Hi there,

I am writing to you because I have a problem with installing Slackware 15.0.
My server has RAID controller HPE Smart Array E208i-a SR Gen10 - this controller use smartpqi driver.

After boot from slackware64-15.0-install-dvd there is no SSD disks visible.
So how to start smartpqi driver durging boot installation CD?
You are my last resort, please help me ...

Regards

Usually HP servers used the "cciss" (now obsolete) and "hpsa" kernel modules, this last one being already included in the kernel-huge used by the Slackware 15 installer.
Your raid controller seems quite new, and it needs the "smartpqi" driver as you already noticed, that is not included in the kernel-huge, but should be loadable by running "modprobe smartpqi" before you start the setup.

Thank you for help, but after - modprobe smartpqi - i get message:

modprobe: FATAL: Module smartpqi not found in directory /lib/modules/5.15.19

The problem is that smartpqi is not included with kernel 5.15.19 which comes with stock Slackare 15. However, it is present in kernel 5.15.27 which is provided as a "patch" (you can find it in directory patches/packages/linux-5.15.27 on Slackware 15 website). I suppose the easier way is to burn a Slackware-current iso (contains kernel 5.17.2 which has also smartpqi) and install from there!

I have just burn a Slackware-current iso (kernel 5.17.2) and there is still the same message:

modprobe: FATAL: Module smartpqi not found in directory /lib/modules/5.17.2

Please help...

I just tried a clean installation and i can confirm that the smartpqi module is non present in /lib/modules on the installation media.
This is how i workarounded it:
Boot the installation media (in my case an usb key /dev/sdb) and get to the root shell

At this point the smartpqi module should be loaded and you can proceed with the setup.
At the end of the setup you'll need to ensure the generated initrd contains the smartpqi module.

2 members found this post helpful.

Thank very much you for your help,
Last guestion - how at the end of the setup generate initrd (contains the smartpqi module) ?

I'm dealing with a similar situation in my toying around with updating old Slackware versions to run on new hardware. My solution is much more of a kludge, I suppose, and I'm certain far less elegant than ctrlaltca's solid recommendation. I just build a custom kernel with all the hardware support I need for a given system (with no initrd required or desired) and replace the one on the install media if not the iso itself. I haven't yet tried such shenanigans with v15.0, at least where I felt the need to disable "geninitrd" during install instead of just deleting all references in the installation, but it's looking like I may have to this week.

At least my method will get it installed where and how I want despite how hamfisted it may be.

Once you complete the installation, instead of rebooting, go back to a shell.
The /mnt directory is the base / directory of the new installation, so you need to
Now it would be like you're running on the new installed system. Running

will return a command to be used to generate the new initrd.
Ensure this command explicitly contains the "smartpqi" module, or add it on the "-m" parameter, eg:

Then run this command to generate the new initrd.
You'll then need to fix your bootloader (lilo, elilo, grub, ..) to ensure it will load the kernel-generic and the new initrd.gz