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authorMartin Sivak <msivak@redhat.com>2009-12-17 15:59:43 +0100
committerMartin Sivak <msivak@redhat.com>2010-01-08 17:13:05 +0100
commit08d909dcbf3b2ae99d8b289ac349c82f36b23c17 (patch)
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parentf3ac4679659bbcd1125a8c6a62cc9c8333c34904 (diff)
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Add DriverDisc v3 documentation
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+Brief description of DriverDisc version 3
+==========================================
+
+For a new major release we decided to introduce a new version of DriverDisc
+feature to ensure the smoothest vendor and user experience possible. We had
+many reasons for it:
+
+- the old DD didn't support multiple architectures
+- the old DD wasn't particulary easy to create
+- the old DD had two copys of modules, one for anaconda and one for
+ instalation
+- the modules in old DD weren't checked for kernel version
+
+We also changed the feature internal code to enable some functionality that
+was missing from the old version. More about it below.
+
+Devices which can contain DDs
+-----------------------------
+
+The best place to save your DriverDisc to is USB flash device. We also support
+(or plan to) IDE and SATA block devices with or without partitions, DriverDisc
+image stored on block device, initrd overlay (see documentation below) and for
+special cases even network retrieval of DriverDisc image.
+
+What can be updated using DDs?
+------------------------------
+
+All drivers for block devices, which weren't used for retrieving DriverDiscs,
+the same applies also for network drivers eg. you cannot upgrade network
+driver for device, which was used prior the DriverDisc extraction.
+
+RPMs for installation. If the DriverDisc repo contains newer package, than the
+official repository, the newer package will get used.
+
+We also plan to support anaconda's updates.img placement on the DriverDisc to
+update stage2 behaviour of anaconda.
+
+Selecting DD manually
+---------------------
+
+There are two ways of triggering DD mode and loading updated drivers manually.
+
+The first is using 'dd=<location>' argument on the kernel command line during
+installation boot.
+
+Second way is by using only 'dd' argument on the command line and then using
+the TUI provided by anaconda to select DriverDisc's source location.
+
+Documentation for current release will provide more details as this wasn't
+changed.
+
+Automatic DriverDisc detection
+------------------------------
+
+Anaconda can be told to look for driverdisc automatically by using 'dlabel=on'
+kernel command line argument. This is enabled by default in Red Hat Enterprise
+Linux version of Anaconda.
+
+The DriverDisc has to be on partition or filesystem which has been labeled
+with 'oemdrv' label.
+
+
+DDv3 structure
+--------------
+
+The new DriverDisc format uses simple layout which can be created on top of
+any anaconda's supported filesystem (vfat, squashfs, ext2 and ext3).
+
+/
+|rhdd3 - DD marker, contains the DD's description string
+/rpms
+| /i386 - contains RPMs for this arch and acts as Yum repo
+| /i586
+| /x86_64
+| /ppc
+| /... - any other architecture the DD provides drivers for
+
+There is a special requirement for the RPMs used to update drivers. Anaconda
+picks up only RPMs which provide kernel-modules-<running kernel version>.
+
+Initrd overlay driverdisc image
+-------------------------------
+
+We have designed another possible way of providing updates in network boot
+environments. It is possible to update all modules this way, so if special
+storage module (which gets used early) needs to be updated, this is the
+preffered way.
+
+This kind of driverdisc image is applied over the standard initrd and so has
+to respect some rules.
+
+- All updated modules belong to /lib/modules/<kernel version>/.. according to
+ their usual location
+- All new modules belong to /tmp/DD/lib/modules
+- All new firmware files belong to /tmp/DD/lib/firmware
+- The rpm repo with updated packages belongs to /tmp/DD-initrd/
+- The (empty) trigger file /.rundepmod must be present
+
+Firmware and module update
+--------------------------
+
+The firmware files together with all .ko files from the RPMs are exploded to
+special module location, which has preference over built-in Anaconda modules.
+
+Anaconda doesn't use built-in modules (except some storage modules needed for
+the DD to function properly) during the DriverDisc mode, so even in case when
+you are updating some modules with second (or later) DriverDisc, the updated
+modules will be loaded. There is one exception though, if your module depends
+on a module which is only present in built-in module directory, that built-in
+module gets also loaded.
+
+Package installation
+--------------------
+
+It is also possible to include arbitrary packages on the DriverDisc media and
+mark them for installation. You just have to include the package name in the
+Yum repo for correct architecture and mark it as mandatory.
+
+
+Summary
+-------
+
+This new DriverDisc format should simplify the DD creation and usage a lot. We
+will gladly hear any comments as this is partially still work in progress.
+