LinuxQuestions.org - a newbie trying to go further

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a newbie trying to go further (VMWARE_GSX & KERNEL)

I present you the problem i'd like to resolve:

I've got Suse9.2 but unfortunately I need to work on Windows every now and then. So I use the Vmware GSX server for this (and for testing net stuff & all).
Upon installing VmwareGSX I realised that it cannot run with the kernel(2.6.8-24-default) that comes with this distribution of SuSe, so i configured and compiled the kernel(2.6.4-52-default) on which it runs perfecly. Now, i've got GRUB with wich I can boot with one or the other. And 'till here all is OK.
What happens? GSX, unlike the Vmware Workstation, is a system service that loads at boot time. If I boot with the original kernel (2.6.8-24-default) it does not start up - which is OK - but on the next reboot with the 'older' kernel (2.6.4-52-default) with witch it should work it asks me to reconfigure vmware running the vmware-config.pl & I want to avoid this. I want to make sure that my GSXserver starts up ONLY with the working kernel and with nothing else.

Lots of words for a simple question: How do I restrict the startup of a system service (in my case it should be /etc/rc.d/vmware) depending on the kernel i am using? what file/variable tells me the version of my running kernel?

Thanks in advance,
Adam

I can help on the last question. To find out the current kernel version you can use

uname -r

uname has a few different options on what it can display to you. Not sure about the
vmware thing though as I don't use it.

Hope that helps.

Zack

Thanks, this is the first bit i was missing. With my ok kernel

Code:

uname -r

gives me: 2.6.4-52-default
This is exactly what i need.

So now i shoud construct a condition something like

If uname -r == "2.6.4-52-default" Then
...start up the service...
EndIf

As you can tell I don't know very well bash scripting... do you know the exact syntax to make this condition???

LINUX RULES!
adam

I resolved it and i post it for anyone who might have a similar problem to resolve.

Code:

#!/bin/sh

myKernelVersion=`uname -r`

if [ $myKernelVersion = "2.6.4-52-default" ]; then

        echo OK - starting sevice...

        #start vmware script

fi

exit 0

I also found where to insert this piece of code in order to make it work. The vmware GSX server has a script file in /etc/init.d/ called vmware. You can use this script to start/stop/restart the vmware service by issuing the commands:

Code:

/etc/init.d/vmware start

/etc/init.d/vmware stop

/etc/init.d/vmware restart

It is here (in my case @ line #813) that I inserted my code in order to start up the service only with the working kernel...here it goes:

Code:

# See how we were called.

case "$1" in

  start)

        #checking KERNEL VERSION -> ALLOW STARTUP ONLY FOR: "2.6.4-52-default"

        myKernelVersion=`uname -r`

        if [ $myKernelVersion != "2.6.4-52-default" ]; then

            echo JACK PROHIBITED TO RUN VMWARE SERVICE ON KERNEL: $myKernelVersion

            exit 1

        else

            echo STARTING TO RUN VMWARE SERVICE ON KERNEL: $myKernelVersion

        fi        

        #checking finished - the rest remains untouched

I don't know if this is the best way of doing it but I tested this and for me it works fine!
ciao a tutti!