Hello ,

We are in the process of testing our customised Linux based on SLES 10 SP1, onto a new system.

Initially the installation got failed at the start giving following error :

"Could not find the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 Installation CD.
Activating Manual setup program."

We tried few options in the Manual Setup but it seems the installation image is not getting read.

We tested the same installation with downloaded SELS 10 SP2 and the installation got through.

Now clearly there is something missing in our customised initird which is present in SLES 10 SP2.
I understand that we will have to created a new initrd which matches the initrd of SLES 10 SP2.
Now how do I point out the difference and incorporate the same in new initrd?
Can you please guide me in right direction and then I will take over from there ?


Thanx,
Admin

An initrd is about kernel modules and initial root.

So the kernel mounts it on / and then has access to /lib/modules/whatever to grab what modules it wants. The big one is the filesystem type for your / drive. Also Sata/pata/ide/scsi, & generic chipset stuff. Then it can mount your root drive on / (Making the initrd invisible) and have the real thing.

Not sure your problem is in the initrd. What have you on the kernel command line? Look at the Suse one & copy it. Have you modules you need? Do they match the kernel?

How far did it get? Do I gather it loaded the cd, loaded the kernel, mounted the cd as root, finished init, and then ran setup and told you it didn't find the cd?

Hello,

could not get any messages in dmesg ...is empty. But, Yes I found following relevant messages in one of the terminals.

Looking for a SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 installation CD.
Ok that didnt work : see if we can activate another storage device.
No further storage devices found : giving up.
Automatic setup not possible.

Does it mean that the Linux installer failed to get the proper CDROM drivers for the CDROM drive in system?

For cross check, I tried with SLES 10 SP2 and found the following messages when CDROM gets detected properly.

Looking for a SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 installation CD.
disk : trying to mount /dev/sr0
disk: media found in /dev/sr0
disk : /dev/sr0 : mount ok.
:
:
Then the installation proceeds as normal.


One more information I would like to share here is the o/p of lsmod :

In working environment :

#lsmod

ide_cd 36128 0 - Live 0xf885600
cdrom 32416 2 sr_mod, ide_cd, Lice 0xf884d000

In non-working environment :

#lsmod

ide_cd 35872 0 Live 0xf885600
cdrom 32288 2 sr_mod, ide_cd, Live 0xf884d000

So yes , the system boots from installation cd and gives possible options to start the installation.
Then after selecting the installation option , I guess it goes to look for the installation media and it
failed to mount the cdrom itself.

Can we now conclude that its only the cdrom driver problem?
If yes then how do I find out the required drivers for this installation ?

Please suggest.

Thanks and Regards,
Sachin Holikar

So you are creating your own initrd? Are you comparing to an old initrd that worked? I'm surprised if it is an initrd, as initramfs has taken it's place...meant to anyways. If you building your own initramfs...keep it simple. Give your kernel the string of where to find the initramfs, then compile the kernel. then create the initramfs with mount proc sysfs and dev. create the new root and mount it. then use busybox's switch_root to overmount your rootfs(this is your root filesystem that runs in VFS). Do some googleing to as i'm not sure the exact details before the switch_root is preformed.

Thanx dman for reply but i now too think that initrd is not the problem.
Rather cdrom drivers could be the issue as described above by me. Did you read it ?

i read bits and pieces. my questions and suggestions are the same as business kids. i don't exactly understand how far your getting. if you can get the initramfs loaded, package it with busybox and use it's shell. see if you see a /dev/cdrom or whatever it could be called. also, see if you can grab the module form the working system and put it in your initramfs with insmod. you might also have to manually mkdev /dev/cdrom in it. you should question also if the controller/bus driver is a possible issue if the cdrom runs on it.

I would agree with your diagnosis.
I would like to see cdrom drivers compiled in to the kernel on an install cd. There also appears to be some difference between your cdrom modules
cdrom 32416 works
cdrom 32288 doesn't

Is the end missing? Different kernel version? I can't check here, because my cdrom on this box doesn't read & is unplugged. You can probably explode the SuSE initrd (some combination of gzip and cpio -d) and find the cdrom module in it, and try it in yours?