Centos 6 on r640 and building new kernel image

Issues related to configuring your network
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Shaggy1
Posts: 26
Joined: 2014/10/19 10:51:11

Centos 6 on r640 and building new kernel image

Post by Shaggy1 » 2019/05/16 11:51:25

Hi

I have been attempting to pxeboot a centos image from a DELL poweredge r640 with a Broadcom Limited BCM57416 NetXtreme-E 10GBASE-T RDMA NIC and have been unable to do so because, while the NIC itself is clearly working, the eth0 link is not coming up once anaconda is loaded.

No idea what the problem is, but figured must be some sort of driver issue for that NIC. Searching for related issues I came across this bug:
https://github.com/coreos/bugs/issues/2314
where the bnxt driver for this NIC is not being loaded.

Shot in the dark, but I'll try these questions anyway:
Has anyone pxebooted centos 6 from a DELL poweredge r640 with a BCM57416 nic and come accross this same issue ? And even know the solution ?
Does anyone know if the bug listed above is fixed in centos 6.10 ? (actually I'd like to install 6.8 or 6.9, but I guess 6.10 is more likely to have the fix)

--------------------------------------------

Given that the symptoms I was seeing suggested it was an issue with the NIC driver I thought I would see if I could build a new kernel with CONFIG_TCG_VTPM_PROXY=m included in the config, with the intention replacing the original image I am using with the newly built one.
Does anyone know if that in theory is possible ?
If it is possible would I also need to create a new initrd image, or could I use the existing one ?
Is there another way to include/add/load a driver module at install time ?

Not done this before, but found the site: https://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/Custom_Kernel and gave it a go.
Given that I am working on a machine with 6.8 I did the build for a 6.8 image.
Following the instructions on the site I fetched and installed the source, altered the config file by copying the one in /boot and adding CONFIG_TCG_VTPM_PROXY=m, and built the kernel which seemed to build ok.

I did the following to edit the config file:
cd ~/rpmbuild/BUILD/kernel-*/linux-*/
cp /boot/config-2.6.32-642.el6.x86_64 .config
add # x86_64 as first line of .config
add CONFIG_TCG_VTPM_PROXY=m to .config
cp .config configs/kernel-2.6.32-x86_64.config

When editing kernel.spec I did not change the buildid (I figured I should not do that if I wanted to use the built image as a replacement for the existing iso image)

I notice after the build has finished the config file in BUILD - ./BUILD/kernel-2.6.32-642.15.1.el6/linux-2.6.32-642.15.1.el6.x86_64/configs/kernel-2.6.32-x86_64.config bears no relation to the one created above.
Anyone know why this is ?
Does that mean it has been overwritten and my changes have not taken effect ?

When I do try to insert the new image (copied from ./BUILD/kernel-2.6.32-642.15.1.el6/linux-2.6.32-642.15.1.el6.x86_64/arch/x86_64/boot/bzImage) in to my pxe environment and try to boot from it I get a fatal error saying something like:
FATAL: Could not load: /lib/modules/2.6xxxxxx.debug/modules.dep
Surprised that there is a '.debug' extension on the path ? Any idea why the debug ?
Looks like an incompatible image. Maybe need to build compatible initrd ?

Notes:
iso used for pxe boot is CentOS-6.8-x86_64-bin-DVD1.iso
pxeboot of this from DELL r610 works fine

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TrevorH
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Re: Centos 6 on r640 and building new kernel image

Post by TrevorH » 2019/05/16 21:58:37

Isn't is a bit daft to install an operating system that only has less than 18 months of life left on a brand new machine?

That card is supported on CentOS 7 and works.

No-one should be using any CentOS 6 version other than 6.10. It is the latest and all other versions have numerous severe security vulnerabilities present and should not be used.
The future appears to be RHEL or Debian. I think I'm going Debian.
Info for USB installs on http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/InstallFromUSBkey
CentOS 5 and 6 are deadest, do not use them.
Use the FAQ Luke

Shaggy1
Posts: 26
Joined: 2014/10/19 10:51:11

Re: Centos 6 on r640 and building new kernel image

Post by Shaggy1 » 2019/05/17 11:45:24

> Isn't is a bit daft to install an operating system that only has less than 18 months of life left on a brand new machine?
Yes, but unfortunately my hands are tied on that front

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