I've successfully made Ubuntu boot on this hardware with kernel version 2.6.32-33-server
Note: <kernel version identifier> is whatever the folder name is in /lib/modules which corresponds to your target kernel. In my case this was 2.6.32-33-server. The issue with the dkms driver install path might be due to dkms improperly updating /lib/modules/<kernel version identifier>/modules.dep.bin. Updating this file and remaking the initrd.img allowed me to boot off my 3ware 9750 card. From start to finish here's what I did install new kernel and headers make 3w-sas module as described by rhardy on 08-19-2010 (above) For revisions after 2.6.32-25 dkms will load the kernel driver into updates/dkms disregarding any dkms.conf specification for using kernel/drivers/scsi for 3w-sas drivers, as was noted by rhardy on 10-24-2010. This appears to be due to be an intentional change based on the way ubuntu is supposed to handle these kinds of drivers. I can't find the link right now but that's essentially what I picked up from a dkms development related thread I came across. There are a number of manual interventions available at this point to circumvent this issue, the most straightforward involves leaving 3w-sas.ko where dkms installs it in updates/dkms, while rebuilding modules.dep.bin so that mkinitramfs will grab the 3w-sas.ko file from its default location and include it in the initrd.img file. make sure updates/dkms/3w-sas.ko: is in listed in /lib/modules/<kernel version identifier>/modules.dep. dkms should automatically have included it. To rebuild modules.dep.bin use depmod <kernel version identifier> The following should list your 3w-sas.ko driver if you've done everything correctly so far strings /lib/modules/<kernel version identifier>/modules.dep.bin | grep 3w back up old initrd.img, make new one, and install it: cp /boot/initrd.img-<kernel version identifier> /boot/initrd.img-<kernel version identifier>_bak mkinitramfs -o /boot/initrd.img-<kernel version identifier> This method worked for me using kernel 2.6.32-33-server. 2.6.32-34-server is missing a file present in prior revisions, namely /lib/modules/2.6.32-34-server/build/include/linux/bounds.h, which is required to build 3w-sas.ko correctly. It may work to simply copy bounds.h from the 2.6.32-33 headers to that location and try building against that for future revisions. For me doing so resulting in an error free 3w-sas build, and my system booted OK, but I reverted back to 2.6.32-33 rather than risk any potential stability issues with this hack. This is a suitable method for upgrading from one kernel revision to the next. If you don't have a working operating system when installing these drivers (for instance you reboot after a system update you didn't notice and now don't have the drivers to get back into a system that's running a new kernel) you will need to compile these drivers against the appropriate kernel headers and build an initrd file using a live CD. www.sysresccd.org has a gentoo based live cd (and live USB version) with a graphical interface (startx for KDE desktop) that includes 3w-sas drivers by default and can be used for this purpose. Once booted you can get a chroot environment in your disk array in order to download kernel headers, 3w-sas drivers, build the drivers and run depmod/mkinitramfs successfully. mount /dev/<ubuntu root device> <mntpt> mount -t proc none <mntpt>/proc mount --rbind /dev <mntpt>/dev chroot <mntpt> /bin/bash The one thing to watch out for is any query for the current kernel version (uname -a), since this information comes out of /proc that's tied to the current running kernel (i.e. the Live CD's kernel). For instance, 3w-sas's Makefile has a `uname -a`/sources call in it. Since uname -a will return the name of the current active kernel you may need to modify this Makefile and substitute <kernel version identifier>/build for `uname -a`/sources before building your drivers. I don't know if this will be an issue, since I haven't tried it, but it's something to watch out for. -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/607838 Title: 3w-sas driver To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/607838/+subscriptions -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs