Is it possible to load a device driver into an offline kernel?
 

I know that sounds crazy, but I can't figure this one out.

I loaded up a Red Hat EL 4 system, and using the dd Grub option, I was able to load my RAID drivers at install time.

Weeks later, required kernel updates appear after running up2date. Like the newbie I am, I accept them and move on. The next time I boot, the kernel panics. It seems the new kernel doesn't include the RAID drivers (ADPAHCI).

I ended up selecting the OLD kernel to get the system back up and running, but, of course, I need the new kernel to have the RAID driver drivers.

Is there a way to install the RAID driver into the kernel when it's not running?

If not, is there a way to prompt at boot time to load the a RAID driver (a la dd command)?

Thanks...

D.

Well, supplying the driver is compiled as a module, you would want to add the driver name to /etc/modules...but then you would have to worry about init-scripts loading at the proper time, and I don't even think they would work, assuming you may need the RAID driver to actually access the boot drive.

Alternately, you could compile the driver into the kernel, but that would mean you need to have the kernel sources available for compiling.

What’s generally used in this sort of thing is an initrd (initial ramdisk) which has the appropriate drivers for that small amount of time in between using the BIOS and using the kernel to handle RAID.

Perhaps your problem is a broken initrd, in which case you will have to remake it (making sure to specify RAID).