IPMI kernel modules not loading - no ipmi device

Question

My HP ML110 G5 has a IPMI device that worked but somewhen (I can't say when) it stopped working.
Proof that they exist in th machine with dmidecode:
Handle 0x0025, DMI type 38, 18 bytes
IPMI Device Information
    Interface Type: KCS (Keyboard Control Style)
    Specification Version: 2.0
    I2C Slave Address: 0x10
    NV Storage Device: Not Present
    Base Address: 0x0000000000000CA2 (I/O)
    Register Spacing: Successive Byte Boundaries
I quite soon found out that the ipmi kernel modules are not loaded so I tried to load them with modprobe:
modprobe ipmi_msghandler
modprobe ipmi_devintf
modprobe ipmi_si
no error, no response, no modules loaded (check with lsmod).
There are descriptions (http://en.onoclea.com/bits/hp-microserver-remote-access-card-ipmi-on-linux.html, http://wiki.adamsweet.org/doku.php?id=ipmi_on_linux) how to load the ipmi_si module with manual parameters. Tried, no error, no response, no modules loaded (check with lsmod).

Answer 1

Zancarius wrote:
Sounds to me like the firmware for whatever reason isn't being installed in the appropriate location.
I checked out the PKGBUILD for b43-firmware (which I'm assuming is what you installed), and it appears to be using b43-fwcutter presumably to snag the appropriate files and place them in /usr/lib/firmware:
# Application
b43-fwcutter -w ""${pkgdir}"/usr/lib/firmware/" linux/wl_apsta.o
Does the PKGBUILD generate any errors? Did you check /usr/lib/firmware for the firmware for your wireless? Worst case, you could probably try running b43-fwcutter manually and see what it does. Maybe it has some verbose/debug option you could use, too.
The firmware is installed to the correct directory and the PKGBUILD doesn't generate any errors. I've tried b43-fwcutter manually as well to no avail. Even if that were the case though it doesn't explain why the new kernel also rejects the usbnet, ath9k, and b44 modules. Basically I'm stuck on this old(ish) kernel until this is fixed if I want any sort of network connectivity.
Xyne wrote:This is a long shot, but if you have a separate boot partition, check that it is actually mounted. If not, backup/remove the contents /boot, mount the partition and rebuild the kernel image
I do not have a separate boot partition on this machine. And the mtime of the initramfs images is certainly current.
Last edited by airencracken (2012-07-22 17:41:56)