HP NC-Series QLogic Driver for Linux hangs during an installation of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP3.

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 Service Pack 3

From HP Bulletin:

When installing SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP3 on an HP ProLiant server configured with certain network adapters, the installation may stop responding when attempting to load any version of the HP NC-Series QLogic Driver for Linux. When this occurs, the last module to load will be the netxen_nic and the following will be displayed in Virtual Console 3 (Alt+F3):

insmod /modules/netxen_nic.ko

The Bulletin only provides instructions on how to install the driver module via DUD (Driver Update Disk) during installation and on how to provide the DUD via network installation.

The aim of this document is to provide information on how to include the DUD into a SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 Service Pack 3 installation DVD.

The following steps need to be undertaken to include the DUD into the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 Service Pack 3 installation DVD:

x86_64 systems:

1. download SLES-10-SP3-DVD-x86_64-GM-DVD1.iso
   
2. mkdir /tmp/SP3

3. mount -o loop SLES-10-SP3-DVD-x86_64-GM-DVD1.iso /tmp/SP3/

4. mkdir /tmp/SP3_new

5. cp -Rv /tmp/SP3/* /tmp/SP3_new

6. mkdir -p /tmp/initrd/tmp

7. cd /tmp/initrd

8. mv /tmp/SP3_new/boot/x86_64/loader/initrd /tmp/initrd/tmp/

9. download "nx_nic-4.0.516-1.src.rpm" file from the bulletin download link to "/tmp/initrd/"

10. Please execute the following on one line:

rpm2cpio nx_nic-4.0.516-1.src.rpm | cpio -idv; tar -zxvf nx_nic-4.0.516.tar.gz; cd tmp; gunzip < initrd | cpio -idv; cp ../nx_nic-4.0.516/bin/*bin lib/firmware/

(Note: you will end up in directory "/tmp/initrd/tmp/" please execute steps 11, 12 and 13 from that directory)

11. mkdir -p linux/suse/x86_64-sles10;
echo "UpdateName: Updated netxen_nic driver"> linux/suse/x86_64-sles10/dud.config
echo "UpdateID: netxen_nic">> linux/suse/x86_64-sles10/dud.config

12. rm initrd; find | cpio --quiet -o -Hnewc | gzip -c9 > ../initrd

13. cp ../initrd /tmp/SP3_new/boot/x86_64/loader/

14. download the driver update disk "netxen_nic-4.0.31-x86_64-dd-sles10-2.6.16.60-0.54.5.iso" from the download link on the bulletin to "/tmp/SP3_new/"

15. mv /tmp/SP3_new/netxen_nic-4.0.31-x86_64-dd-sles10-2.6.16.60-0.54.5.iso /tmp/SP3_new/driverupdate

16. cd /tmp/SP3_new/

17. mkisofs -r -o /tmp/SLES-10-SP3-DVD-x86_64-GM-DVD1 -b boot/x86_64/loader/isolinux.bin -c boot.cat -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table /tmp/SP3_new

18. burn the created SLES-10-SP3-DVD-x86_64-GM-DVD1.iso file created in "/tmp/" and try to install


i386 systems:

1. download SLES-10-SP3-DVD-i386-GM-DVD1.iso
   
2. mkdir /tmp/SP3

3. mount -o loop SLES-10-SP3-DVD-i386-GM-DVD1.iso /tmp/SP3/

4. mkdir /tmp/SP3_new

5. cp -Rv /tmp/SP3/* /tmp/SP3_new

6. mkdir -p /tmp/initrd/tmp

7. cd /tmp/initrd

8. mv /tmp/SP3_new/boot/i386/loader/initrd /tmp/initrd/tmp/

9. download "nx_nic-4.0.516-1.src.rpm" file from the bulletin download link to "/tmp/initrd/"

10. Please execute the following on one line:

rpm2cpio nx_nic-4.0.516-1.src.rpm | cpio -idv; tar -zxvf nx_nic-4.0.516.tar.gz; cd tmp; gunzip < initrd | cpio -idv; cp ../nx_nic-4.0.516/bin/*bin lib/firmware/

(Note: you will end up in directory "/tmp/initrd/tmp/" please execute steps 11, 12 and 13 from that directory)

11. mkdir -p linux/suse/i386-sles10;
echo "UpdateName: Updated netxen_nic driver"> linux/suse/i386-sles10/dud.config
echo "UpdateID: netxen_nic">> linux/suse/i386-sles10/dud.config

12. rm initrd; find | cpio --quiet -o -Hnewc | gzip -c9 > ../initrd

13. cp ../initrd /tmp/SP3_new/boot/i386/loader/

14. download the driver update disk "netxen_nic-4.0.31-i386-dd-sles10-2.6.16.60-0.54.5.iso" from the download link on the bulletin to "/tmp/SP3_new/"

15. mv /tmp/SP3_new/netxen_nic-4.0.31-i386-dd-sles10-2.6.16.60-0.54.5.iso /tmp/SP3_new/driverupdate

16. cd /tmp/SP3_new/

17. mkisofs -r -o /tmp/SLES-10-SP3-DVD-i386-GM-DVD1.iso -b boot/i386/loader/isolinux.bin -c boot.cat -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table /tmp/SP3_new

18. burn the created SLES-10-SP3-DVD-i386-GM-DVD1.iso file created in "/tmp/" and try to install


Note:

However in both cases you will still need to define "brokenmodules=netxen_nic" in the "boot options". But you will not need to select the DUD manually via F5.

If you want to get rid of any manual intervention you will need to copy the pre-compiled driver module into the initrd as well. This can be achieved by adding step 11.1 to the above instuctions:

For x86_64 systems:

11.1 mkdir /tmp/net_xen/
mount netxen_nic-4.0.31-x86_64-dd-sles10-2.6.16.60-0.54.5.iso to /tmp/net_xen/
rm /tmp/initrd/tmp/lib/modules/2.6.16.60-override-default/initrd/netxen_nic.ko
cp /tmp/net_xen/01/linux/suse/x86_64-sles10/modules/netxen_nic.ko /tmp/initrd/tmp/lib/modules/2.6.16.60-override-default/initrd/
chmod 644 /tmp/initrd/tmp/lib/modules/2.6.16.60-override-default/initrd/netxen_nic.ko



For i386 systems:

11.1 mkdir /tmp/net_xen/
mount netxen_nic-4.0.31-i386-dd-sles10-2.6.16.60-0.54.5.iso to /tmp/net_xen/
rm /tmp/initrd/tmp/lib/modules/2.6.16.60-override-default/initrd/netxen_nic.ko
cp /tmp/net_xen/01/linux/suse/i386-sles10/modules/netxen_nic.ko /tmp/initrd/tmp/lib/modules/2.6.16.60-override-default/initrd/
chmod 644 /tmp/initrd/tmp/lib/modules/2.6.16.60-override-default/initrd/netxen_nic.ko