Re: Discovering what devices are already detected by kernel
>>>>> "Ben" == Ben Armstrong <synrg@sanctuary.nslug.ns.ca> writes:
Ben> I did a potato install demo to a couple of dozen people, mostly newbies,
Ben> at our LUG meeting yesterday. It was a success! People were impressed by
Ben> how simple it was to just follow the dboostrap dialog and mostly just use
Ben> defaults. And it went off without any glitches ... well, almost ...
Good to hear.
Ben> It wasn't obvious that the ne2k-pci was detected by the kernel, especially
Ben> since all the kernel messages flew by while we (the presenters) were
Ben> distracted by explaining the install process and what was next. Well, we
Ben> got to the "configure modules" step and were baffled that "ne" appeared in
Ben> the list, but not "ne2k-pci". We hypothesized that the "compact" drivers
Ben> disk didn't contain it, and that we were supposed to use "ne" instead.
Ben> Using "ne" gave us resource conflicts: "device already configured" or some
Ben> such.
We already do some device detection, but not a lot. It's used only
to limit the choices on the choose medium menu to devices that
exist... for instance, if there's no CD-ROM, then "cdrom" isn't
offered, if there's no network interface, "nfs" and "netfetch" are
not offered. After a NIC driver is inserted, "netfetch" shows up,
and after "nfs" is available then it shows up. The choose medium
menu I'm referring to is the one just after you select install kernel
and modules or install base, where it offers the choice of
installation media.
We have functions for "is there a network interface", "is filesystem
X a supported filesystem", and "does this machine have a cdrom". I
haven't done floppy drive detection yet; I think I'll try and hack
that this week. If it turns out to be reliable and doesn't provoke
the kernel to scribble all over the interface, then it can go in.
Then fd1 won't be offered on the menu unless it actually exists.
Ben> After poking about with /proc/pci and seeing that yes, the devices is
Ben> there, and the io port was listed, we went back to try to specify "io="
Ben> when installing the module. Still no go. Aha! So let's look at dmesg
Ben> ... doh! There it is. We should have known that. After recovering our
Ben> dignity, we promised that we'd ask the boot floppy folks if this process
Ben> couldn't be made a bit easier for newbies, who don't know to look in
Ben> dmesg, nor how to interpret what is there.
`dmesg' in a dialog would be an easy way out... Though I'd rather
they read the fine manual and it told them how to get to vt2 to type
"dmesg | more" there. That puts them one baby step closer to being
Linux users.
Ben> I figure there needs to be a step before the modules config to list stuff
Ben> already detected by the kernel.
Like when you select modules config, a dialog pops up with a list in
it? And make the same listing available from the main menu, right
below the "display partition table" one. The contents of the
detected devices display will need to be recomputed each time it's
shown so that if you insert a module and thus create a new device, it
will be shown.
Ben> Unfortunately, the output from dmesg is very hard to grok in a general
Ben> way. Perhaps a better way to approach it is to summarize it from
Ben> /var/log/dmesg, /proc/devices, /proc/interrupts, and /proc/ioports (or
Ben> just list these verbatim). Something like:
Ben> "The linux kernel successfully detected and configured the following
Ben> devices, so you will not need to configure modules for them:"
Ben> I'd prefer something distilled from these sources rather than
Ben> the just listing the files themselves. If this step merely searched for:
Ben> eth
Ben> ide
Ben> hd
Ben> scsi
Ben> sd
Ben> ttyS
Ben> that would probably suffice. After a while, it could be made smarter to
Ben> list other devices. (You guys know better than I do what is actually in
Ben> the boot-floppy kernel ... I never bothered to check.)
There is a thing called `libdetect' and `lothar' that are for
hardware detection. A man has packaged it for Debian, and is seeking
a sponsor pending becoming a registered developer. I was going to
download that today, but found I cannot; it says no route to host.
I'll look for it elsewhere.
Ben> So there you have it. I'm not on this list, so please CC me in
Ben> replies. Is there something that can be done (presumably for woody)
Ben> to make it easier for the newbie when they come to this step?
Please feel free to join the list and assist us in our efforts! Your
feedback is very helpful.
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