I've got a memory stick that I use to install systems. It's basically just has a simple isolinux setup on it that calls up the kickstart files from an http server and pulls down the distro via our online repo.
However, I'm trying to get a standard automated install like this on an IBM box which has a Broadcom NetXtreme 2 NIC that requires firmware to be there on bootup.
I've got the file, and I've added it into the directory that I think it should be in (/lib/firmware/bnx2) on the initrd.img. However, when the system boots, it identifies the NICs on one of the console screens, but borks and won't boot properly.
On console 1:
GRUB boots, I get menu, choose option. Kernel loads initrd.img loads anaconda starts loads usb-storage module borks with:
""" loader received SIGSEGV! Backtrace [0xf00bar] ... etc install exited normally [1/1] """
sends termination signals, unmounts everything, and halts ("You may safely reboot")
On console screen 3:
last few items are loading bnx2 module, insert module, remove usb-storge from modprobe.conf, and finally "getting kickstart file"
On screen 4:
detects storge devices and BNX2 NICs
It seems to be crapping out when it tries to do the network access, but I've got nothing more I can trace the problem with. There's no shell yet. So I can't figure out if I've put the firmware in the wrong place, given it the wrong permissions (dirs are 755 and .fw file is 644) but whether that even matters because the source files are on a FAT16 partition, I don't know. It could just not be loading it, or the file could be corrupt.
So how do I go about debugging this? Or am I doing it wrong?
Any advice or pointers greatly appreciated.
Thanks.