User guide

Chapter 4. Driver Installation
44 3ware Serial ATA RAID Controller User Guide
Installing the 3ware Kernel Driver Module on a Red Hat
or Fedora Core Linux System that Boots From a
Different Device
The steps for installing the 3ware kernel driver module vary slightly,
depending on your specific installation requirements. Select the appropriate
set of steps below, based on whether:
• You want to update the RAM disk
• You prefer to load the driver manually or from a script, instead of
updating the RAM disk
About Variables In the Kernel Driver Module Installation
Instructions
These conventions are used for variable text for kernel strings and module
names in the instructions on the following pages.
Kernel String Conventions
<kernel string> refers to the kernel version.
The kernel string will have different endings, depending on the kernel you are
using.
• For an SMP kernel (multi-processor), the kernel string will end in smp.
For example:
2.6.16-smp.
• For an Enterprise kernel, the kernel string will end in enterprise. For
example:
2.6.16-enterprise
• For a Bigmem kernel, the kernel string will end in bigmem. For example:
2.6.16-bigmem
• For a Hugemem kernel, the kernel string will end in hugmem. For
example:
2.6.16-hugmem
Module Naming Conventions
3w-9xxx.* refers to the specific kernel driver module you will copy in the
examples shown in steps 3 and 4. The name of the kernel driver module you
will copy (
3w-9xxx.*) varies, depending on the kernel; however you will
always copy it to a file named
3w-9xxx.o for 2.4 kernels, or 3w-9xxx.ko for 2.6 kernels.
The available kernel driver module files are:
• For UP kernels:
3w-9xxx.ko
• For SMP kernels: 3w-9xxx.smp
• For Enterprise kernels: 3w-9xxx.ent