13.2. Preparing for a driver update during installation

If a driver update is necessary and available for your hardware, Red Hat or a trusted third party such as the hardware vendor will typically provide it in the form of an image file in ISO format. Some methods of performing a driver update require you to make the image file available to the installation program, others require you to use the image file to make a driver update disk, and one requires you to prepare an initial RAM disk update:

Methods that use the image file itself

local hard drive
USB flash drive

Methods that use a driver update disk produced from an image file

Methods that use an initial RAM disk update

Choose a method to provide the driver update, and refer to Section 13.2.1, “Preparing to use a driver update image file”, Section 13.2.2, “Preparing a driver disc” or Section 13.2.3, “Preparing an initial RAM disk update”. Note that you can use a USB storage device either to provide an image file, or as a driver update disk.

13.2.1. Preparing to use a driver update image file

13.2.1.1. Preparing to use an image file on local storage

To make the ISO image file available on local storage, such as a hard drive or USB flash drive, simply copy the file onto the storage device. You can rename the file if you find it helpful to do so, but you must not change the filename extension, which must remain .iso. In the following example, the file is named dd.iso:

File browser window displaying a single file, named dd.iso

Figure 13.1. Content of a USB flash drive holding a driver update image file

Note that if you use this method, the storage device will contain only a single file. This differs from driver discs on formats such as CD and DVD, which contain many files. The ISO image file contains all of the files that would normally be on a driver disc.

Refer to Section 13.3.2, “Let the installer prompt you for a driver update” and Section 13.3.3, “Use a boot option to specify a driver update disk” to learn how to use the driver update disk during installation.

If you change the file system label of the device to OEMDRV, the installation program will automatically examine it for driver updates and load any that it detects. This behavior is controlled by the dlabel=on boot option, which is enabled by default. Refer to Section 13.3.1, “Let the installer automatically find a driver update disk”.