SUSE FCoE
Bootable Driver Kit

NOTE: This driver kit has been superseded by version 3.0 which addresses additional issues

Click here to access the 3.0 version -> suse_fcoe-sle11sp3-x86_64-3.0



version

2.0

details

This Bootable Driver Kit addresses the following issues with installing SUSE Linux Enterprise Server SP3 with Fibre Channel over Ethernet boot devices.

FCoE in UEFI mode

When installing SUSE Linux Enterprise Server SP3 in UEFI mode, with a bootable FCoE device inserted, boot from the installation media will cause grub2 to hang after 

Loading kernel ...
Secure boot not enabled
Loading initial ramdisk ...

An updated kernel is provided that fixes the issue.

FCoE timeout accessing boot device

On certain boot over FCoE setups the OS might fail to find the root disk right after the first boot.

This driver kit increases the link retry count of the Ethernet VLAN discovery to ensure all devices are up and discovered correctly during the bootup sequence before continuing to access the filesystems.

Updates to the installer as well as the open-fcoe and yast2-fcoe-client packages are provided to address the issue

platforms

  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Service Pack3

architectures

  • x86_64

media

Name Size MD5SUM Download
suse_fcoe-sle11sp3-x86_64-2.0-3.iso 411 MB 990e558a2267a64eda631c9dccfcdf75 download

installation

Media installation

  1. Burn the ISO image above to an empty CD/DVD media.
  2. Start the installation using the new CD/DVD media, having the standard SUSE Linux Enterprise media at hand or a URL to a network installation server.
    • If doing a network install, enter the URL of the network install source on the boot command line using the 'install=' option.
    • If doing installation from optical media the installer will first boot from the driver kit and then ask to insert CD1 of the SUSE Linux Enterprise product.
  3. An initrd containing updated drivers will be used for installation.

PXE boot installation

  1. Download the ISO image above.
  2. Mount the ISO image for access to the contents.
  3. Copy the kernel and initrd images from the driver kit iso image to the appropriate location on your tftp boot server. The initrd and kernel image are found under the ./install/boot/x86_64/loader directory. Download links for the kernel and initrd images can also be found in the table below.
  4. Copy the contents of the ISO image to a location on your installation server. (The /boot directory may be omitted)
  5. Add the URL of the driver kit location on the installation server to the boot command of the pxelinux config file using the 'addon=' option.
  6. An updated kernel will be used for installation and installed onto the system.

Example pxelinux config file section: 

# Install SLES 11 SP1 with Bootable Driver Kit
label install-bdk
kernel linux-bdk
append initrd=initrd-bdk splash=silent vga=0x314 showopts install=http://installserver/SLES-11-SP1-x86_64 addon=http://installserver/bdk
File Size MD5SUM Download
Kernel Image 3.76 MB 50235da82f06763608afbcc5a7f41617 linux
Initrd Image 35.0 MB c42e887b6b535acc2926ad0181d0fe25 initrd

package names and versions

The following packages are provided with this driver kit: