Linux driver compile module needed - hardcore Linux geeks welcome !

[WalkinTarget]

We are trying to image new student PCs up to an image server using a Suse Linux imaging CD (newest Novell Zenworks imaging ISO available - 10.0.03) and are hitting a snag using an Intel 82566DC-2 Gb NIC.

The latest Novell ISO CD does not have the freakin' drivers compiled for this particular NIC, so we cannot connect to the imaging server on the same subnet to dump the image onto it. Does anybody have the capability to compile this particular driver for me so that we can get some work done ??

I have downloaded the Linux driver, but obviously cannot compile it, so hopefully somebody has the Linux knowledge to help me out.

Linky:
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Deta...stems&lang=eng

What I'm looking for will be something like this:

# tar zxvf e1000-abc.tar.gz
# cd e1000-abc/src
# make install
# chmod 744 /lib/modules/kernel-xyz/drivers/net/e1000/e1000.ko

This one is obviously a hardcore geek endeavor, so I won't be surprised to see the thread die off, but luckily the vendor we have has a guy that is trying to compile it for us as well. Obviously, he's quite busy now, so I was hoping to have it sooner rather than later.

[mapes]

Theres more to it than just that. We would also need to know what kernel version your running (ala uname -a).


So basically you need to find someone running the same kernel version or it will fail to load( I'm assuming your doing a loadable module).

Let me make sure I understand the problem correctly. I think your saying that the bootable cd used for bringing up a machine with no OS to attach and copy down an image dosn't support the nic ya got. Is that right? Does the image your installing support the nic you got in the client PC's?

If the problem is just the bootable client cd dosn't support the nic you got a couple of options.

Ranked by diffculty

1. Just grab an older pci intel 10/100 card and slot it into the box when you image em. Not perfect but easy....dosn't scale well.

2. Install freeBSD and look up frisbee very cool free imaging software. Will do multicast imaging

Creating a Software Testing Environment Using FreeBSD

3. Uh let me look into the recompile and do some research...

[mapes]

BTW have you seen this

Obtaining Drivers
New LAN drivers should be obtained from the manufacturer. Most LAN card manufacturers have
drivers available for free downloading from their Web site. Some drivers are available from
http://www.scyld.com/network, and the source to the Broadcom BCM5700 driver can be downloaded
from Broadcom Corporation - Download Drivers.
If a manufacturer has a binary driver compiled specifically for the kernel version used by
ZENworks, you can obtain the driver and use one of the update methods to add the driver.
ZENworks 6.5 SP2 is based on SLES 9 SP2, kernel version 2.6.5-7.191. If the driver is not for this
specific version, you must obtain the source and compile it for this version. For more information,
see “Building Drivers” on page 729.
Building Drivers
Nearly all Linux drivers are distributed in source code form and need to be compiled before they
can be used. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions included with the new driver to build the
driver module. Many drivers can be built in such a way that they are built into the kernel itself;
however, we recommend that LAN drivers be built as external kernel modules.
When building your LAN drivers, make sure that your build machine uses the same kernel as the
imaging environment. If you have a LAN driver that doesn’t load in your imaging environment, it
usually means that you have a mismatch between your build environment and the imaging
environment.
You can find the current kernel version of your Linux environment using the following command:
uname -r
However, you might need to modify the results from the uname command to get your kernel
versions to match. For more information, see “Using Uname” on page 731.
730 Novell ZENworks 6.5 Desktop Management Administration Guide
To build your drivers:
�� “Obtaining the Linux Source Code Tree” on page 730
�� “Compiling the Module” on page 730
Obtaining the Linux Source Code Tree
To compile a module, you need the Linux source code tree that contains the configuration
matching the ZENworks kernel. To obtain the necessary source code:
�� If you have ZENworks 6.5 Desktop Management Support Pack 2 installed, download the
zenimgk2657191.tgz Linux source code tree file (http://support.novell.com/servlet/
filedownload/pub/zenimgk2657191.tgz).
�� If you have ZENworks 6.5 Desktop Management Support Pack 2 HP3 (or later) installed,
download the zenimgk2657244.tgz Linux source code tree file (http://support.novell.com/
servlet/filedownload/pub/zenimgk2657244.tgz).
To use the Linux source code tree:
1 Unzip the file and install the source code tree in the /usr/src directory.
For example, the tar file creates the following directories:
/usr/src/linux-2.6.5-7.191
/usr/src/linux-2.6.5-7.191-obj
2 Obtain the proper configuration file from one of the following locations:
�� A running ZENworks imaging distribution file (/proc/config.gz).
�� The applicable version: zenimgk2657191.tgz (http://support.novell.com/servlet/
filedownload/pub/zenimgk2657191.tgz) or zenimgk2657244.tgz (http://
support.novell.com/servlet/filedownload/pub/zenimgk2657244.tgz).
3 Copy this configuration file to the directory created in Step 1.
For example, /usr/src/linux-2.6.5-7.191.
4 To create a link to the source tree:
4a Change to the /usr/src directory:
cd /usr/src
4b If there is a Linux soft link in the directory, delete it.
4c Create the Linux soft link, such as:
ln -s linux-2.6.5-7.191 linux
You now have the Linux kernel source tree and soft link ready for compiling the module. Continue
with “Compiling the Module” on page 730.
Compiling the Module
To manually compile the module:
1 Install the source.
Follow the supplied instructions from the manufacturer to install the source.
Normally, the module source is in a directory under /usr/src. Module source files usually come
in the form of a gzipped tar file (.tar.gz or .tgz). The file might also be a bzipped file (.bz2).
Adding Linux Drivers in ZENworks 6.5 SP2 731
2 To compile the source:
2a Change directories to the source.
2b If you modified uname to change to the proper kernel version, issue a make command.
3 When you have your module compiled for ZENworks, take the generated .ko module file
(make sure you select the proper module name and not a work .ko file) and install it by placing
it in the initrd file system.
Loading Drivers with Parameters
If there is a module you want to load during the linuxrc processing time, and if linuxrc does not
recognize that it needs to be loaded or you want to specify the load parameters, you can enter a line
in the linuxrc.config file. This file then needs to be updated in the initrd file system.
You might need to load a LAN driver module with specific parameters. You can do this with a line
like:
insmod="moduleName parm=xxx"
This type of line is most commonly used to load a LAN driver with specific parameters, such as
full duplex or specific speed.

http://www.novell.com/documentation/...in_imaging.pdf

[WalkinTarget]

Mapes, my Linux ignorance is showing up in BOLD in this thread, as I really am lost. The Network admin left on vacation yesterday and this job is now passed onto me. Two other co-workers are at Mac training all week, so I am literally the ony IT guy holding down the fort.
I have four lab images to create in less than two weeks, and no way to image ANY of them, so I've ordered four more drives from our vendor so I can at least send them a drive with an image. Also, with the admin gone, no one else has the capability to help us out.
I'm not even able to give you enough info to determine what kernel we are running, so I guess we leave this one up to the tech at the vendor. I have an email from our admin to another co-worker at work, so I will post what I can of that tomorrow to at least detail what we are trying to accomplish.

[mapes]

Mapes, my Linux ignorance is showing up in BOLD in this thread, as I really am lost. The Network admin left on vacation yesterday and this job is now passed onto me. Two other co-workers are at Mac training all week, so I am literally the ony IT guy holding down the fort.
I have four lab images to create in less than two weeks, and no way to image ANY of them, so I've ordered four more drives from our vendor so I can at least send them a drive with an image. Also, with the admin gone, no one else has the capability to help us out.
I'm not even able to give you enough info to determine what kernel we are running, so I guess we leave this one up to the tech at the vendor. I have an email from our admin to another co-worker at work, so I will post what I can of that tomorrow to at least detail what we are trying to accomplish.

boot up your image cd. At the prompt type uname -a

Let me know what the output is.

[WalkinTarget]

Here's the email from our network admin (on the road towards Maine):

Our imaging CD is based on the Linux kernel version 2.6.16.46-0.12. Near as I can tell the correct Intel driver for kernels 2.4.18 through 2.6.x is version 8.0.1 dated 4/10/08; this is the link:

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Deta...inux*&lang=eng

I simply couldn't wait, so I used an old Ghost boot floppy with the spare SATA HD hooked up in place of the DVD drive and used that to image. I at least have a common image that I can use to branch off from there and create multiple drives based on each of the four labs that we have at the Senior High being replaced.
Fortunately, our older Ghost 7.5 does support SATA, so I am at least making some progress on this one before the end of the work week.

[Savage_Hobo]

Why not just image to another drive or dvd then upload it on another computer?

[mapes]

Here's the email from our network admin (on the road towards Maine):

Our imaging CD is based on the Linux kernel version 2.6.16.46-0.12. Near as I can tell the correct Intel driver for kernels 2.4.18 through 2.6.x is version 8.0.1 dated 4/10/08; this is the link:

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Deta...inux*&lang=eng

I simply couldn't wait, so I used an old Ghost boot floppy with the spare SATA HD hooked up in place of the DVD drive and used that to image. I at least have a common image that I can use to branch off from there and create multiple drives based on each of the four labs that we have at the Senior High being replaced.
Fortunately, our older Ghost 7.5 does support SATA, so I am at least making some progress on this one before the end of the work week.

To be honest I think thats the right way to go. I'm sorry I couldn't help you.

[WalkinTarget]

Welp, I used good ol' Ghost 7.5 to image to another SATA drive, then added software (after making a common image) to create a separate drive image for each of the labs. At this point, I only HAVE one PC (actually two, but my co-worker gets one for the Middle School), so without a duplicate PC, I couldn't really image it properly.

Regardless, I banged out 90% of one lab image and 70% of another lab in the span of a day today, so the Boss is happy and so am I ... THREE DAY WEEKEND !!

Thanks for looking guys !! I just had to fall back to an old standby that we haven't used in at least 3 years now, but 11 minutes to copy a drive locally was a reminder of the beauty of Ghost when you really need to clone a drive.

[mapes]

Welp, I used good ol' Ghost 7.5 to image to another SATA drive, then added software (after making a common image) to create a separate drive image for each of the labs. At this point, I only HAVE one PC (actually two, but my co-worker gets one for the Middle School), so without a duplicate PC, I couldn't really image it properly.

Regardless, I banged out 90% of one lab image and 70% of another lab in the span of a day today, so the Boss is happy and so am I ... THREE DAY WEEKEND !!

Thanks for looking guys !! I just had to fall back to an old standby that we haven't used in at least 3 years now, but 11 minutes to copy a drive locally was a reminder of the beauty of Ghost when you really need to clone a drive.

You should have your Unix guy look at that frisbee thing I mentioned earlier. For a free open source project that can re image tons of machines via multi cast it kicks ass.

[Savage_Hobo]

Yaa.. I just downloaded it now, I'm going to compare Frisbee to the PartIMG distro (on the system rescue cd).

[mapes]

Yaa.. I just downloaded it now, I'm going to compare Frisbee to the PartIMG distro (on the system rescue cd).

Frisbee is setup to re image tons of machines simultaneously over the multicast protocol. It's pretty much only worthwhile if you have a lab or some such setup.