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Re: kernel-image packages for alpha in need of testing



On Mon, Jun 14, 2004 at 09:16:18AM +0200, Helge Kreutzmann wrote:

> * Please turn IDE-DMA off by default, at least for installs. On my alpha
>   I see tons of scary messages, and trying to use the IDE drives fails 
>   (on installed kernels), c.f. #241185 for details. Since for many alphas
>   IDE-support is very poor (hardware-wise), I think keeping it off during
>   installs is wise. Maybe the installer could ask/guess later on, if DMA
>   should be attempted. Or it should always add "ide=nodma" in /etc/aboot.conf
>   and an installation note should inform the user that (s)he can remove it.

I've been asked by the Debian kernel maintainers to get more information
about the specific IDE controller you have (PCI ID, etc.), so that it
can be appropriately blacklisted in the kernel images instead of being
disabled with an overbroad boot-time option in the installer.

FWIW, DMA also doesn't work on my IDE controller, but the installer
(kernel) figures this out on its own.

> * Any NIC I chose results in a printed "Segmentation fault". I did not expect
>   it to actually find any NIC, since my old one was doing strange things
>   and a 3c509B I got is not recognized in my alpha (neither Jumpstart (2.2
>   based), nor 2.4.21-pre1, nor 2.4.26). After the segfault, the hardware
>   detection bar is shown briefly, and I am again at the choosing NIC
>   selection.

Hmm, not good. :/   Never seen this before... does this also happen with
the most recently-posted mini-ISO?

> * Detect NIC-Hardware is not available in german (or switching did not work).
>   I currently do some test installs on my ibook (ppc) as well, where all
>   screens are in german. If you can point me to the proper .po-files, I can
>   translate them.

The package is the same for ppc and alpha (though I don't know off-hand
which package this is).  I'm not sure why you would get translations
with one, but not the other.

> * I see that the list of modules is quite limited. Since no aic7xxx is 
>   available on this ISO, I was unable to test if the aic7xxx-fix has gone
>   in. I think aic7xxx should be included (if the fix is available, of course).
>   These missing modules were also seen in the log (by hw-detect).
>   (Update when sending: Was the module left out on purpose?)

If you point at unstable from this installer instead of testing
(requires using DEBCONF_PRIORITY=medium or lower, IIRC), additional
modules for 2.4.26 will be available.  These are from the official
kernel image in the archive, which *should* match the module ABI of the
PCI-fixed image.

> * Due to my NIC-troubles I tried out Firewire (I got an USB/Firewire card
>   about 1.5 years ago). In 2.4.21 I had troubles using ethernet over firewire,
>   but in 2.4.26 it worked flawlessly. Please consider adding eth1394 (and
>   ohci1394, which needs to be loaded as well) in the NIC-Dialog. After insmodding
>   these modules, the interface behaves exactly like a NIC. As I read, though,
>   only connections via Linux-boxes are supported. This could be noted in the
>   install logs. I think it would be cool having Linux be able to install
>   over Firewire, and given that the support is so trivial to add.
> 0000:01:05.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments TSB43AB22/A IEEE-1394a-2000 Controller (PHY/Link) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
>         Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 24
>         Memory at 0000000009006000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=2K]
>         Memory at 0000000009000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
>         Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2

Could you file a bug against debian-installer requesting this, please?
I'd like to discuss with the maintainers of the linux-kernel-di packages
for other architectures before making such a change.

Thanks,
-- 
Steve Langasek
postmodern programmer

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