Trying to run ipmitool and receive an error where it can’t find the ipmi device

Running ipmitool was giving the following error

root@linux:~ # ipmitool lan print
Could not open device at /dev/ipmi0 or /dev/ipmi/0 or /dev/ipmidev/0: No such file or directory
Get Channel Info command failed
Could not open device at /dev/ipmi0 or /dev/ipmi/0 or /dev/ipmidev/0: No such file or directory
Get Channel Info command failed
Could not open device at /dev/ipmi0 or /dev/ipmi/0 or /dev/ipmidev/0: No such file or directory
Get Channel Info command failed
Could not open device at /dev/ipmi0 or /dev/ipmi/0 or /dev/ipmidev/0: No such file or directory
Get Channel Info command failed
Could not open device at /dev/ipmi0 or /dev/ipmi/0 or /dev/ipmidev/0: No such file or directory
Get Channel Info command failed
Could not open device at /dev/ipmi0 or /dev/ipmi/0 or /dev/ipmidev/0: No such file or directory
Get Channel Info command failed
Could not open device at /dev/ipmi0 or /dev/ipmi/0 or /dev/ipmidev/0: No such file or directory
Get Channel Info command failed
Could not open device at /dev/ipmi0 or /dev/ipmi/0 or /dev/ipmidev/0: No such file or directory
Get Channel Info command failed
Could not open device at /dev/ipmi0 or /dev/ipmi/0 or /dev/ipmidev/0: No such file or directory
Get Channel Info command failed
Could not open device at /dev/ipmi0 or /dev/ipmi/0 or /dev/ipmidev/0: No such file or directory
Get Channel Info command failed
Could not open device at /dev/ipmi0 or /dev/ipmi/0 or /dev/ipmidev/0: No such file or directory
Get Channel Info command failed
Could not open device at /dev/ipmi0 or /dev/ipmi/0 or /dev/ipmidev/0: No such file or directory
Get Channel Info command failed
Could not open device at /dev/ipmi0 or /dev/ipmi/0 or /dev/ipmidev/0: No such file or directory
Get Channel Info command failed
Invalid Channel 255

After loading the following kernel modules, the problem was solved

root@linux:~ # modprobe ipmi_msghandler
root@linux:~ # modprobe ipmi_devintf
root@linux:~ # modprobe ipmi_si

Running again ipmitool

root@linux:~ # ipmitool lan print
Set in Progress : Set Complete
Auth Type Support :
Auth Type Enable : Callback :
: User :
: Operator :
: Admin : MD2 PASSWORD OEM
: OEM : NONE MD2 PASSWORD
IP Address Source : Static Address
IP Address : 172.23.204.25
Subnet Mask : 255.255.255.0
MAC Address : 00:1e:0b:cb:77:5c
BMC ARP Control : ARP Responses Enabled, Gratuitous ARP Disabled
Gratituous ARP Intrvl : 0.0 seconds
Default Gateway IP : 172.23.204.1
802.1q VLAN ID : Disabled
802.1q VLAN Priority : 0
Cipher Suite Priv Max : Not Available

I was receiving this error message when trying to find the iLO IP address for a server:

root@linux:~ # modprobe ipmi_si
FATAL: Error inserting ipmi_si (/lib/modules/2.6.5-7.308-bigsmp/kernel/drivers/char/ipmi/ipmi_si.ko): No such device

And in /var/log/messages it shows that is unable to find any system interface.

root@linux:~ # tail -f /var/log/messages
May 8 11:13:26 linux kernel: IPMI System Interface driver.
May 8 11:13:26 linux kernel: IPMI System Interface driver.
May 8 11:13:26 linux kernel: ipmi_si: Trying “kcs” at I/O port 0xca2
May 8 11:13:26 linux kernel: ipmi_si: Trying “kcs” at I/O port 0xca2
May 8 11:13:26 linux kernel: ipmi_si: Trying “smic” at I/O port 0xca9
May 8 11:13:26 linux kernel: ipmi_si: Trying “smic” at I/O port 0xca9
May 8 11:13:26 linux kernel: ipmi_si: Trying “bt” at I/O port 0xe4
May 8 11:13:26 linux kernel: ipmi_si: Trying “bt” at I/O port 0xe4
May 8 11:13:26 linux kernel: ipmi_si: Unable to find any System Interface(s)
May 8 11:13:26 linux kernel: ipmi_si: Unable to find any System Interface(s)

root@linux:~ # cat /etc/*release
SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 9 (i586)
VERSION = 9
PATCHLEVEL = 4
LSB_VERSION=”core-2.0-noarch:core-3.0-noarch:core-2.0-ia32:core-3.0-ia32″

This is a HP PROLIANT DL580 G3 and has a iLO v.1 so Linux says that is unable to find any System Interface. Since I’m unable to load IPMI, I was told to use an alternative method described here – Discover HP iLO IP address in Linux

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