).
Then manualy put that line to your original kernel file and rebuild the kernel using that file.

[Joe Manek]

Thanks for the idea, however I was able to work through this eventually. The genvmunix kernel build did have the data to create the device files for the kzpba-cx and ultimately my tape drive, my problem was that the alt driver for the GigE degpa-sa card didn't seem to be recognized. I had the proper entry for the degpa-sa in sysconfigtab and the alt.mod in /sys/BINARY/. What I tried, that worked was to do a 'sysconfig alt' command. It loaded the alt driver and enabled the card. I then did and ifconfig to get the proper settings, all of which was already in the /etc/rc.config file. I was convinced this was not going to be persistant across a reboot, but it was/is. So...I guess I'm good to go, albeit not completly understanding the fix. Thanks again for the response.

[Joe Manek]

I spoke too soon. The alt interface doesn't come up on boot, my previous reboot was from the old kernel, the one that was recently rebuilt with the kzpba-cx and tape drive drivers. I'm now back to having to sysconfig and ifconfig the alt interface up. I guess I can do this from an rc3.d script, but that's not the right way, just the quick way. Any ideas anyone?

[Vladimir Fabecic]

Not sure I you understand me.
Go to /usr/sys/conf.
Edit configuration file (ussualy your host name in capital letters), find section "# Static Driver Definitions# and insert line:
config_driver alt
Not sure it is the right sintax, but you will find it in backup configuration file.
Regards

[Vladimir Fabecic]

Forgot to say: after that rebuild the kernel with
# doconfig -c
Wish you good luck!

[Joe Manek]

I diff'd the before/after /usr/sys/conf/{SYSTEM} files as well as looked at my other system which currently works with both an alt (degpa-sa card) and tape drive using the SCSI card (IPS104B/V2). All have an entry (as the last line in the file) of

pseudo-device alt

If I do a 'strings /vmunix | grep alt' I get lots of alt interface related lines (below), the same thing on my new kernel has no alt interface related strings.

Something in the kernel build is ignoring the "pseudo-device alt" directive...I think.



alt.mod: cfgmgr_get_state failed
alt.mod: Cannot create controller structure
alt.mod: Cannot configure driver
alt.mod: Cannot register PRECONFIG callback
alt%d: Unrecognized bus type
alt%d: alt_probe: unit exceeds max supported devices
alt%d: alt_probe: failed to get memory for softc
alt%d: Implementing 0 cache_line_size workaround.
alt%d: This unit is not a DEGPA-SA device (%x).
alt%d: No dense or linear space available on this system
alt%d: alt_InitNICmem failed
alt%d: alt_InitNICph1 failed
alt%d: interrrupt handler add failed
alt_InitNICph2 failed
alt%d: WARNING: create_controller failed
alt%d: %s, hardware address: %s
alt%d: Driver Rev = %s, Chip Rev = %s, Firmware Rev = %s
alt%d: Enabling AMM
alt%d: Disabling AMM
alt%d: Enabling PROMISC mode
alt%d: Disabling PROMISC mode
alt%d: Dump of multicast table after DEL (%d entries)
alt%d: Dump of multicast table after ADD (%d entries)
alt%d: can not set highwater > 1M
alt.mod: FAILED to create controller structs during init
alt%d: Buffer creation process running (%d buffs).
alt%d: Buffer creation done (%d buffs).
alt%d: Link up
alt%d: Link down
alt%d: Link up
alt%d: Link down

[Bondarenko Alexander]

Yes, 4.0a/b/c is not like 5.x :))
Two step:
a) boot genvmunix, create NEW configuration file and system name:
#doconfig -c NEWname
b) boot with_alt0_old_working_kernel
compare config files and find new controller and driver decriptions,
copy-paste from NEWname to current config,
rebuild kernel and reboot