The DiskNetboot image contains a product file that lists the network and storage drivers to be used for particular Point of Service terminal hardware types. The PXE boot routines use the driver internal to the network card to download the initrd.gz and linux files from the Branch Server. However, when the kernel is executed, it needs to find a working Linux network driver in order to download the actual image to be installed.
To find an optimal network driver, the Point of Service terminal first searches the product file for an entry that matches its Product ID. If none is found, the terminal cycles through various network drivers trying to find one that loads, which is not always successful. If your particular hardware is not in the product file and the terminal can’t find the correct driver by trial and error, you can add an entry for your hardware in the product file.
In Novell Linux Point of Service 9 SSP3, you can update the product file without having to rebuild the DiskNetboot image, using either a standalone utility or a new option for the xscr command.
The syntax for the posUpdateProductFile.sh standalone utility is:
posUpdateProductFile.sh path_and_image_name-version path_and_new_product_file
The syntax for the xscr command is:
xscr --update-product-file --image path_and_image_name-version --with path_and_new_product_file
Use these commands as follows:
Create or obtain an updated product file.
The product file that is contained within the DiskNetboot image is named IBMproduct. It is a text file that lists each Product ID (PID) and its corresponding network driver and, optionally, storage drivers.
The following excerpt is from the IBMproduct file that ships with Novell Linux Point of Service 9:
IBM46942X5 net=pcnet32 IBM4810X3X net=e100 storage=scsi_mod,sd_mod,libdata,sata_sil
You can add your own PID and driver entries to this file or you can create a new product file.
Save the new product file in a directory on the Administration Server.
On the Administration Server, run either posUpdateProductFile.sh or xscr with the --update-product-file option, providing the path and name of the DiskNetboot image and the path and name of the new product file as parameters.
The utilities do the following:
NOTE:The posUpdateProductFile.sh and xscr --update-product-file commands work only with bootable images (DiskNetboot, CDboot, or any images extended from them). User-customized images must contain “boot” as part of the image name.