HP EliteDesk 800 G1 - NIC problem

[kevintang]

Dear all,

I have new HP EliteDesk 800 G1 pc, it come with Intel I217-LM network card.

When I install CentOS 5.8, it cannot detect my NIC. After that, I download NIC driver from Intel, build it, and my NIC can work now.

My download file is e1000e-2.5.4.tar.gz. I can build it into RPM format.
But I want to know, how to make my download NIC driver into "driver update disk"?

Since I need to install many EliteDesk 800 pc with kickstart, and Kickstart does not allow me to use that tar.gz file during install.


Thank you
Kevin.

[TrevorH]

CentOS 5.8 is more than one year old but the i217 NIC is newer than one year.

Try with CentOS 5.10 which is the latest release.

[kevintang]

Dear TrevorH,

I test, CentOS 5.10 can use I217-LM NIC card, but in my environment, I only allow to use CentOS 5.8. Therefore, I must use CentOS 5.8 to install my PC.

In KickStart configuration, ks=xxxx, I can add an option "dd" and guide system load driver disk during installation.

Since I already download NIC driver from Intel, do you (or anyone) know how to use Intel driver to create Driver Disk?

Thank you
Kevin.

[TrevorH]

The correct solution for this is to use 5.10. You should request an exemption from your standards and policies people so that you can use the correct release. Not only does it have the correct driver for your hardware already included but it also has at least one year's worth of security patches and updates built in.

You could also look at ELRepo's kmod-e1000e (I think e1000e is the correct driver for that card but it might be kmod-igb). This would be much better than installing from source.

[kevintang]

Dear TrevorH,

Yes, your suggestion is correct. But in my environment, there is a system only support CentOS 5.8, if I install CentOS 5.9 or higher, it will have problem.

I can update OS kernel and other module after system install. But the "centos-release" package, I will keep it as original to make system like "CentOS 5.8".

Now, I am searching some method to make Kickstart install with CentOS 5.8. If I can do that, everything will be fine.

Thanks
Kevin.

[TrevorH]

I can update OS kernel and other module after system install. But the "centos-release" package, I will keep it as original to make system like "CentOS 5.8".

Hahahahahaha!

Ok, so if you can do that then install 5.10 and get everything working then download the centos-release package from vault.centos.org in the 5.8 directory and save it locally then use `yum downgrade /path/to/centos-release-5.8...rpm`.