Identify and Install Missing Drivers on an Install Target

The default installation might not include drivers for all devices on a client. In the AI manifest, you can request AI to do one or both of the following tasks:

• Scan a client for missing device drivers and install appropriate driver packages for that client.

• Install explicitly named driver packages on every client that uses this AI manifest.

Use the <add_drivers> tag to direct AI to do either of these tasks. In both cases, drivers are added to the boot environment first and are installed on the target later in the automated installation process. Adding missing drivers to the boot environment first gives AI access to all client devices during installation.

An AI manifest can specify no more than one <add_drivers> element. The <add_drivers> element can have one or both of the following elements:

• <software> – Optional. Use this element to specify sources and names for packages that are needed to perform the installation. All <software> elements specified in an <add_drivers> element must be specified before the <search_all> element.

  This <software> element includes a <source> element and a <software_data> element. The <source> element specification is affected by the <software_data> type value.

  The <software_data> element has a package type attribute and an action attribute.

  • type – Required. Possible values are P5I, SVR4, or DU. See Example 4-25, Example 4-26, and Example 4-27.

  • action – Optional. The value install is the default if action is not specified. The only other possible action is noinstall. If you set the action attribute to noinstall, the packages are not installed on the target device. The packages are still added to the boot environment and used to perform the installation.

• <search_all> – Optional. An AI manifest can specify no more than one <search_all> element. If a <search_all> element is specified, it must be specified after all <software> items that enumerate explicit driver packages.

  The <search_all> element directs AI to search the client for devices that currently have no driver in the booted install image. Any drivers that are found and that are not identified as third-party drivers are installed into the boot environment and later installed on the target device for this client.

  A third party driver in AI is a driver that is not found in the repository but is known to exist elsewhere, such as on a web site.

  If the optional addall attribute is set to true (see Example 4-24), any needed third-party drivers that are found are also added to the boot environment to be installed on the target. The default value of the addall attribute is false. If the addall attribute is omitted or is set to false, missing third-party drivers are not installed.

  The <search_all> element has an optional <source> element where you can specify a package repository to search for missing drivers. A <search_all> element can have no more than one <source> element. Only one publisher can be specified within a <search_all> element. The <source> element within a <search_all> element cannot have a <mirror> element.

  If the <search_all> element does not specify a <source> element, then the sources specified elsewhere in this AI manifest are used. The database for each repository identifies a driver as third-party or not.

If a missing driver is not found during a search, a warning is displayed but the install is attempted. If the install is successful, the system reboots if the AI manifest requests a reboot (auto_reboot="true").

If an explicitly specified driver package is not found, or a problem occurs during installation of any driver package (whether found by search or explicitly specified), that particular client installation completes and then displays a message about the missing driver and waits at a prompt. The system does not reboot automatically when the installation completes. This behavior provides the opportunity to evaluate the message and determine whether a reboot will succeed. If a reboot can succeed without the missing driver, you can reboot manually.

Example 4-24 Searching for Missing Drivers

The <search_all> element directs AI to search for devices that are missing their drivers and search a database for any needed drivers. This example specifies a repository to search for needed drivers. This example specifies addall="true" to install drivers that are identified in the database as third-party drivers, as well as drivers that are not identified as third-party drivers.

<add_drivers>
  <search_all addall="true">
    <source>
      <publisher name="example.com">
        <origin name="http://pkg.example.com/release"/>
      </publisher>
    </source>
  </search_all>
</add_drivers>

Example 4-25 Adding a Package Through a P5I File

This example adds an explicitly specified pkg(5) package given through a P5I file.

A P5I software data type has the following characteristics:

• The <software_data> element cannot have a <name> element.

• The name of the origin of the publisher includes the full path to the P5I file. (The P5I file contains the package name and repository.) The path can be to a local file or to an HTTP or FTP location.

<add_drivers>
  <software>
    <source>
      <publisher>
        <origin name="http://myserver.example.com/drivers/p5i/0/mydriver.p5i"/>
      </publisher>
    </source>
    <software_data type="P5I"/>
  </software>
</add_drivers>

Example 4-26 Adding an SVR4 Package

This example adds an explicitly specified SVR4 package. The full path name in the <origin> tag in the <source> element is the directory that contains the packages. The <name> tag in the <software_data> element is the name of the package. For local packages, this <name> can be the top level directory of a tree of package files, or <name> can be a datastream file. For remote packages, <name> is a datastream file.

This example demonstrates the noinstall action, though the noinstall action can be specified in any software_data tag. The noinstall action installs the package only in the booted environment. The package is available during installation but is not installed on the target device.

<add_drivers>
  <software>
    <source>
      <publisher>
        <origin name="/export/package_dir"/>
      </publisher>
    </source>
    <software_data type="SVR4" action="noinstall">
      <name>mydriver2.d</name>
    </software_data>
  </software>
</add_drivers>

Example 4-27 Adding an Image

This example adds an explicitly specified Driver Update (DU) or Install Time Update (ITU) image. If the image is local, the path name in the <origin> tag in the <source> element is the parent of the DU directory of the install image if the image is expanded. If the install image is not expanded, this path name is the name of the .iso image. If the image is remote, this path name is the full HTTP or FTP path to an image .iso file. All packages in the image will be added.

When the software data type is DU, the <software_data> element cannot have a <name> element.

<add_drivers>
  <software>
    <source>
      <publisher>
        <origin name="/export/duimages/mydriverDU"/>
      </publisher>
    </source>
    <software_data type="DU"/>
  </software>
</add_drivers>