kernel configuration

[danielibarnes]

I have a few kernel configuration requests which would make the kernel more VMware friendly.
1) The pcnet32 driver is not compiled as a module. This means I cannot remove it and install the paravirtualized vmxnet network driver.
2) The LSI Logic driver is not enabled. I'd like to have an extension with the LSI drivers, but even if I create one it cannot be loaded.

Currently, I make these and other modifications then release a "VMware-optimized" iso image, but there are a few things which could make the default setup significantly more usable without making it larger. I realize 3.0 is probably the next opportunity for these changes, but I wanted to get the idea out for discussion early.

Thanks,
Daniel

[^thehatsrule^]

1) It is a module in 2.x
2) iirc, the LSI ones were rather large (or was it the other way around with buslogic)

[danielibarnes]

Thanks for the quick response.

1) You are correct. I must have been looking at 1.4.3 by mistake. I'm glad you pointed that out.

2) The LSI modules are a bit large at 32.2K (compressed) compared to the BusLogic driver (16.2K), but scsi_transport_fc can't be loaded because "Device Drivers --> Fusion MPT device support" is not enabled in the kernel. The scsi_transport_sas and scsi_transport_spi modules will load, but it appears that the scsi_transport_fc module is necessary for the VMware LSI controller to be detected.

The error message is "FATAL: Error inserting scsi_transport_fc (/lib/modules/2.6.29.1-tinycore/kernel/drivers/scsi/scsi_transport_fc.ko.gz): Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)."

dmesg reports: "scsi_transport_fc: Unknown symbol scsi_nl_sock"

As far as I can tell, five settings change when "Fusion MPT device support" is enabled:

CONFIG_SCSI_NETLINK=y
CONFIG_SCSI_SPI_ATTRS=m
CONFIG_SCSI_FC_ATTRS=m
CONFIG_FUSION=y
CONFIG_FUSION_MAX_SGE=128

and four more when you build the individual drivers as modules:

CONFIG_SCSI_SAS_ATTRS=m
CONFIG_FUSION_SPI=m
CONFIG_FUSION_FC=m
CONFIG_FUSION_SAS=m

I confirmed this on microcore 2.1.

Regards,
Daniel

[^thehatsrule^]

I think, currently, 2.x has sata and ide drivers but no 'specific' scsi hw drivers in the base.

Would there be a problem in making an module extension for these?  (Then any user could remaster should it be required upon boot, at least more easily)

[danielibarnes]

It took some effort, but I figured it out. It is sometimes hard to tell if something is wrong, or if I am just doing it wrong. In this case, I wasn't loading the modules properly and so I thought that the kernel configuration option was somehow causing an unknown symbol.

I proved my error:
1) Boot from standard microcore_2.1
2) Copy all of the modules (I accidentally left some out before) into /lib/modules/2.6.29.1-tinycore/kernel/drivers:
message/fusion/mptbase
message/fusion/mptfc
message/fusion/mptsas
message/fusion/mptscsih
message/fusion/mptspi
scsi/scsi_transport_fc
scsi/scsi_transport_sas
scsi/scsi_transport_spi
3) depmod -a
4) modprobe mptspi (I wasn't loading the right one at first)

My apologies, I usually make really certain I understand the problem before I post so I don't sound stupid. This was an exception. Thanks for the patience.

I'll put these and the BusLogic module together into a small extension for 2.x VMware users.

[Vegeta]

i installed tc in VM,HD use IDE mode.