Very Computer

Dear all,

The RH6.2 installation has been succesfull. Nevertheless, when I tried
to make my Xircom PCMCIA card working by trying to load the appropriate
modules I discovered that I have two entries /lib/modules/2.2.14-5.0 and
/lib/modules/2.2.5-15.

Trying 'uname -a' shows kernel version 2.2.5-15 while there aren't any
directories under this kernel version! Instead, the 2.2.14-5 dir has all
the appropriate directories including pcmcia. Is this correct or did
something go wrong during the install?? The RH source CD has only the
sources for kernel 2.2.14-5.0.
I just want to load the modules with 'insmod' but that's unsuccesful and
lsmod tells me that NOTHING is loaded by the kernel??

Any hints??
thanks,
-hans

Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.

Looks to me like you upgraded an old system? Are there any other entries
in the lilo.conf have you rerun lilo to make it aware of any changes?
What exactly fails when you try insmod?
The fact that lsmod reports nothing isn't uncommon. I hardly ever use
modules. I compile most stuff into the kernel.

Eric

For some reason, you appear to have the default Red Hat 6.0 kernel
installed as well as the Red Hat 6.2 one.  Have you performed an
upgrade, rather than a fresh installation?  If you do

  `rpm -qa | grep kernel'

what output do you get?

The PCMCIA modules are in the kernel-pcmcia-cs package, and they will
only work with a kernel of the same version.  If the 2.2.14-5 kernel
is installed, then check whether there is an entry for it in
/etc/lilo.conf (and chech that the kernel really is there in /boot ).
Run /sbin/lilo, and you should be able to boot from it form the LILO:
prompt by choosing the appropriate label (type TAB to get a list of
the options).  You will now be able to use your PCMCIA modules.

If the kernel is not installed, or if you're concerned about security
(and you should be), you should upgrade to the latest kernel.  Have a
look at the Red Hat support pages under security updates.

--

University of Cambridge, Zoology Department, Downing Street, CAMBRIDGE CB2 3EJ

When I run the rpm -qa | grep kernel command I get the following:

kernel-utils-2.2.14-5.0
kernel-pcmcia-cs-2.2.14-5.0
kernel-2.2.14-5.0
kernelcfg-2.2.14-5.0
kernel-headers-2.2.14-5.0

...this seems to have installed the right kernel for RH6.2. BTW, your
right I remember installing RH6.0 when I received my laptop and failed
since I did not have the right screen drivers for my Dell, waited two
weeks and bought the upgrade 6.2 which came with the new X server
upgrade supporting my 15inch TFT correctly.
Nevertheless, I would like to make sure that I'm using kernel 2.2.14 and
not the old one??

Lilo.conf seems to have the right entry as well;
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.2.15-5.0
and there is no other entry for the old kernel.

Running /sbin/lilo gives me;
Added linux *
and should now invoke the right kernel image? You should know that I do
run NT boot loader in order to invoke linux but this shouldn't matter
right?...still can't load those modules and I'm also not able to mount
any fat partitions as well; this seems to me a related problem where the
old kernel is still active (namely, /lib/modules/2.2.14-5.0/fs contains
the fs modules to access these partitions!)

Should I reinstall all of RH6.2 or just all kernel related rpms?
Or should I simply download the lastest kernel (2.2.16?) and recompile
and install a brand new one?

Thanks for your help!
Greetings from Amsterdam,
hans

Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.

Okay, so the RPM database thinks these packages have been installed.
It's possible that they are corrupted, though - `rpm -V kernel' will
tell you if the right files are indeed in the right place.

Quote:> Lilo.conf seems to have the right entry as well;
> image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.2.15-5.0

                      ^^^^^^
                      2.2.14, I presume?

Quote:> and there is no other entry for the old kernel.

> Running /sbin/lilo gives me;
> Added linux *

So, when you boot, it should load the 2.2.14 kernel.  What's the
output of uname -a now?

Quote:> You should know that I do run NT boot loader in order to invoke
> linux but this shouldn't matter right?

Correct, assuming that the NT bootloader points to the boot record
where lilo is installed (I don't know how it works, but I assume
that't it?)

Quote:> ...still can't load those modules and I'm also not able to mount
> any fat partitions as well; this seems to me a related problem where the
> old kernel is still active (namely, /lib/modules/2.2.14-5.0/fs contains
> the fs modules to access these partitions!)

If uname -a returns the 2.2.14 kernel, and you're having problems with
the modules, it might be because of the config file where the module
loader looks up which modules to load.

Quote:> Should I reinstall all of RH6.2 or just all kernel related rpms?
> Or should I simply download the lastest kernel (2.2.16?) and recompile
> and install a brand new one?

It sounds as though your kernel package installation is somehow
screwed up.  No need to reinstall all of RH6.2, though.  I wouldn't
recommend simply reinstalling the kernel packages either, unless
you're confident about what you're doing - some config. files were set
up to match your hardware when you installed, and it's possible that
these would be deleted or overwritten (*).

I would suggest that the best fix is to install the updated 2.2.16
kernel RPM's that you will find on the Red Hat support site - you just
need to download and install the RPM's, no need to recompile.  You
should do this anyway, for security reasons.  The announcement (in the
`security fixes' section) gives a link to how to perform this kernel
upgrade in a safe way.

If downloading these packages is too expensive or time consuming,
another option is to recompile the kernel from the sources you have
(though this does leave you open to the security holes that are fixed
in 2.2.16).  To do this, you will have to know about your hardware,
though it's quite likely that the default kernel config file that
ships with Red Hat will work.  The Red Hat documentation contains
instructions on how to recompile - follow them to the letter and you
should be safe.  The golden rule is to make sure that you have a
bootable kernel in /boot/ that also has an entry in /etc/lilo.conf,
and preferably one on a boot floppy too.

Good luck,
Stephen.

(*) When springcleaning a recent installation, I accidentally removed
the kernel-pcmcia-cs package.  No problem, I thought - the RPM file
was still on my hard disk, so all I had to do was reinstall it.
WRONG!  The deinstallation process had removed the file containing the
hardware configuration (and the flag that says that PCMCIA is allowed
to be used), and reinstallation of the files did not re-probe for
these values.  I had to enter the controller type, excluded IRQ's,
etc. by hand in order to get it working.
--

University of Cambridge, Zoology Department, Downing Street, CAMBRIDGE CB2 3EJ