This section provides instructions for installing, uninstalling, and updating the SUSE Drivers for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 on Xen.
Open a terminal.
Mount the driver pack ISO. Instructions for mounting the ISO are available in the Configuration Options and Settings Guide in Section 1.5: Virtual CD Drives and ISO Images.
(Optional) If you are installing from an RPM that you built, the RPM is located in /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/ arch , where arch is the architecture of the virtual machine. See Section 1.7.5, Building Your Own RPMs for more information.
Install the RPM.
Open a terminal.
Enter rpm -U xxx.rpm , where xxx is the RPM filename.
Edit the /boot/grub/menu.lst file and make the following changes:
Set the default= xxx (where xxx is the old boot entry) to default=0, which is the boot entry with the latest initrd.
For each drive specified in the virtual machine configuration file (for example, hda and hdb), append hdx=noprobe to the kernel line for the updated kernel, where hdx is the drive specification found in the virtual machine configuration file.
Shut down the virtual machine.
On the virtualization host server, open a terminal and enter xm delete vm_name to delete the virtual machine’s reference in xenstore so it is no longer managed.
HINT: Enter xm list to see the name of the virtual machine ( vm_name).
Open the virtual machine configuration file located on virtualization host server ( /etc/xen/vm/vm_cfgfile where vm_cfgfile is usually the same as the name of the virtual machine).
Remove all parameters from the vif= line except the mac=mac_address parameter. Make sure to leave the single quotes.
For example, change the line
vif=[ 'mac=00:16:3e:55:24:21,model=pcnet,type=ioemu', ]
to
vif=[ 'mac=00:16:3e:55:24:21', ]
At the terminal, enter xm new vm_cfgfile to reference the virtual machine in the xenstore so it is managed again.
Restart the virtual machine.
Open a terminal.
Enter rpm -e kmod-vmdp-rhel5- xxx , where xxx is the version of the installed driver pack.
HINT:Enter rpm -qa | grep vmdp to find out what you have installed.
Edit the /boot/grub/menu.lst and make the following changes:
Set the default= xxx (where xxx is the old boot entry) to default=0, which is the boot entry with the latest initrd.
Remove all hdx=noprobe entries from the kernel line.
Restart the virtual machine.
Open a terminal.
Mount the new driver pack ISO. Instructions for mounting the ISO are available in the Configuration Options and Settings Guide in Section 1.5: Virtual CD Drives and ISO Images.
(Optional) If you are installing from an RPM that you built, the RPM is located in /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/ arch , where arch is the architecture of the virtual machine. See Section 1.7.5, Building Your Own RPMs for more information.
Enter rpm -U xxx.rpm , where xxx is the name of the newer driver pack RPM.
Verify that the default kernel is the one with the latest initrd in the /boot/grub/menu.list.
Install the kernel.
IMPORTANT:Do not reboot the virtual machine.
Before rebooting the virtual machine, make sure all the following directories are present in /lib/modules/ xxx/weak-updates/vmdp (where xxx is the new kernel version):
blkfront
netfront
platform-pci
util
xenbus
If these files are not present, do the following:
Edit the /boot/grub/menu.lst file and remove all hdx=noprobe entries from the kernel line.
Restart the virtual machine.
Upgrade the driver pack (see Section 1.7.3, Upgrading the RHEL 5 Drivers).
Edit the /boot/grub/menu.lst file and make the following change:
For each drive specified in the virtual machine configuration file (for example, hda and hdb), append hdx=noprobe to the kernel line for the updated kernel, where hdx is the drive specification found in the virtual machine configuration file.
Reboot the virtual machine.
If you do not have a driver pack that is compatible with your Linux kernel, you can build your own SUSE Drivers for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 on Xen RPM.
Open a terminal.
Mount the driver pack ISO. Instructions for mounting the ISO are available in the Configuration Options and Settings Guide in Section 1.5: Virtual CD Drives and ISO Images.
Enter rpmbuild -–rebuild xxx.src.rpm , where xxx is the name for the source RPM. This creates a binary RPM in /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/ arch/ , where arch is the architecture of the virtual machine.