Cannot load firmware of qla2xxx in initrd while loading the kernel.

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Environment

Sles 11

Situation

The firmware for the qlogic 2312 cards would not load on boot up. The following error was presented:

qla2xxx 0000.08:05.0: Configure NVRAM parameters.
qla2xxx 0000.08:05.0: Verifying loaded RISC code ...
firmware: requesting ql2300_fw.bin
qla2xxx 0000.08:05.0: firmware image unavailable.
qla2xxx 0000.08:05.0: firmware images can be retrieved ...

This error was seen in the dmesg log. The firmware file that the driver was requesting, ql2300_fw.bin was in the correct directory: /lib/firmware. After the firmware failed to load, the boot would fail back to an initrd session, where the driver could be unloaded then reloaded. Upon reloading the driver by hand, the firmware loaded correctly. The command to make the initrd that was used was: mkinitrd -A.

It was found that if the initrd was created on a machine that did not have qlogic hardware, and then copied back to the machine that was having the problem, the firmware loaded correctly on boot.

Resolution

Sp1 for Sles11 had just been released, this fixed the issue.

Disclaimer

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