Fixing the Imaging Problem on Serial ATA Drives

Novell Cool Solutions: Feature
By Kristoffer Bjork

Digg This - Slashdot This Posted: 2 Oct 2003

ZENworks Imaging hangs when booted on a Serial ATA equipped Dell GX270. Let's fix it! We recently got a bunch of Dell gx270's with serial ATA drives in them, and we ran into the same problem as the rest of you guys. The bootcd hung after the "Loading Kernel" message.

So I decided to fix it, and I did (sort of anyway).

The problem is that the 2.4.18 kernel shipped with ZENworks imaging 4.x doesn't support the Intel Serial ATA controller.

Support for this controller will be added into the 2.6.x series of the linux kernel. But I found out that Alan Cox added the driver into his 2.4.21-ac4 patch and later.

So what you need to do is the following.

1. Install a Linux box. (get a distro that you are comfortable with).
2. Download the following file to /usr/src
   "cd /usr/src && wget
   http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.4/linux-2.4.21.tar.bz2"
3. Unpack the source: "tar xvfj linux-2.4.21.tar.bz2"
4. Enter the directory that's been created: "cd linux-2.4.21"
5. Download the 2.4.21-ac4 patch. "wget http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/alan/linux-2.4/2.4.21/patch-2.4.21-ac4.bz2"
6. Uncompress the patch: "bunzip2 patch-2.4.21-ac4.bz2"
7. Download the novell zenworks kernel patch: "wget http://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/zenworks/assets/zfdimgkrnlpatch-2.4.18-4.0-p1.tgz"
8. Unpack the file: "tar xvfz zfdimgkrnlpatch-2.4.18-4.0-p1.tgz"
9. Change kernel version in the patch: "sed 's/2.4.18/2.4.21/' <zenpatch-2.4.18-4.0-p1.patch > zenpatch-2.4.21.patch"
10. Apply the patches:
    "patch -p0 < zenpatch-2.4.21.patch"
    "patch -p1 < patch-2.4.21-ac4"
11. And then configure the kernel. "make menuconfig"
12. You can disable math emulation (every computer you wanna use got a fpu).
13. The Intel Serial ATA driver is located under SCSI -> Low level drivers (or something similar). Make sure you compile it into the kernel and not as a module (the box looks like [*] and NOT like [M]).
14. Do any other changes you like ( I added all the NIC drivers available).
15. Exit and save configuration.
16. Run this "make dep && make bzImage"
17. If that worked ok, then do the modules. "make modules modules_install"
18. And then follow the instructions in http://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/zenworks/resources_4.html for making a new bootcd.

(The docs are located under "Linux Imaging Environment Customization Resources").

If you have any questions you may contact Kristoffer at kristoffer@techcrew.net

Reader Comments

• Good resources, but I fear anyone capable of following these directions aproblematically is enough of a Linux hacker that they wouldn't need the terse directions given. The glib "Install a Linux box" and "configure the kernel" are examples of what I mean. Choosing install packages and "make menuconfig" are not for the faint-of-heart...
• This is a mostly useless fix, seriously, Novell should be supplying a new ZenWorks CD that supports SATA for those who do not know Unix. For those who have used or do use Linux on a regular basis, you really only need to know one thing, the kernel version number and possibly where to get the "zenworks patch" which is really probably some sort of /dev pointer patch. For someone who knows Linux, hearing this from a co-worker, made me laugh. I told him to just bring me the disk and send me the link for this article just too see what Novell thought the procedure was. If your not so faint of heart, you could also just create the SATA support as a module, put it on a floppy and load after booting the ZenWorks cd.
• If there is going to be this much detail about building the kernel, there should be more detail on building the images.
• I disagree with the other comment about glib instructions. These instructions are about as step by step as a real Network Admin should need. From step 2 onwards they are as detailed as possible. Most importantly, they WORK!! ;-) I suppose that if you don't know what to do to "Install a Linux box" then you will not know what ;-) means either!!

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