Re: problem with SATA disk, difference between standard kernel and Debian kernel
- From: Lisi Reisz <lisi.reisz@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 4 Jan 2009 17:29:54 +0000
On Saturday 03 January 2009 23:05:01 Andrew M.A. Cater wrote:
On Sat, Jan 03, 2009 at 04:11:35PM -0600, lee wrote:
On Fri, Jan 02, 2009 at 10:51:56PM +0000, Andrew M.A. Cater wrote:
On Fri, Jan 02, 2009 at 03:00:41PM -0600, lee wrote:
On Thu, Jan 01, 2009 at 05:56:25PM -0200, Eduardo M KALINOWSKI wrote:
lee wrote:
Well, how do you install on SATA disks when the installer can't
access them? It still has the option to load more modules from a
floppy disk, but I haven't had a floppy disk drive for years ...
With no system installed, you couldn't create those disks anyway.
Specifics please: Machine name / model number / motherboard if
homebuilt?
Any output from dmesg (if it gets that far) likewise
Output from lspci
Output from lsmod
Which installer are you using - Etch a.k.a Debian 4.0 or Lenny (upcoming
Debian 5.0) ?
Which kernel version appears to boot - 2.6.18 / 2.6.24 / 2.6.26?
Go to the non-free archive for Debian packages. Look for
firmware-non-free packages. I've recently had to use the bnx2
drivers for Broadcom ethernet cards.
The modules I need to access the disks come with standard and Debian
kernels. They are not non-free.
If you know that they come with Debian's standard kernels and
that they're there, is there any obvious reason why they're not
included?
And then, when you look at http://www.debian.org/distrib/netinst, it
doesn't tell you that the installer is missing crucial modules to
access SATA disks (which are the default nowadays), or where to get
missing modules. There are also no floppy disk images of the installer
for download (like there used to be), which would allow you do
download another disk image containing more modules. Still the
installer keeps prompting for a floppy disk and tells you to insert
the disk, just to find out that there is no floppy disk drive
installed.
Have you _seen_ how big kernels are lately? : floppies (even if you can
find working floppy disks) ceased to be viable about the time Linux
went to kernel version 2.6.
Why doesn't the page tell you, like it did when floppy images were
available, that you might need more modules and offers you to download
another CD image? Why aren't those modules just on the installer CD?
I think the release notes mention things like this: the modules
probably are on an installer CD: do you know which modules they
might be?
It's not that the CD image would get too big to fit on a CD or to
download --- and if it was, there could always be the minimal
installer image for computers older than 4 or 5 years and another one
with all that's missing on the minimal image.
The installer could also give you instructions about how to get more
modules or just download the missing modules automatically during the
installation, just like it does with other things.
The instructions below are for those things that are explicitly
non-free. It's also based on the Lenny installer (which does tell you
if non-free firmware is required).
Download the .deb on another machine. [Assuming you're using Linux
here].
What do you do when you don't have one? Buy a windoze CD and another
hard disk, install windoze on that disk, get the needed files, install
Debian, sell the windoze CD and disk?
If you don't have another machine: borrow a friend who has a USB stick /
SD card and access to a Linux machine. Your email address suggests that
you may be in .de - which has towns with Linux user groups / internet
cafe's.
And before you can do that, how do you know where to get the missing
kernel modules for the installer, and how do you know which ones are
missing? I'd like to know that for the next time I'll try to install.
Boot with a live CD?
Carry the USB stick across to the machine you need it on. Boot the
Lenny installer - at some point the dialog will tell you that you need
non-free modules and will ask you for a floppy/USB stick to load the
modules from.
No, it didn't tell me that it needs modules. It only told me that no
disks had been detected. If I hadn't known that a module is missing
and that it does work once the right module is available, I could have
concluded that Linux is just too old to run on even "old" (like two or
three years) hardware ...
Kernel version you are trying to install?
Insert the stick when prompted.
The installer offers to read modules from a floppy disk, not from an
USB device.
These modules need to be available to the installer out of the
box. It's not like I'd be using some unusual hardware ...
What is not unusual to you is unusual to other people :)
What is unusual about SATA disks and controllers?
Go to your favourite computer store --- now or a year (or even longer)
ago --- and try to buy a computer or a mainboard that doesn't have
SATA disks or an SATA controller. You'd have a very hard time to find
one.
I can probably find _at least_ one.
Also keep in mind that this was the amd64 installer. Which system that
can run 64bit software doesn't have an SATA controller?
Two out of the three of the AMD64 systems under my desks here (all using
old motherboards :) ).
The reason that the modules are in non-free is precisely because
they have licence conditions or similar which prevent us putting
them in the Debian archive proper.
The "AHCI SATA support" in the standard and Debian kernels creates
something that is non-free?
Check BIOS settings carefully: if the BIOS will allow you, try setting
the Legacy compatible options if available - the drives may then appear to
be PATA.
I am slightly puzzled by this. I installed Etch as a dual boot on a Sata
drive on a m/c with an AMD64 processor some while ago without any problems or
issues at all. That m/c has no IDE HDDs. Only IDE optical drives.
I have since dist-upgraded to Lenny. I have not installed Lenny on that
particular m/c from the installer, but I would not expect to have problems as
I did not with Etch. ??
Lisi
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