preparing kernel for hba mode

descrdescr

we want to boot from usb, not the smart array controller which we are going to tune

problem is, the huge.s kernel doesn’t include the usb mass storage driver. instead, it usually gets loaded by the installer ramdisk.

so even if you wanted to rescue mount the usb stick from huge.s, that woudln’t work. one would need to use a ramdisk similar to the installer’s rc.usb script.

cd /tftpboot/slackware150/isolinux/
mkdir initrd/
cd initrd/
xz -dc ../initrd.img | cpio -id
cat etc/rc.d/rc.usb

this is why, here, we build a kernel with both, the HP Smart Array patch for hba mode and the usb mass storage drivers

install slackware on usb stickinstall slackware on usb stick

you’ve got a choice here, –either– you boot from usb stick1 (sda) to install slackware on usb stick2 (sdb) and then fix lilo to point root partition to sda2 instead of sdb2, after putting the right kernel in place –or– you use pxe and lilo will be fine already (since the installer will find a single usb stick as sda.

label slackware150 install console
    kernel slackware150/kernels/huge.s/bzImage
    append initrd=slackware150/isolinux/initrd.img vga=791

label slackware150 mount sda2 console
    kernel vmlinuz.hbamode
    append root=/dev/sda2 ro vga=791

so the only thing you will have to do is put the custom kernel and modules in place, and re-run lilo while pointing at it.

cd /tftpboot/
mkdir usb_stick/
touch usb_stick/NOT_MOUNTED
fsck.ext4 /dev/sdb2
mount /dev/sdb2 usb_stick/
cp vmlinuz.hbamode usb_stick/boot/
cp vmlinuz.hbamode.config usb_stick/boot/
tar xzf vmlinuz.hbamode.5.18.19.tar.gz -C usb_stick/lib/modules/
vi usb_stick/etc/lilo.conf

image = /boot/vmlinuz.hbamode
  root = /dev/sda2
  label = hbamode
  read-only

kernel buildkernel build

cd /usr/src/

git clone https://github.com/im-0/hpsahba.git
cp -f hpsahba/kernel/5.18-patchset-v2/*.patch ./

wget https://cdn.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v5.x/linux-5.18.19.tar.gz

tar xzf linux-5.18.19.tar.gz
cd linux-5.18.19/

for patch in ../*-scsi-hpsa-*.patch; do echo $patch; done; unset patch
for patch in ../*-scsi-hpsa-*.patch; do patch -p1 < $patch; done; unset patch

# see also https://lab.nethence.com/confdiff/
cp -f /boot/config-huge-5.15.193.x64 .config

grep CONFIG_SCSI_HPSA .config

sed -nr 's/^(CONFIG_USB_STORAGE.*)=m/\1=y/p' .config
sed -ri 's/^(CONFIG_USB_STORAGE.*)=m/\1=y/' .config
grep CONFIG_SCSI= .config
grep CONFIG_BLK_DEV_SD= .config

echo CONFIG_USB_UHCI_HCD=y >> .config
echo CONFIG_USB_EHCI_HCD=y >> .config
echo CONFIG_USB_XHCI_HCD=y >> .config

make olddefconfig

../build-light.bash

and deliver it e.g. on the pxe server

/tftpboot/vmlinuz.hbamode