kernel level ip-config and nic driver as a module

[Antti Vanne]

Hi, 

I'm building my second beowulf cluster and ran into trouble with 3com 
940 network interface chip that is embedded in the mobo. DHCP works 
fine, client gets IP, but tftp won't load the pxelinux.0, it tries twice 
(according to the in.tftpd's log), but the client doesn't try to look 
for pxelinux.cfg/C0... config files. I have one similar setup working 
using the Intel e1000, and according to 
http://syslinux.zytor.com/hardware.php there's been trouble with 3com 
cards, so I figure the fault is not in the config but in the network 
chip. 

The best option would be PXE (anyone have a working pxe setup 
with 3c940?), but since it seems impossible, I'm trying to boot 
clients from floppy and use nfsroot: however the driver for 3c940 is 
available (from www.asus.com) only as kernel module, and 
unfortunately kernel runs ip-config before loading the module from 
initrd?!? How is this fixed? I'm not really a kernel hacker, obviously 
one could browse the kernel source and look for ip-config and module 
loading, but isn't there any easier way to change the boot sequence so 
that network module would be loaded before running ip-config? Any help 
would be greatly appreciated. If there is no easy way to change the 
order, what would be the next thing to do? Have minimal root 
filesystem on the floppy and then nfs-mount /usr etc. from the server? 


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