[SOLVED] Install from Slack CD #1: Missing Firmware

HaroldWho · 08-18-2011, 02:30 PM

I was installing Slack 13.1 from from a CD set. Unfortunately my old box uses an Advansys SCSI card. The "huge" kernel has the advansys driver compiled in all right, but it then calls for the advansys firmware "mcode.bin," which is missing from the CD.

Result: bootup stalls here on a "requesting/not found" loop.

Short of pulling the SCSI card (not trivial on an old Dell OptiPlex), any other ideas?

business_kid · 08-19-2011, 10:53 AM

It's in the package kernel-firmware-2.6.37.6-noarch-2, according to my system.

Maybe download it from a mirror if it's not on the cd?

HaroldWho · 08-19-2011, 03:39 PM

Problen is that CD #1 is the boot CD; i.e., the one to boot from to begin the Slack install. When the boot process hangs the story is over.

I thought of a fix, which I'll try soon. I recompiled the 'huge' kernel *without* advansys support. Unloaded the iso to a r/w dir tree, replaced the huge kernel with my own, and rewrote the iso file. I'll burn a new CD #1 and try it soon.

business_kid · 08-20-2011, 04:28 AM

Get the mcode.bin on a usb or something. when it goes looking for that file, mount the usb on /lib/firmware :-D

janhe · 08-20-2011, 05:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HaroldWho

Problen is that CD #1 is the boot CD; i.e., the one to boot from to begin the Slack install. When the boot process hangs the story is over.

I thought of a fix, which I'll try soon. I recompiled the 'huge' kernel *without* advansys support. Unloaded the iso to a r/w dir tree, replaced the huge kernel with my own, and rewrote the iso file. I'll burn a new CD #1 and try it soon.

You can also put the firmware on the CD. That way you don't have to recompile the kernel.

Edit: Just in case, you can read how to burn the tree back to cd here:
http://slackware.osuosl.org/slackwar...nux/README.TXT
You can skip the part about splitting up the tree, just the mkisofs command should do.

HaroldWho · 08-22-2011, 01:44 PM

Thanks to all. By the time I read the rest of the responses I had recompiled the 'huge' kernel and reburned the CD. Worked without a hitch.

HaroldWho · 08-23-2011, 02:50 PM

As posted, a custom 'huge' kernel solved the problem.

However, I learned that that the 'missing' firmware was there all along (!), in /lib/firmware/advansys. So what happened? It seems the Advansys *module* advansys.ko "knows" where to find its firmware (see modinfo advansys). Apparently when the driver is compiled into the kernel the path to the firmware is lost.

I seem to remember that a long time ago the lp' driver needed to be a module and not compiled in, but I admit it's kind of fuzzy now.