Bug#408742: d-i: jmicron pata CD, g965, realtek 8168 + 2.6.18 kernel == failure
On Mon, Jan 29, 2007 at 01:18:54AM +0100, Frans Pop wrote:
> On Sunday 28 January 2007 02:27, jrodman@debbugs.spamportal.net wrote:
> > Comments/Problems:
> >
> > The boot cd was unable to get to an installation menu because it could
> > not access the CDROM via the JMicron PATA interface.
> >
> > Even were that successful, the current debian 2.6.18-amd64 kernel does
> > not work corretcly with the version of the realtek r8168 supported by
> > the r8169 driver.
>
> I'm afraid that if your hardware is not supported by the current Debian
> kernels there is very little we can do to help you.
>
> You could try building a custom installer with a newer kernel, but that is
> not really for the faint hearted. See the wiki [1] for more information
> on that.
This bug report was to let you know about the deficiencies in the install
experience. The not-yet-released debian will not be able to install on
already-7-month-old hardware. The JMicron controller is common on all
sorts of 965 chipsets.
Should I have filed the bug report directly against the kernel package?
The driver fixes are small, self contained and were applied in the
2.6.19-rc series, so should be easily backported, and I argue that they
should be. If I should be the one to do this work, I'm open to trying
it.
I looked into customizing the installer, but since Debian does not
provide cross compilers, the barrier to entry for this was quite high.
I would have had to build a cross compiler myself, or acquire from some
source a pre-built cross compiler (the sonicblue.org ones seem down).
Alternatively I would have had to dig through and figure out how to make
the amd64 installer use an i386 kernel, or how to make the i386
installer install an amd64 distribution. Minor attempts in these
directions did not yeild a simple answer.
Instead, I installed an alternate Linux release (Feisty Fawn herd2)
which supports the hardware, and debootstrapped from there. Everything
is running peachy. Well, except for NFS, and it's only as bad as it
always is. Does Debian BTS allow me to file design-flaw bugs against
Sun? :-)
Have a pleasant day.
-josh
Reply to: