Make a Custom Driver Disk (Oracle Linux 5, Update 9 or Oracle VM)

To make the driver disk for Oracle Linux 5, Update 9 or Oracle VM, you need to use the stock initrd that Red Hat provides (included in the .tar file). You can run a proprietary Oracle Virtual Networking tool named xg-insert-dd to inject specific information into the stock initrd. When the custom initrd is created and used as the server’s boot image, Oracle Linux 5, Update 9 servers boot up with the Oracle Virtual Networking vNIC and vHBA drivers included, and vNICs and vHBAs are loaded into the OS like any physical device.

1. Download xsigo-boot-5.0.7-LX.tar for XGboot from http://download.oracle.com/otn-pub/otn_software/xsigo/RHEL-5_0_7-LX.tgz.
2. Extract the downloaded tar file to a separate folder.

   The rhdd.img file will be part of the extracted files.

3. Copy the stock initrd.img that comes with the Red Hat distribution CD or Oracle Linux distribution CD image to the extracted folder.
4. Insert the Oracle Virtual Networking host drivers into the stock initrd.img.

   ./xg-insert-dd xsigo-rhdd-2.6.18-348.el5-5.0.7.LX-x86_64.img initrd.img

   When you run the proprietary tool xg-insert-dd, it opens the default initrd for editing, places the Oracle Virtual Networking host drivers inside, then repacks the initrd as a custom initrd with the prefix xsigo-initrd.img.

5. Make a PXE label on the PXE server by appending the following to the xsigo-initrd.img.

   Label   OEL5U9-LX507
   
       kernel   OEL5U9-vmlinuz-507LX
   
       append   initrd=xsigo-initrd-OEL5U9-5.0.7-LX.img network

6. Boot the server over an HCA.

   XGBoot finds a vNIC or vHBA by establishing an XSMP session with the Oracle Fabric Interconnect.

7. Give the PXE label at the PXE prompt, start the installation on the local disk, and reboot the server.
8. Install the host drivers either through Yum or manually.

   See Install Host Drivers (Manually) or Install Host Drivers (Yum).