[Pkg-ofed-devel] how to build MTHCA IB driver into 2.6.28 kernel

[Toru Nishimura]

>> Q. How can I merge 1.4.2 kernel side IB codes into stock
>> Linux kernel source tree?   Just copy and replace kernel
>> source subtree with the corresponding ofa-kernel-source,
>> and them "make menuconfig && make"?
>
> Unfortunately the ofa-kernel build process is rather more complicated
> than that.  The source tree gets patched with a number of patches

Ok, that's my understanding.

> What version is your kernel based on?

2.6.28 fetched from DENX.de git repository.

> OFED 1.4.2 supports up to kernel
> 2.6.26; if you have a later kernel version, you will run into difficulties.

I had a hardship to run stock OFED-1.4 install.pl (awesome, frankly)
against openSUSE11.1 2.6.26-2 kernel source set.

> The stock linux kernel contains some, but not all, of the  infiniband
> modules present in OFED,

I'm aware of it's a rather blunt way, though, I've running 2.6.28-denx
kernel in "as is" base, and so far "seems working well for us"
condition is met.  I made mpi2test aginst several MPI packages
and are collecting reasonable results.

> so you may be able to get away with not having
> to rebuild everything. However, you may find that you are missing some
> feature and protocols available in OFED.

Ok, got the point.

> If you are using a 2.6.26 based kernel, you should be able to build the
> kernel modules following the procedure here.
> 
> http://pkg-ofed.alioth.debian.org/howto/infiniband-howto-3.html
> 
> You can use module-assistant to build against customised kernels.
> To build against your custom kernel, call module-assistant with:
> 
> module-assistant -t -k /path/to/kernel-source build ofa-kernel.
> 
> However, before you do that, you will need to add a configure section
> in the rules  file for the PPC32 architecture (~line 85 in the
> ofa-kernel rules file).

Thank for for the detailed instruction; it'd be a reliefing help for us.

BTW, did you fix the source tree in svn://svn.debian.org/pkg-ofed/ ?

Toru Nishimura / ALKYL Technology