CheckOpenIPMIVersion blocking installation of Dell OMSA for a PE1850 Running Debian Etch with a 2.6-series kernel

[Jonathan Fox]

I have a few different PowerEdge servers in our datacenter. I'm using
a slightly tweaked version of the sara.nl dellomsa_5.2.0-2_i386.deb
(no serious changes). I have no problems getting everything started on
my 650's and 750's... but the init script prevents the OMSA engine
from starting correctly on my 1850's. Scroll down for the actual
error, but first, a bit of background info:

I've compiled a few relevant tools into my 2.6.19 kernel (built-in,
not as modules)

CONFIG_DCDBAS=y
CONFIG_IPMI_HANDLER=y
CONFIG_IPMI_DEVICE_INTERFACE=y
CONFIG_IPMI_SI=y

Relevant dmesg output on the 1850's looks a little like this (only
difference is that on the 650's and 750's, ipmi_si is unable to find
any System Interfaces, which is expected.)

ipmi message handler version 39.0
ipmi device interface
IPMI System Interface driver.
ipmi_si: Trying SMBIOS-specified KCS state machine at I/O address
0xca8, slave address 0x20, irq 0
ipmi: Found new BMC (man_id: 0x0002a2,  prod_id: 0x0000, dev_id: 0x20)
 IPMI KCS interface initialized
<...cut...>
dcdbas dcdbas: Dell Systems Management Base Driver (version 5.6.0-3.2)

Here are the versions of the supporting applications
# apt-show-versions | grep ipmi
ipmitool/etch uptodate 1.8.8-3
openipmi/etch uptodate 2.0.7-1
libopenipmi0/etch uptodate 2.0.7-1

So, without further adieu...

## Installation on the 750's ##

# dpkg -i dellomsa_5.2.0-3_i386.deb
Selecting previously deselected package dellomsa.
(Reading database ... 29911 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking dellomsa (from dellomsa_5.2.0-3_i386.deb) ...
Setting up dellomsa (5.2.0-3) ...
Checking that /etc/ld.so.conf contains required paths...
Adding to /etc/ld.so.conf: /opt/dell/srvadmin/dataeng/bin
Adding to /etc/ld.so.conf: /opt/dell/srvadmin/hapi/bin
Adding to /etc/ld.so.conf: /opt/dell/srvadmin/oma/bin
Adding to /etc/ld.so.conf: /opt/dell/srvadmin/omsa/bin
Adding to /etc/ld.so.conf: /opt/dell/srvadmin/shared/bin
Adding to /etc/ld.so.conf: /opt/dell/srvadmin/sm
Adding to /etc/ld.so.conf: /opt/dell/srvadmin/sm/dellvl
Loading kernel modules
Starting Systems Management Device Drivers:
dcdbas is built into the kernel
Starting Systems Management Data Engine:
Starting dsm_sa_datamgr32d: Already started
Starting dsm_sa_eventmgr32d: Already started
Starting dataengine
Starting Systems Management Data Engine:
Starting dsm_sa_datamgr32d: Already started
Starting dsm_sa_eventmgr32d: Already started

## Installation on the 1850's ##

# dpkg -i dellomsa_5.2.0-3_i386.deb
Selecting previously deselected package dellomsa.
(Reading database ... 47608 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking dellomsa (from dellomsa_5.2.0-3_i386.deb) ...
Setting up dellomsa (5.2.0-3) ...
Checking that /etc/ld.so.conf contains required paths...
Adding to /etc/ld.so.conf: /opt/dell/srvadmin/dataeng/bin
Adding to /etc/ld.so.conf: /opt/dell/srvadmin/hapi/bin
Adding to /etc/ld.so.conf: /opt/dell/srvadmin/oma/bin
Adding to /etc/ld.so.conf: /opt/dell/srvadmin/omsa/bin
Adding to /etc/ld.so.conf: /opt/dell/srvadmin/shared/bin
Adding to /etc/ld.so.conf: /opt/dell/srvadmin/sm
Adding to /etc/ld.so.conf: /opt/dell/srvadmin/sm/dellvl
Loading kernel modules
Starting Systems Management Device Drivers:
Starting ipmi driver:
Starting dataengine
Starting Systems Management Device Drivers:
Starting ipmi driver:
dpkg: error processing dellomsa (--install):
 subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 dellomsa

I notice it isn't recognizing that dcdbas is built into the kernel
anymore, and that it's failing on the ipmi driver. On boot, /dev/ipmi0
doesn't exist. Running `mknod /dev/ipmi0 c 254 0` creates it, and
`ipmitool chassis status` produces the desired output. I've edited
instsvcdrv to set VERBOSE_LOGGING=true, here's what running it gives:

# /etc/init.d/instsvcdrv start
instsvcdrv_oihapicfg_validate_addheader()
Starting Systems Management Device Drivers:
Starting ipmi driver: CheckOpenIPMIVersion: FAILED to determine OS
CheckOpenIPMIVersion: kernel version minimum is: 2.6.15
CheckOpenIPMIVersion: running kernel version is: 2.6.19.2-grsec
CheckOpenIPMIVersion: kernel patch version > minimum

... and the udev node for /dev/ipmi0 is gone.

It seems like Fred had this problem in June of this year
(http://lists.us.dell.com/pipermail/linux-poweredge/2007-June/031620.html),
but a solution was never posted to the list. I've *recompiled* my
kernel, removing localversion-grsec so that my uname shows up as
something that could be interpreted easier by the scripts... but no
dice.

CheckOpenIPMIVersion: FAILED to determine OS
CheckOpenIPMIVersion: kernel version minimum is: 2.6.15
CheckOpenIPMIVersion: running kernel version is: 2.6.19.2

So I'm at a loss. I've tried recompiling the kernel without IPMI
support entirely, but that still won't allow the OMSA tools to be
installer on this server. I'm going to try digging through the
openipmi_check_version() function in the OIHAPICFG_HEADER from
/etc/init.d/instsvcdrv, but I don't know if that will yield the
results I'm looking for. Any help would be appreciated.

In closing, thanks for making these tools available on the linux
platform, but it would be appreciated if RHEL and SLES weren't the
only targets for offcial releases.

Regards,

-j