Topic: Getting E-Smith to load the SCSI module at boot

[Rob Hillis]

Having now obtained a SCSI card that is RedHat 7 compatible, I'm now having trouble getting E-Smith to load the appropriate kernel module at boot.  Even after an upgrade from the CD, E-Smith simply doesn't load the kernel module at boot.  Using modprobe aic7xxx at the command line immediately and successfully loads the kernel module, and all is fine.

My interim solution (which I'm sure will cause gasps of horror) is to add the following line to rc.sysinit....

action "Initialising SCSI controller:" modprobe aic7xxx

This succeeds in loading the controller at boot, but I'm sure it's not the best solution... in fact I'm sure it's *very* bad...

If someone has a cleaner solution, I'd be much obliged to hear from them....

[Charlie Brady]

Rob Hillis wrote:
>
> Having now obtained a SCSI card that is RedHat 7 compatible,
> I'm now having trouble getting E-Smith to load the
> appropriate kernel module at boot.
...
> If someone has a cleaner solution, I'd be much obliged to
> hear from them....

A line:

alias scsi_hostadapter aic7xxx

in /etc/modules.conf is what you want. This will cause that module to be autoloaded if ever you try to access a SCSI device.

You will probably find an existing "alias scsi_hostadapter ide_scsi" there - you can just replace that one. After you do, run "depmod -a".

Regards

Charlie

[Rob Hillis]

Charlie Brady wrote:

> > If someone has a cleaner solution, I'd be much obliged to
> > hear from them....
> A line:
> alias scsi_hostadapter aic7xxx
> in /etc/modules.conf is what you want. This will cause that
> module to be autoloaded if ever you try to access a SCSI
> device.

Unfortunately, this seems to break things - during bootup, I get a quick flash of what I think are unresolved references from a module referred to as /lib/scsi_mod.o, and the appropriate kernel module isn't loaded.

[Darrell May]

Rob Hillis wrote:
>
> Charlie Brady wrote:
>
> > > If someone has a cleaner solution, I'd be much obliged to
> > > hear from them....
> > A line:
> > alias scsi_hostadapter aic7xxx
> > in /etc/modules.conf is what you want. This will cause that
> > module to be autoloaded if ever you try to access a SCSI
> > device.
>
> Unfortunately, this seems to break things - during bootup, I
> get a quick flash of what I think are unresolved references
> from a module referred to as /lib/scsi_mod.o, and the
> appropriate kernel module isn't loaded.

You should have started with these two lines in /etc/modules.conf:

alias scsi_hostadapter ide-scsi
pre-install ide-scsi     modprobe ide-cd

and assuming you have an ide-cd, edited to be this:

alias scsi_hostadapter aic7xxx
pre-install aic7xxx     modprobe ide-cd

which states, before you install the scsi driver, check for an ide-cd and load it first.  If by chance you don't have an ide-cd, simply remove this line.

Regards,

Darrell

[Charlie Brady]

Darrell May wrote:

> alias scsi_hostadapter ide-scsi
> pre-install ide-scsi     modprobe ide-cd
>
> and assuming you have an ide-cd, edited to be this:
>
> alias scsi_hostadapter aic7xxx
> pre-install aic7xxx     modprobe ide-cd
>
> which states, before you install the scsi driver, check for
> an ide-cd and load it first.  If by chance you don't have an
> ide-cd, simply remove this line.

Actually Darrell, it doesn't matter whether he has an ide-cd, if he never loads the ide-scsi driver, that "pre-install" line won't have any effect. So it can safely be left in there.

Regards

Charlie

[Rob Hillis]

Charlie Brady wrote:

> > alias scsi_hostadapter ide-scsi
> > pre-install ide-scsi     modprobe ide-cd
> Actually Darrell, it doesn't matter whether he has an ide-cd,
> if he never loads the ide-scsi driver, that "pre-install"
> line won't have any effect. So it can safely be left in there.

Unfortunatley, it's not making any difference...  I'm still getting the scsi_mod errors, and the module fails to automatically load.  So far, the only way that's working is the rc.sysinit load...