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Installing the Red Hat Linux Driver

Dell™ PowerEdge™ Expandable RAID Controller 4/Di Operating System Driver Installation Guide

  Installing the Driver (MegaRAID) under Red Hat Linux 8.x, 7.3, and Advanced Server 2.1

  Installing the Default Driver from CD for Red Hat Linux 8.x

  Installing Red Hat Linux 7.3 and Advanced Server 2.1 with a Newly Available Driver instead of the Default Driver on the Distribution CDs

  Updating the Red Hat Linux Driver on a System Containing Older Versions of the Driver


Installing the Driver (MegaRAID) under Red Hat Linux 8.x, 7.3, and Advanced Server 2.1

The following sections contain installation information for Red Hat Linux 8.x, 7.3, Advanced Server 2.1, and older versions of the driver. You can install the Linux 8.x driver from the Dell™ OpenManage™ Server Assistant® CD. The Red Hat Linux 7.3 driver must be installed using a "linux dd" option, which means using a driver update diskette.

NOTE: The installation steps are the same for Red Hat Linux 7.3 and Advanced Server 2.1.

Installing the Default Driver from CD for Red Hat Linux 8.x

Red Hat Linux 8.x detects PERC controllers as MegaRAID. During Red Hat Linux 8.x installation, the PERC 4/Di controllers are automatically detected and the proper driver installed. Refer to Red Hat Linux documentation for the normal installation steps.

If you add a PERC 4/Di controller to an existing Red Hat Linux 8.x system, the PERC 4/Di controller is automatically detected as MegaRAID and the proper driver installed after confirmation.

Installing Red Hat Linux 7.3 and Advanced Server 2.1 with a Newly Available Driver instead of the Default Driver on the Distribution CDs

It is possible to update the default driver that comes on the Red Hat Linux distribution CD. This is recommended because the driver evolves separately from the Red Hat Linux releases and is often available with more features and bug fixes than the one on the distribution CDs.

The candidate driver for update during installation is packaged specially for this purpose. In Red Hat Linux terms, this package is called the driver update diskette. One important point about these packages is that they are released for a particular kernel, usually one that comes with the public releases of the Red Hat Linux Distributions and the Dell version of Red Hat Linux distributions (SBEs).

Perform the following steps to update the driver while installing Red Hat Linux 7.3 and Advanced Server 2.1.

  1. Boot from the Dell™ OpenManage™ Server Assistant® CD.

  2. At the LILO prompt, enter:

LILO: linux dd

or

LILO: linux dd text [for installation in text mode and for the update driver]

  1. At the prompt, insert the driver update diskette.

The framework automatically loads the new driver for installation and subsequent use.

NOTE: This method is valid beginning with Red Hat Linux distribution release 7.x. For older releases, enter `expert' instead of `linux dd' at the LILO prompt.
  1. Toward the end of installation, on the Create Bootdisk screen, press <Ctrl> <Alt> <F2> at the prompt.

  2. Type:

# chroot /mnt/sysimage

# /sbin/mkinitrd /boot/initrd-2.4.7-10.img 2.4.7-10 -f

# sync

  1. If you have installed LILO bootloader, type:

# /sbin/lilo

# exit

  1. Press <Ctrl> <Alt> <F7> to get to the installation screen.

  2. Finish the installation process.

Updating the Red Hat Linux Driver on a System Containing Older Versions of the Driver

These driver updates are available as Red Hat's RPM format files. Because the updates require more functionality than is available with the RPM, this package is released with a wrapper script. This wrapper script works in different modes, depending on the user expertise level.

In the novice mode, for example, the script installs the driver, make a new initrd image and modifies the /etc/lilo.conf file to show all the changes. Similarly, the script has intermediate and expert levels. The details of the script functionality are provided with the script itself. A session with this script starts with invoking it and following the prompts.

Please read all restrictions and disclaimers.

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