How can I automatically load kernel module?

I have installed SuSE Linux 10.0 on OldWorld PowerMac 7300 (PPC G3/300Mhz, RAM 272Mb, SCSI HDD 6Gb, SCSI CD-ROM) from CD and made it work. But I have two problems booting the system on this PowerMac.

Problem 1. After probing the hardware during installation, the kernel loads SCSI controller driver "mac53c94", but it does not load the MESH SCSI disks driver automatically (module called "mesh"). Without this driver, the installer (and the kernel) can see neither hard disks, nor CD-ROM. This module is definitely present in the initrd file and can be loaded manually using the installer menu. This is not a problem for installation, but it is a problem when booting into the installed system, since the kernel won't find the root file system on the SCSI HDD. Is it ever possible to force the kernel to load particular module automatically during boot (provided the module is present in the initrd file)? Maybe there are any kernel boot parameters for that purpose? The kernel used is 2.6.13-15.

Problem 2. Since during installation the kernel didn't load the "mesh" module (MESH PowerPC SCSI driver) automatically, this module was not inserted into the initrd file created during installation. As a result, the system won't boot at all with this initrd file, since the kernel does not recognize any SCSI disks and can not find the root file system. How can I make the installer to insert the particular kernel module into the initrd file? If it is not possible, how can I rebuild the initrd file so that it definitely contains the particular module?

Any ideas on this topic are highly appreciated.

Since you said any ideas would be appreciated, here is what I have to offer. It is instructions for installing the Dazuko kernel module for Klamav. I'm guessing that the basic steps are the same for any kernel module, but I don't know for sure.

Gary

Unofficial SUSE RPM

--Hawkeye 22:32, 11 December 2005 (PST)

Even easier... There's now an update for klamav-0.32 on the Guru web site for SUSE 10.0. This RPM installs files where SUSE expects, adds an icon to K Menu, and enables the "Scan with KlamAV..." right-click action in Konqueror. If dazuko is running, it also enables the KlamAV auto-scan feature. There are also packages for SUSE 9.3 or source code if you need to run 64-bit.

klamav-0.32 for SUSE 10.0

Or if you want YOU to inform you when there's a new release of klamav, just add the FTP package repository to your YaST sources.

SUSE YaST Installation Source
ftp://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/misc/suser-guru/rpm/9.3
ftp://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/misc/suser-guru/rpm/10.0

The RPM for SUSE 10.0 adds a dependency for km_dazuko, so it's added automatically when installing from YaST Package Manager (a.k.a. Software Management), but you'll still have to load it:

modprobe dazuko
lsmod | grep dazuko
modprobe capability
lsmod | grep capability
depmod -ae

By default, dazuko does not load during startup, so here's how to get it to load every time you boot:

yast2 sysconfig

Then select: System > Kernel > MODULES_LOADED_ON_BOOT and add the module names "dazuko capability" without quotes in this order, (use spaces for delimiters if you already have other modules listed). After boot, you can verify that it loaded with:

dmesg | grep dazuko

Originally posted by gary_lankford@Dec 28 2005, 10:05 PM
Since you said any ideas would be appreciated, here is what I have to offer.* It is instructions for installing the Dazuko kernel module for Klamav.* I'm guessing that the basic steps are the same for any kernel module, but I don't know for sure.

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Gary,

Thank you very much for the idea and the instructions. Your guess appeared to be quite right: the basic steps proposed in this instruction solved both problems. I launched "yast2 sysconfig&" and then added the MESH SCSI driver module (named "mesh") to two configuration variables: System > Kernel > INITRD_MODULES and System > Kernel > MODULES_LOADED_ON_BOOT. After I confrimed the changes, YaST launched mkinitrd, which created the correct initrd file and placed it in the /boot directory. The next SuSE Linux boot succeeded without any manual intervention.

As I said, your idea is highly appreciated. Thank you again.

Andrey Maksimov.