[ale] Any way to patch a RedHat 4.2 boot.img file?

[Susan Liebeskind]

Folks,

I'll bet I can't replace a module loaded by the 4.2 install boot.img, but I'll
ask anyway, in case someone has a clever hack. 
 
BACKGROUND:

I have an approx 3 year old Dell Latitude XP.  It lacks an internal CD
so I use its advanced port replicator, containing a Future Domain TMC950
SCSI controller, to attach an external SCSI CD for software 
installation. 

Approx 14 months ago, I went through intense agony attempting to
install RedHat 4.0 via the local CD setup.  It was absolutely NOT
possible to install RedHat 4.0 via this setup -- it would randomly
flake out with funky errors, teasing me with failure at a different
place in the install process each time.  If only it had died
consistently, I would have given up long before I did! RedHat support
was clueless, and it was only through the graciousness of a fellow ALE
member and his home network that I was ever able to get Linux loaded at
all on the laptop.

Subsequently, I figured out the magic to build a kernel that could
recognize the CD player via the TMC950. Specifically I needed to compile the
seagate.o module (that drives the TMC950) without the -DFAST32 define.
Eureka. I had a working setup.  I could access CDs via Linux.  Life was good. 

Then my hard disk died.  The gods snickered and laughed at me, and like 
Sisyphus, I was sentenced to push that rock back up the hill again.  Once 
again, I had to do a RedHat install onto a bare disk.  And you guessed
it, I am experiencing the *same* difficulties with a local CD install of
RedHat 4.2 that I ran into with RedHat 4.0.    

The new install process at least gives me more input, and I can see
that it loads a seagate.o module that was compiled with -DFAST32.
Great, so I know EXACTLY what and where the problem is this time.
This is progress.  If I can replace the seagate.o module in question with 
one compiled sans the FAST32 define, it will all work.

THE QUESTION:

Can I somehow patch the boot.img file and replace a module loaded
during the install process?  

It's not simply a case of creating a new boot disk -- the boot.img file
is special in that it immediately invokes the installation script, and
I don't have a clue how that install script is invoked. I have searched
the RedHat site but found no information on how to do what I want.  And
I don't have access to RedHat support this time, for all the good that
it did me last time, to ask them to generate a special boot.img file
for me.

Is it time to admit defeat and arrange to install via the network
again?  Can this boot.img file be saved?

Thanks for any suggestions. 

Susan 

-- 
===========================================================================
Susan Liebeskind (susan.liebeskind at gtri.gatech.edu) 
GTRI/ITTL/CSITD
347 Ferst St
Atlanta, GA  30332-0817				 Phone 404-894-4266