Topic: Problem with modules.conf after aborted install

[Graeme Fleming]

Hi all

Just installed a new system for a client using 6B3 but ran into a prob with modules.conf (system sits behind Netgear SPI firewall).

The system base install went to plan but on reboot I discovered that the onboard 3Com Gigabit NIC was unknown.  I aborted the setup routine so I could add a 2nd 10/100 NIC.  On reboot I went through the setup routine as normal and everything looked fine.  The system rebooted without any obvious errors or warnings (fast machine so perhaps I missed them) but I had no eth0 or eth1 and a manual try produced following the error (using ifup-eth0): Error at line 50 in modules.conf

An inspection of the message log revealed an this error message in several places.

On inspection I found that the aborted install had left the third last line of the file (line 50) with a remnant of the original detected hardware but the syntax was incorrect; the line was missing the word alias at the beginning.  I recall that the hardware being detected was a USB2 hub.

Just editing or deleting the line allowed the whole of the modules.conf file to be processed - the network failed to initialize as the alias line for eth0 & eth1 were the last two lines that were skipped due to the error.

Note: this 'bug' has been reported to Mitel but I fugured due to the changeover it may pay to report it here too; Mitel request ticket [TT#20031201016]

[Darrell May]

Hi Graeme,

I would consider this just what you stated.  An aborted install.

I would have recommended you not simply abort, install the second nic and reboot.  I would suggest correct procedure would be to complete the install with the driver unknown.  Then manually go in and install the appropriate 3Com Gigabit module, edit modules.conf and the SME db config directly and redo the configuration.

Alternately, abort the install.  Power down.  Install second nic.  Perform a fresh install (reformat) to remove the aborted remnants.  Configure the second nic but letting the fresh install finish with driver unknown or pick the closest match for the onboard 3Com Gigabit NIC.  Then manually go in and install the appropriate 3Com Gigabit module, edit modules.conf and the SME db config and redo the configuration.

As another option assuming you did not want to be bothered manually performing all the above.  Disable onboard nic, install second nic and perform a fresh install.

The only bug I can see is the default install did not recognize the 3Com Gigabit NIC.  Probably due to driver not available in RedHat 7.3 base or a newer rev of the driver is required.

How about searching for or building the appropriate driver and posting your 3Com Gigabit NIC contrib and HowTo.

Regards,

Darrell

[Graeme Fleming]

Hi Darrell

I appreciate your comments and agree with most however the option to compile a 3Com driver wasn't available to me as I was replacing failed hardware on-site and it all needed to be up ASAP.

My only issue is that when the configure script ran on first reboot it did not seem to recover gracefully when the process was interrupted; I assumed (perhaps naively) that if the process aborted then the config update scripts would not trigger and hence the base config files would remain intact.

It would seem that the config process modifies files on the acceptance of each screen rather than as a batch at the end of the full sequence.

Perhaps changing to the batch methodolgy would make the installation & config process a little more robust.

Either way its not a big issue but one I thought warranted a mention.

[Charlie Brady]

Graeme Fleming wrote:

> Just installed a new system for a client using 6B3 but ran
> into a prob with modules.conf (system sits behind Netgear SPI
> firewall).

AIUI, you installed 6b1, not 6b3. You hit a bug which has already been fixed.

> The system base install went to plan but on reboot I
> discovered that the onboard 3Com Gigabit NIC was unknown.

It probably works with the acenic driver. If so, please post the PCI bus ID values, so someone can patch the hwdata RPM (if RH/Fedora hasn't already done so).

Charlie