[SOLVED] AIC94xx - Getting firmware into boot process

[fincoop]

Hello,

Have been struggling with this all day. Trying to do a new install. Disks are connected to AIC9410 controller and I have created several RAID arrays using MDADM. From the LiveDVD, the module aic94xx loads but does not see any of the disks, and I get an error about missing firmware in DMESG. I copy the firmware file into /lib/firmware, and restart the module, and I can see my drives and start my arrays.

However, even with the file in /lib/firmware, the system does not boot. I get a kernel panic and MDADM says it found 0 devices. My root drive is on an array, I think this is a circular dependency. I tried a genkernel image too but same result. I think it might be because the firmware file is not visible to the module at boot time.

I tried to create an initramfs that would contain both the module and the firmware along with mdadm and some other tools, but it seems very tricky to get a module into initramfs. I have followed the guide and have completed the init and gotten the other binaries like fdisk, mdadm, grep with dependent libraries in.

Thoughts?

Thanks!


*** SOLVED ***

When you are configuring the kernel, go to Device Drivers \ Generic Driver Options. There is a place to specify custom firmware blobs to be loaded INTO the kernel. That was all I had to do. Compile and load the new kernel, and voila!

[krinn]

i think the driver does 2 thing :
- activate your controller and disks
- use the fakeraid with the firmware

you should disable the fakeraid function, so you won't need the firmware (still if i'm not wrong thinking the firmware is only there for that)
because you'll endup with software raid anyway, and also because your card must be support to do fakeraid (i don't know if that one is support for that, must be wrote in the driver that handle fakeraid, lol can't even remember the name, dmraid or something like that)

Else for your initram check the cach0rr0 help about it : http://whitehathouston.com/documentation/gentoo/initramfs_howto.htm
its' for intel but sure could help you : https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-888520-highlight-.html

[fincoop]