Will rebuilding installer with a 2.6.12rc6 kernel properly support a Promise SATA378 TX2Plus controller?
Hi all,
I'm having problems installing Debian sarge on a Sager 9880 notebook
using 5/28 official full CD installation images. partman fails unable
to find the media, although my Promise SATA378 TX2Plus controller is
recognized and sata-promise is successfully loaded. Based on the
official libata status my controller is supported. Based on some
postings I've managed to find with Google, I'm guessing that at least a
2.6.10 kernel version of libata is required. The official installation
CD images use a 2.6.8 kernel. I am relatively new to Debian although I
have built kernel packages before (e.g., this machine has a 2.6.12rc2
kernel with the MPPE patch for PPTP support). I've never built an
installer before, but I have checked out the sources from subverserion
(trunk) and have read the README on how to build an installer with a
custom kernel.
Before diving into this, does anybody know if building an installer with
2.6.12rc6 will fix my problem? Might there be a prebuilt installer with
a sufficiently new kernel somewhere? Any tips or advice to get past
this hurdle would be greatly appreciated. This is a new notebook that
is a (quite large) paper weight at the moment.
For further info on the specific installation problems, below is a note
I've posted to debian-user. Thanks for your help,
Chuck
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Sarge Installation: partman fails with SATA378 TX2Plus
Resent-Date: Sat, 11 Jun 2005 12:56:23 -0500 (CDT)
Resent-From: debian-user@lists.debian.org
Date: Sat, 11 Jun 2005 10:50:23 -0700
From: Chuck Williams <chuck@allthingslocal.com>
Organization: All Things Local
To: debian-user@lists.debian.org
Hi all,
I'm trying to install Debian on a new Sager 9880 notebook, but the
install is consistently failing with "No partitionable media were
found." I've tried both the 2.4 and 2.6 kernels, getting the same
result. The 2.4 kernel successfully configures my network, but the 2.6
kernel fails to recognize the response from DHCP in my router unless
acpi=off. With acpi=off (and card services disabled) the 2.6 kernel
configures the network, but still cannot find the hard drives.
I've got two hard drives controlled by a Promise SATA378 TX2Plus. This
controller is recognized as a "Promise Technology, Inc. PDC20378
(SATA150 TX)". sata-promise is loaded successfully. Prior to turning
acpi off, I noticed in /var/log/messages that both acpi and the
controller were using irq11. However, the partman problem does not go
away even the irq issue is eliminated by setting acpi=off. There are
these suspicious messages in /var/log/partman (and on the alt-F3 console):
File descriptor 3 left open
File descriptor 4 left open
File descriptor 5 left open
File descriptor 6 left open
No matching physical volumes found
File descriptor 3 left open
File descriptor 4 left open
File descriptor 5 left open
File descriptor 6 left open
No volume groups found
Reading all physical volumes. This may take a while...
All other messages seem normal.
I'm installing from DVD's that I created with jigdo, using the
ucberkeley mirror. The images are Debian GNU/Linux Sarge 20050528 (I
made these just a couple days before the 3.1 announcement).
Libata status indicates my controller should be supported (see
http://linux.yyz.us/sata/sata-status.html#tx2).
My questions:
1. Does anyone have a suggestion on how to get past this hurdle to
complete the install?
2. Might the latest 2.6.12rc6 kernel, with a newer version of libata,
provide proper support for my controller?
3. If so, how can I update my installation images to use this kernel?
4. The Promise site offers Linux drivers for my controller, although
only for the 2.4 kernel, and no binary images for Debian. (See
http://www.promise.com/support/download/download2_eng.asp?productId=138&category=driver&os=4&go=GO).
If the latest 2.6 kernel will not work, could I somehow use this
driver? If so, how?
Thanks for any help,
Chuck
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