OBS-URL: https://build.opensuse.org/package/show/openSUSE:Factory/kexec-tools?expand=0&rev=3

README.SUSE

@@ -219,7 +219,26 @@ Options for the Default Dumper
 - KDUMP_SAVEDIR
 
 This option specifies the path to the directory where the dumps are
-saved. The default is "/var/log/dump".
+saved. The default is "/var/log/dump". See also KDUMP_DUMPDEV if you
+don't want to save the dump at first on a raw device which helps if your
+root file system is corrupted.
+
+
+- KDUMP_DUMPDEV
+
+Specifies the dump device that is used for saving the dump in the kdump
+kernel.  You don't need to specify a dump device here. Then the dump is
+written to KDUMP_SAVEDIR when booting from the kdump kernel.
+
+If KDUMP_DUMPDEV points to a device file, the dump is written to that
+device when booting from the kdump kernel. The advantage over  is that
+you don't have to mount the root file system (which may be corrupted!)
+just to write the dump. On the first normal boot which is able to
+succesfully mount the root file system, the dump is saved to
+KDUMP_SAVEDIR as usual.
+
+Important: The KDUMP_DUMPDEV is overwritten by kdump, so don't use it
+for saving any data. Also don't use the currently used swap partition.
 
 
 - KDUMP_KEEP_OLD_DUMPS
@@ -253,6 +272,23 @@ information RPMs on the SUSE support Web site. Alternately, you can
 build a debug-info kernel from source by specifying the
 CONFIG_DEBUG_INFO kernel parameter.
 
+Even if you install kernel-debuginfo, you need to uncompress the kernel
+image first. This depends on the architecture on which your system is
+running. If you don't know, just run "uname -i" to get the architecture.
+
+On i586, i686 and x86_64, s390 and s390x, you have to unpack the kernel
+image:
+
+   $ gunzip /boot/vmlinux-<version>.gz
+
+On IA64, the default kernel image is already a gzip'ed vmlinux image.
+Run
+
+   $ zcat /boot/vmlinuz-<version> > /boot/vmlinux-<version>
+
+On PPC and PPC64, you don't have do to anything as there the bootloader
+already loads the vmlinux image.
+
 The symbol information in the debug-info kernel may differ from the
 running kernel, therefor; when running crash against a vmcore you
 should specify both the System.map file and the debug-info kernel.
@@ -263,12 +299,9 @@ line:
 
 Where:
   /boot/System.map-<version> -- The map file matching the kernel
-	being analyzed.
+	                            being analyzed.
-  /boot/vmlinux-<version> -- The matching kernel.
+  /boot/vmlinux-<version>    -- The matching kernel.
-  vmcore -- The crash dump.
+  vmcore                     -- The crash dump.
-
-The kernel rpm contains only gz-compressed file.  Uncompress it
-manually before using crash.
 
 GDB Helper Script
 -----------------

kexec-tools.changes

@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+-------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thu Jan 18 15:22:25 CET 2007 - bwalle@suse.de
+
+- improved documentation as response to #226736
+
 -------------------------------------------------------------------
 Wed Jan 17 14:32:02 CET 2007 - bwalle@suse.de
 

kexec-tools.spec

@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ Requires:       %insserv_prereq %fillup_prereq
 Autoreqprov:    on
 Summary:        Tools for fast kernel loading
 Version:        1.101
-Release:        63
+Release:        64
 Source:         %{name}-%{package_version}.tar.bz2
 Source1:        kdump
 Source2:        sysconfig.kdump
@@ -118,6 +118,8 @@ cd -
 %{_sbindir}/kdump-helper
 
 %changelog -n kexec-tools
+* Thu Jan 18 2007 - bwalle@suse.de
+- improved documentation as response to #226736
 * Wed Jan 17 2007 - bwalle@suse.de
 - implemented Initrd based kdump saving
   (#301538)