RHEL kickstart post install PSP installation

[Anoop Bhat]

In the %post (post install script) of my redhat kickstarts. I'm attempting to install the psp
v7.10 with the --inputfile tag.

It installs the bcm5700 RPM and then complains about missing files for NC10XX/NC67XX/NC77XX gigabit eth driver.

my script has tried to install it several ways,

one by executing /full/path/to/install710.sh --inputfile filename

and
cd /full/path/to/psp
./install710.sh inputfile


both methods do find the params file but complain about not being able to find the right files for the postprocessing of the bcm5700 package. Is there a particular place its looking for it?

I execute the install file by coping the psp tar.gz to /root and then untarring it there and then trying one of the two install methods mentioned above.

A manual install of the psp seems to work just fine and so i'm confused as to why its giving me this error.

any ideas?

thanks

Anoop

[Michael Garner_1]

Anoop,
There are a couple of possible causes for the problem you are seeing.

1) Do you have the kernel source installed that matches the running kernel? The PSP will check to ensure that the kernel source located in the /usr/src/linux-2.4. directory matches the running kernel returned from the uname -r command. If the two don't match, then the installation will fail.

2) Presence of the rpmbuild command in the /usr/bin directory. If you don't have the rpmbuild command installed, the PSP can't build the binary RPM from the source RPM and will not allow the installation to proceed.

3) The make command must be located in the /usr/bin directory. As with rpmbuild, if it isn't there, the PSP can't build the object files and binaries from the source RPM.

If all of these checks fail, then I'll need some more information to be able to determine why the PSP is not installing in the environment you have.

a) Which distribution and errata kernel are you using?
b) What are the contents of the /var/log/hppldu.log file?
c) Can you run a debug output of the PSP by changing your install command to be:

./install710.sh --inputfile filename --debug > out

This will create a lot of debug output from the installation and redirect it to the out file. If you zip this file, it should drop from about 60-80MB to about 2-4MB in size. If you get the output file, let me know and I'll arrange for you to send it in to me for analysis.

Thanks,
Michael Garner
Linux PSP Developer

[Anoop Bhat]

Michael,

Thanks for your input. I believe you're right regarding the kernel source. The kernel source is installed but the psp can't seem to find it until i reboot the machine ( after the kickstart ). I was able to test and confirm this yesterday. I'm going to hack the install file for now and make it point directly to the kernel source and see if that works.

I would rather not hack it permanently and just reboot and automate it as a post-reboot type of thing.

what do you recommend? Have you ever had problems installing the PSP right after the kickstart completes (without rebooting)?

thanks

Anoop

[Michael Garner_1]

Anoop,
I've done some additional work on this in the last couple of days and have only been able to reproduce this if the kernel source that is installed does not match the running errata kernel. In other words, if I install a new errata kernel and its corresponding kernel source, the PSP will not recognize the server is rebooted. This is because the PSP keys the path off the kernel source to the running kernel. We use the uname -r command to determine the running kernel and derive the path to the kernel source off of the output.

When a new kernel and/or kernel source is installed, it is not active so we won't recognize it from the PSP until the next reboot. We do this because when the drivers are built, we have no idea which kernel a user will reboot to. We have to assume that the running kernel is the one that drivers must be built for. This is especially true because users can insmod or modprobe the drivers immediately without a reboot in many cases.

We may explore the possibility of adding another command-line switch to allow drivers to be built for kernels other than the running kernel if we get enough feedback that this is a needed feature.

Thanks,
Michael

[Steven E. Protter]

Check my past questions.

I have invested(kind term) a considerable amount of time into Linux and Gigabit Network Cards. I've also spent a pretty considerable chunk of change.

Conclusion. By the $55 Intel NIC and be done with it. Its auto detected, built into the kernel and took exactly 12 minutes to install.

Broadcom & other Gigabit w/ Linux=Admin suffering.

That's my take. I no longer have the time for it.

SEP