I know this may seem long but I want to try to get as much detail in the hope that someone can help.

I have a problem trying to install SLES10 on an IA64 system. The server is headless so I use the following option to direct the console when launching the installer from EFI:

bootia64 -i initrd linux console=ttyS0,19200

Everything seems to go fine and I get through all the setup questions but after copying the files from CD1, the system reboots then cannot find the partitions anymore. I get this error:
*******************************************************
Loading qla2xQLogic Fibre Channel HBA Driver
xx
GSI 72 (level, low) -> CPU 0 (0x0000) vector 48
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:07:01.0[A] -> GSI 72 (level, low) -> IRQ 48
qla2xxx 0000:07:01.0: Found an ISP2312, irq 48, iobase 0xc0000000f8edf000
qla2xxx 0000:07:01.0: Configuring PCI space...
qla2xxx 0000:07:01.0: Configure NVRAM parameters...
qla2xxx 0000:07:01.0: Verifying loaded RISC code...
qla2xxx 0000:07:01.0: Firmware image unavailable.
qla2xxx 0000:07:01.0: Firmware images can be retrieved from: ftp://ftp.qlogic.c
m/outgoing/linux/firmware/.
qla2xxx 0000:07:01.0: Failed to initialize adapter
Trying to free free IRQ48
GSI 73 (level, low) -> CPU 1 (0x0100) vector 49
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:07:01.1[B] -> GSI 73 (level, low) -> IRQ 49
qla2xxx 0000:07:01.1: Found an ISP2312, irq 49, iobase 0xc0000000f8ede000
qla2xxx 0000:07:01.1: Configuring PCI space...
qla2xxx 0000:07:01.1: Configure NVRAM parameters...
qla2xxx 0000:07:01.1: Verifying loaded RISC code...
qla2xxx 0000:07:01.1: Firmware image unavailable.
qla2xxx 0000:07:01.1: Firmware images can be retrieved from: ftp://ftp.qlogic.c
m/outgoing/linux/firmware/.
qla2xxx 0000:07:01.1: Failed to initialize adapter
Trying to free free IRQ49
Loading processor
Loading thermal
Loading fan
Loading reiserfs
Waiting for device /dev/sda2 to appear: ..............................not found
-- exiting to /bin/sh
$
******************************************************
Since it fails to initialize the adapter, I can no longer see the storage and the installation fails.

Question I have is this, how do I load an updated driver? I know it is supposed to go to the installation menu and F5 should allow me to install but that does not happen. The closest I've gotten is to add driver but then I'm prompted to enter the device name. That is about as far as I get.

PLEASE HELP!!!!

Is the driver necessary for booting? Are you booting from san on this particular machine via fiber channel, or to a local hard disk, and then using the fiber channel for storage? If the fiber channel is not a necessity for booting, you should be able to install to local hard drive. You might want to try noscsi as a command line option if this is the case to have it skip loading the qla2xxx module.

(My current project is making our sgi altix boot from a fiber channel attached disk array that already exists and works with other x86 and x86_64 servers)

Thanks,
Michael

Unfortunately that is the boot device. This did not happen in SLES9SP3, just when moving to SLES10.

So is SLES 10 installed? Or is this for the installer cd? If it's installed, recreate your initrd, to include the firmware file you can get from ftp.qlogic.com/outgoing/linux/firmware/

Thanks,
Michael

No, SUSE is not installed yet at this point.

What is happening is this, when we put CD1 in to install, we get through the setup questions and are able to make our partitions (this tells me that the driver required for QLA23xx card is present and SUSE knows to use it), then start the installation. After it finishes with CD1, it loads teh bootloader and reboots. Normally what we have seen is that after the reboot, the installer re-launches and prompts for CD2. This is where our problem lies. After the first reboot (after CD1), the installer never relaunches because we get the failed to initialize adapter error mentioned in the prior post.

I've seen a driver posted on QLogic's website for SLES10 but have not had any success with it either. The problem with this is that we are working on a headless system and thus install via telnet so we never get the option "manual install" so that we can load this driver. For our installation purposes, we issue the following command in EFI to start the installation:
"bootia64 -i initrd linux console=ttyS0,19200"
After doing this, it takes us to the 'Language' screen bypassing everything else.

Again thanks for helping.
-Mike

(quick suggestion, try using "dd" as a kernel argument, similar to the redhat argument, also, at the language selection screen, try hitting f5, then yes, then the installation option, put in your driver disk (from qlogic.com), and then press enter, if this fails, try the below)

OK, this means that sles has at least copied a kernel to your system. Here's my recommendation:

Using another livecd (gentoo minimal for instance, though I might try anything, just whatever works for you), boot up. (gentoo livecd has the qla2xxx module). Once you're booted, first thing, get net up (ifconfig, etc), use links to go to ftp.qlogic.com/outgoing/linux/firmware and download the firmware for your card to /lib/firmware
Attempt to modprobe qla2xxx (this should work) (you might also try the sles rescue mode on the install cd to do the same thing)

Once you can mount the volume (sda for instance), mount it, and chroot into it.

You're going to first, download the firmware from the qlogic website again, then, remake your initrd, mkinitrd. This should put the firmware into the initrd.

Let me know if any of this helps.

Thanks,
Michael

Just curious if you got anywhere with this?

Michael

Sorry for not responding to the earlier post. It did help in troubleshooting the issue.

We have found a work around which consisted of the following:

booting into recovery mode, mounting both the root and /boot/efi partitions, reloading the QLA23xx drivers (downloaded from qlogic website), rebuilding the initrd file (making sure the modules load in the correct order), copying the new initrd to the /boot/efi partition, and lastly modifying the elilo to use the new initrd.

Once this was done, SLES10 booted up into the installation asking for CD2 as expected.

Hopefully this information will be useful for anyone else that encounters this or a similiar issue.

Thanks again for all the help, you led us in the right direction.
-Mike