Reinstalling lpfc driver on RHEL 2.1AS with kernel 2.4.9-e.62enterprise

[skt_skt]

Red Hat Linux Advanced Server release 2.1AS (Pensacola)

2.4.9-e.62enterprise #1 SMP Fri Apr 8 18:46:17 EDT 2005 i686 unknown

I was in the process of upgrading kernel from 2.4.9-e.62enterprise to 2.4.9-e.71smp.
2.4.9-e.71smp does not have the driver built in to it.

lpfc_2.4_driver_kit-7.1.14-4]# ./lpfc-install
Emulex LPFC Driver Installer Version 1.4.1.10
Determining distribution type and kernel version ...
Checking for old Emulex driver ...
Looking for kernel source ...
Looking for compilers ...

RPM cannot be installed: kernel source package is required.

./lpfc-install was unable to successfully build and load a driver.
Please install the appropriate kernel source code and then re-run ./lpfc-install

Does any one has any suggetion other than updating kernel-sorce

#rpm -qa|grep kernel-source
kernel-source-2.4.9-e.71

[Ivan Ferreira]

I don't know what is executed by ./lpfc-install after installing the packages.

Suppose that you install the packages without the kernel source using "--nodeps", but, problably, the kernel source is needed because the module must be recompiled, so, that won't help.

The module could be compiled against the current source installed but I think that is not recommended, and you will have less work to do if you just install the source.

[skt_skt]

No packages are forcefull y installed with --nodep option.
Do you mean to reinstall the exixsting kernel source?

what is really want here is upgrade my lpfc driver from lpfcdriver-7.1.14-4 to 7.3.6.

I dont want just to switch to 7.3.6 without confirming that i will be able to reinstall my existing driver if required (as a fail back option).

Here i have to consider the kernel upgrae(which cause me a power path reinstallation;recommended) and lpfc driver upgrade.If all of them are done properly then only i will be able to bring up databases.

[Ivan Ferreira]

>>> No packages are forcefull y installed with --nodep option.

Yes. That was just a supposition.

>>> Do you mean to reinstall the existing kernel source?

No. Is not the current kernel source what you need. You need the kernel source for the new kernel (2.4.9-e.71)

>>> what is really want here is upgrade my lpfc driver from lpfcdriver-7.1.14-4 to 7.3.6.

Ok.

>>> I dont want just to switch to 7.3.6 without confirming that i will be able to reinstall my existing driver if required (as a fail back option).

If you installed a new kernel, and you install the modules for the new kernel, the old kernel and modules for lpfc should still be available to boot from if you have a problem. That is, if you used rpm -ivh instead of rpm -Uvh to install the kernel package.

>>> Here i have to consider the kernel upgrae(which cause me a power path reinstallation;recommended) and lpfc driver upgrade.If all of them are done properly then only i will be able to bring up databases.

To doulbe ensure, take a backup of /lib/modules and /boot

[skt_skt]

the kernel source for new kernel is already installed
#rpm -qa|grep kernel-source
kernel-source-2.4.9-e.71 .

I still have a doubt is that the respective one for kernel 2.4.9-e.71smp.As u mentioned , am i have wrong kernel source here?

we always do rpm -ivh .So i could roll back to old kernel when the lpfc install failed.

I have to suffer a lot to mount those file system back as the power path reinstallation causes the device files for the stoage disks to be changed.being a AS 2.1 server i dont have VG/LVM supported/created here. I never checked why AS 2.1 does not supports LVM.

[Ivan Ferreira]

Sorry, I did not see that the kernel source is the same version as your current kernel.

What I would check is the /usr/src/linux directory, if this file is a link to the 2.4.9-e.71 kernel sources.

If that exists, I would verify if a .config file exists, maybe the installer is checking for something of that. You can create a .config with make oldconfig or copying from /boot if exists.

If not, then the installer is dummy and checking a source with "smp" name in the package. In that case, I would manually compile the kernel using the same "SMP" .config file, but changin the "EXTRAVERSION" in the Makefile to remove the smp word, so the installer will find an SMP kernel without the smp extraversion and a "source package" that corresponds.

[skt_skt]

# ls -lrt /usr/src
total 16
drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 4096 Feb 28 2005 redhat
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Apr 7 2005 linux
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 16 Mar 25 01:10 linux-2.4 -> linux-2.4.9-e.71
drw-r--r-- 3 root root 4096 Apr 22 04:24 lpfc
drwxr-xr-x 17 root root 4096 Jun 5 22:00 linux-2.4.9-e.71

#cat /usr/src/linux-2.4.9e.71/Makefile|grep -i extra

EXTRAVERSION = -e.71custom

I dont see any smp string here.it looks like what i currently points to is not an smp verison.
#rpm -qa|grep -i kernel|grep 2.4.9-e.71
kernel-smp-2.4.9-e.71(org smp)
kernel-2.4.9-e.71(whihc is this one?;some custom verision)
kernel-enterprise-2.4.9-e.71(enterprise)

[Ivan Ferreira]

Can you try with:

cd /usr/src
mv linux linux.bak
ln -s linux-2.4.9-e.71 linux

Edit the Makefile and set:

EXTRAVERSION = -e.71smp

Then:

cp .config config-bak
make oldconfig

And try your installation again.

[Matti_Kurkela]

Are you trying to compile the lpfc driver *after* updating the kernel packages to -e.71smp but *before* rebooting to the new kernel?

Normally the driver installation packages try to install the driver for your *current* kernel version (=whatever is reported by uname -r) unless you specify otherwise. As you have already updated kernel-source, the lpfc-install can no longer find the kernel source for version 2.4.9-e.62enterprise.

I don't have any RHEL 2.1 machine available, so I cannot really test this. But I downloaded the latest lpfc driver kit from www.emulex.com. Apparently the lpfc-install can compile the driver for the currently running kernel only.
(Stupid design, if you ask me.)

You could make a copy of the lpfc-install script and hack it a bit: change every location that says "$(uname -r)" to "2.4.9-e.71smp". By my quick browse through the lpfc-install script, it seems that would be enough to make the modified script install the driver for the new kernel before you actually reboot and start using the new kernel.

After rebooting to 2.4.9-e.71smp, the unmodified lpfc-install script should work just fine.

MK

[skt_skt]

Ivan,

I dont have any .config file currently.

I see following files under /usr/src/linux-2.4.9-e.71/configs

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 37266 Nov 23 2006 kernel-2.4.9-athlon.config
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 37334 Nov 23 2006 kernel-2.4.9-athlon-smp.config
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 46552 Nov 23 2006 kernel-2.4.9-i386-BOOT.config
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 37423 Nov 23 2006 kernel-2.4.9-i386.config
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 37363 Nov 23 2006 kernel-2.4.9-i386-smp.config
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 37393 Nov 23 2006 kernel-2.4.9-i586.config
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 37333 Nov 23 2006 kernel-2.4.9-i586-smp.config
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 37422 Nov 23 2006 kernel-2.4.9-i686.config
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 37861 Nov 23 2006 kernel-2.4.9-i686-debug.config
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 37525 Nov 23 2006 kernel-2.4.9-i686-enterprise.config
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 37425 Nov 23 2006 kernel-2.4.9-i686-smp.config
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 38567 Nov 23 2006 kernel-2.4.9-i686-summit.config

MK,


Are you trying to compile the lpfc driver *after* updating the kernel packages to -e.71smp but *before* rebooting to the new

kernel?

I did update kernel package and made sure the server is coming up after with new kernel. I have commented the file system from SAN in /etc/fstab as it wont get recognised till i reinstall the power path module (EMCpower.LINUX-3.0.5-032).

Normally the driver installation packages try to install the driver for your *current* kernel version (=whatever is reported

by uname -r) unless you specify otherwise. As you have already updated kernel-source, the lpfc-install can no longer find the

kernel source for version 2.4.9-e.62enterprise.?

Here i was trying the driver installation with the new kernel(2.4.9-e.71smp) only


I don't have any RHEL 2.1 machine available, so I cannot really test this. But I downloaded the latest lpfc driver kit from

www.emulex.com. Apparently the lpfc-install can compile the driver for the currently running kernel only.
(Stupid design, if you ask me.)

OK.That is what i tried.