Slackware 13.0 Fusion MPT Kernel Panic

ColdSQL · 05-17-2010, 08:39 PM

Hi,
I am trying to install slackware 13 on a dell poweredge. However I am getting a kernel panic on the "Fusion MPT 3.04.07" driver. This is preventing the installer from detecting the SCSI hard drives.

I have been able to install sucessfully with 12.0.

Can anyone suggest how to fix this?

Richard Cranium · 05-17-2010, 08:44 PM

Which image did you select for the installer?

ColdSQL · 05-17-2010, 09:15 PM

Im not sure I understand what you mean by which image?

I downloaded slackware 13.0 iso and burnt to disk. When I tried to boot from these I got an error that the fusion mpt 3.04.07 driver is not working. Eventually the boot sequence continues to where I can run fdisk but fdisk cannot see the scsi hard drive. The same happens when I try to run setup. The hard drive is not found.

I then downloaded and tried the earlier versions of slackware and only the 12.0 slackware does not have this problem.

I have been able to partially get around this problem by recompiling the install cd kernel hugesmp on another machine and buring a new install cd with this kernel. This did allow me to boot up the installer, run fdisk and install from the cd's. However when I restart I get a kernel panic on loading the fusion mpt driver.

It seems I need to make an initrd but I no longer have easy access to the machine I built the kernel on.

Is there a way that I can take the initrd.img from the install cd and place it on the hard drive? I also cant seem to run the lilo or mkinitrd when I boot up using the slackware cd.

ColdSQL · 05-17-2010, 09:17 PM

Oh I get what you mean now. I have tried both the huge and hugesmp images that came with the slackware 13.0 cds. I was only able to boot up the setup system when I replaced with the recompiled kernel.

Richard Cranium · 05-17-2010, 10:23 PM

Oops. I missed that the scsi.s image no longer exists in 13.0. My bad.

Well, if you can boot with the install CD and see all of your drives then it's almost easy to generate an initrd.

First thing is to mount your installation root partition on /mnt. Then you should be able to look at /mnt/etc/fstab to mount the other partitions accordingly. Then run

Code:

chroot /mnt

, which will then allow you to run the mkinitrd command (it will be able to find the kernel modules and binaries that you installed). Make sure to specify the kernel that you want via the "-k" flag as well as checking lilo.conf prior to re-running lilo. (I've converted to grub, myself, so I won't be of much help with lilo.)

Then give the "exit" command to get out of the chroot and reboot. Hopefully, things will work now.

ColdSQL · 05-18-2010, 06:18 AM

Thankyou so much. That was the final piece of the puzzle I needed. Ill give that a try tonight and let you know if it worked.

Richard Cranium · 05-18-2010, 09:06 AM

Thank Eric Hameleers (also known as Alien Bob) for telling me about using the "chroot /mnt" command. See this too. According to that link, you will have to enter these commands...

Code:

mount -o bind /proc /mnt/proc
mount -o bind /sys /mnt/sys
mount -o bind /dev /mnt/dev
chroot /mnt

...instead of just "chroot /mnt". The stuff at the link was written for Slackware 12.0, but I believe that it would apply in your case.

ColdSQL · 05-18-2010, 05:16 PM

Actually all I needed was the "chroot /mntpoint" command. Once I did that I was able to rebuild the installed kernel and run lilo.

Turns out I did not need to make an initrd after all.

I still have a few problems with the new version but at least now I have a bootable system that I can work with.