Updated CentOS 5.6 PXE / Netboot initrd image (x64)

So we got some new servers with the Adaptec 6405 RAID controller, and unfortunately due to the age of the CentOS kernel (2.6.18) it doesn’t support some newer hardware.  This is a pain in the ass when you are trying to do a PXE install on a server and it’s unable to find your install media.  Rather than futz around with copying modules here and there I decided to update the default CentOS 5.6 initrd image with the latest version of the driver compiled against the 2.6.18-238.el5 kernel and an updated pci.ids file.  That allows to kernel to detect the device as the one that comes with CentOS 5.6 does not have the pciid for the controller so it won’t be auto-detected without updating that file.

Installation is pretty simple, just download the initrd image place it with your other kernel and initrd files, and replace the existing initrd declaration in your bootloader configuration with it.

For example in our pxelinux.cfg,  “initrd /initrd-2.6.18-238.el5.img” becomes “initrd /updated_centos-5.6-x86_64-initrd.img”.

I’ve also put up a link to the aacraid.ko module if anybody is interested in that.

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