Debian Driver disk problem
Hi!
Recently I have been trying to get Debian 2.2 or 3.0 loaded
onto a Dell Poweredge 1650 server. This appears to require
the use of the driver disks because of the RAID controller that
is built into the box (a Dell PERC3 that uses the AACRAID /
PERCRAID driver).
Without this driver the OS loader sees no hard disk at all, so
I can't do as many suggestions about driver disks I have
come across said -- skip this part and you'll be prompted for
whatever driver you need later.
I have ruled out bad media. I was able to dd the driver images
(bs of 512 and 1024 in case that made a difference) to floppy
and then dd them back to a file and diff them with the originals.
I have ruled out bad floppy drives. I have tried this with three
machines. I created the images from WinNT and from RH6.2.
Each time the recovery and root disks work fine but the driver
disks fail to load.
When attempting to load I get the error "Cannot mount the
floppy. Stop". I have also tried to mount the disk from the
prompt but whatever format it is in is not recognized by
any mount command I have been able to construct.
I've used rescue/boot/driver images direct from Debian
mirrors of the 2.2 release, and the 3.0 release. I've also
tried a couple of special sets that I've found that were
created for the 2.2 release that specifically support the
driver I am trying to load.
I have tried using a boot CD (3.0.23bse) too, but every
time I start the installer I get a "choose the language"
prompt that just brings me back to the same page -- to
choose again -- after I've chosen *any* language. Despite
a suggestion I found on one web site to skip this dialog
and proceed I have found no way to skip the language
question.
As you can see, after NUMEROUS attempts I have found
that I am unable to get *any* debian driver disk working at
all on any system when prompted to load driver data from a
floppy (I have tried three sets of hardware!). I have no idea
what is wrong but I think the answer is that either a) I am
doing something wrong despite reading the documentation
thoroughly or b) the driver disks do not work and all of Debian
driver disks are broken.
Somehow I doubt it's b...
Does anyone have any advice?
reb
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