Bug#173865: Bug 173865 reproduced

[Andrew Reid <reidac@bellatlantic.net>]

  Hello --

  This is just an advisory, I am doing a floppy-based Debian 3.0
install on a box with an Asus P4S8X motherboard, and in trying 
to get the on-board ethernet to work, tried to import as "foreign"
a version of the sis900 module back-ported by the redhat team 
from the 2.5.40 kernel.  The sis900 code is from here:
<http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=71380>
I manually built this code against 2.4.18-bf2.4 headers on
a different machine.

  In attempting to load this module, I ran into the problem
described in hcgol@web.de's post of Dec. 21st, 2002, to the
bugs.debian.org list -- the "install foreign modules" step
just silently fails, but subsequent investigation revealed 
the described "net" file in the wrong location in the target
tree.  Manually copying over the sis900.o file to the right
place in the tree, then going back to "configure device
driver modules" worked, that is, it caused the "configure the
network" option to appear in the first console.

  One potentially relevant oddity of my system is that I had
initially attempted a 2.2.20 floppy-based install (which failed
due to the described network problem), so that kernel's tree is
also present under /target/lib/modules.

  Also potentially relevant is that I did not find any
documentation anywhere about where to put the driver file
on the "foreign" floppy disk.  The Debian install manual says
it has to be "in the right place in the hierarchy", but it is
unhelpful about where precisely this is.  I'm willing to 
believe I put it in the wrong place and that caused the error --
I put it in /lib/modules/2.4.18-bf2.4/net/sis900.o -- 
but (a) I still do not know where the right place is, and (b)
if it's an error, it would of course be nice to get an error 
message instead of silent incorrect behavior.

  Mainly I want to say "thanks" to hcgol@web.de for posting 
his message and describing his solution, I couldn't have done
it without him, and to describe my experience for the bug
wranglers.  Thank you and good luck.

				-- A.
--
Andrew Reid  /  reidac@bellatlantic.net