Debian VMXNET device

From AstroArch

To have the VMXNET device show up on boot of a Debian Etch system do the following:

  • Extract initrd image to a temp directory:
 cp /initrd.img ~/initrd.img.cpio.gz
 gunzip ~/initrd.img.cpio.gz
 mkdir ~/tmpspace
 cd ~/tmpspace
 cpio -i < ~/initrd.img.cpio
  • Copy the driver into the temp directory:
 cp /lib/modules/`uname -r`/misc/vmxnet.ko ~/tmpspace/lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/net/
  • Make a new initrd image
 cd ~/tmpspace
 find . | cpio -o -H newc | gzip -9 > ../newinitrd.gz
  • Backup the old initrd image
 mv /boot/initrd.img-`uname -r` /boot/initrd.img-`uname -r`.old
  • Use the new initrd image
 cp ~/newinitrd.gz /boot/initrd.img-`uname -r`
  • After a reboot dmesg shows:
 eth0: vmxnet ether at 0x1424 assigned IRQ 169.

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